Grace Tame is right. We need to take abuse and harassment in schools seriously

Grace Tame has reported her abuser, former teacher Nicolaas Bester, to police for online harassment. Former schoolteacher Chris Dawson has been found guilty of murdering wife Lynette to pursue a relationship with a student. The family of a student whose schoolmate was convicted of raping her over two hours are considering launching a civil case against her school for its alleged mishandling of initial complaints of harassment. 

That’s within the past 48 hours. 

Abuse and sexual harassment of young people are endemic in Australia. From 2014 to 2019 there were nearly 150,000 victims of sexual assault recorded by police agencies — 63% of whom were under 18.

Abuse is perpetrated by young people and by adults. A report released today found women experience sexual violence at higher rates than previously recorded — 51% of women in their 20s, 34% of women in their 40 and 26% of women aged 68 to 73.

Although mandatory consent education will be introduced into the national curriculum next year, advocates are calling for more action to address the normalisation of misogyny, abuse and harassment in schools.

Girls ‘not treated with respect’ in schools

In 2019 a 16-year-old girl was raped at a house party in greater Sydney. Neither the victim nor the abuser can be publicly identified. His behaviour had been reported to the school previously; the victim’s family had complained a group of boys were harassing students and teachers and making jokes about rape.

Addressing attitudes is important — men who hold traditional beliefs about masculinity are more likely to support the use of violence in relationships. Numerous studies have correlated sexist jokes and attitudes to rape proclivity. The latest National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey found one-third of Australians believe sexual aggression can be attributed to men’s sex drive; 33% of respondents agreed “rape results from men not being able to control their need for sex”.

Early intervention is key to addressing harmful attitudes and sexual behaviours, especially in young people. 

While several students at the Sydney school were spoken to by police, the to-be rapist was kept at home that day. He raped his victim just four days after her parents had a face-to-face meeting with the principal over the ongoing harassment. He was convicted of six counts of sexual intercourse without consent and one of intentionally choking without permission in May and sentenced to nine months in detention, with a two-month non-parole period. He has been released on bail after lodging an appeal and did not express remorse for his crime.

There is a culture of abuse and harassment among male students in the area, the victim’s father told Crikey, and not enough was being done to address it. 

“The view of so many young men is that women are sex toys [thanks to] porn culture,” he said. “There’s more rape happening across pockets of NSW than people realise because girls are just not being treated with any respect.” 

The NSW Education Department launched an internal investigation into the school’s handling of the complaint which took 18 months to finalise and has not been provided to the family due to privacy policies. The department said the school reported the assault to police on the same day it was made aware of it, and the department worked closely with police and relevant authorities.

“The NSW government is proud to lead the way in consent education for young people, having introduced the issue into the NSW curriculum in 2020,” it said.

Education doesn’t go far enough

Along with state-based programs, consent education is set to be added to the national curriculum next year. But CEO of Full Stop Australia Hayley Foster said more was needed. 

“It’s among young people where the assaults are occurring … We have bugger-all in terms of resources and it’s not safe,” she said.

Although organisations could work with young people and conduct training, it made little difference if students then returned to environments where abuse and harassment were normalised, she said. A whole-of-school approach was necessary to imbue psychosocial safety into the curriculum and ensure teachers didn’t contribute to harmful cultures.

With the cases of Tame and Dawson, abuse was perpetrated by teachers in positions of power — Tame was just 15 when she was sexually assaulted by 58-year-old Bester in her Tasmanian school, and Dawson’s student, known as “JC”, was just 16 when 32-year-old Dawson began grooming her.

Foster is particularly concerned with schools’ ability to deal with disclosures and complaints about teachers or fellow students. Full Stop is advocating for “respectful relationship educators” in schools to serve as a contact point and offer support.

“You have someone like who is a contact point that has the credibility and connection with the kids [for them] to go and brainstorm and talk about their concerns,” she said.

In the ACT, students walked out of a consent education lesson after victim-survivors found the content too distressing. They said the school mishandled the situation.

“[Schools] can’t be doing this content if there aren’t experts and they don’t know how to create safe avenues to make a disclosure and respond appropriately,” Foster said.

For the victim’s family, the consent curriculum amounts to lip service. “It’s all words,” her father said. “Right now on school grounds … the ineptitude in protecting girls is ridiculous.”  

Tame said police and Twitter took action on her abuser’s harassment only when she took to social media. Dawson’s student said she had been “groomed and abused” by him. And abuse continues from high school to university, with one in six students experiencing sexual harassment since starting university.

If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au.