Ali Morris, MVAWG Lead and Merched Cymru Executive member, reviews Wales’ action plan to address ‘peer-on-peer’ sexual harassment.
In December 2021, Estyn (the Education and Training Inspectorate for Wales) published its “We don’t tell our teachers” Experiences of peer-on-peer sexual harassment among secondary school pupils in Wales report. This report laid bare the terrible experiences of sexual harassment that girls face in Welsh schools.
Amongst other things, it found that:
• sexual harassment has become normalised and almost expected
• pupils are significantly influenced by what they see happening on social media
• they are turning more to the internet for support and guidance
• teachers do not take peer-on-peer sexual harassment seriously enough
• 29% of male pupils and 61% of female pupils stated that they had experience of sexual harassment or had seen others being sexually harassed
• 46% of pupils didn’t tell anyone about being sexually harassed. The majority of these were female.
This damning report was an opportunity for Welsh Government to step up and do something to stop the horrendous and often life altering sexual harassment girls are subjected to in school. A place where they should be safe and a place where teachers and other adults should be looking out for them and intervening if things go wrong.
Missed opportunity
Instead, Welsh Government’s response, in the form of its Peer-on-peer sexual harassment in educational settings; action plan, yet again shows us that it will take any opportunity to drive its ideological stance on gender and the erasure of sex.
Far from being an Action Plan, this document actually obfuscates the reality of the sexual harassment girls are subjected to in Welsh schools.
You only have to look at the title of the Action Plan to see its starting point.
In the first paragraph of the Introduction, we are told that
…some children and young people are at greater risk, such as those who are LGBTQ+…
Now call me old fashioned, but after almost 30 years working in the MVAWG sector and being very familiar with national and international statistics regarding male violence, I’ve always taken it for granted that being a girl was the greatest risk factor of being sexually harassed in school. The first gender goal to Welsh Government.
Another example reads
…learners identifying as female, LGBTQ+ or as having an ALN may be more likely to experience sexual harassment…
Gender goals being scored left, right and centre…and all of them to the Welsh Government.
Children’s rights
What follows on in the Action Plan includes some good descriptions and understanding of sexual harassment and children’s rights that no one could argue with. Using all the right language and citing the UNCRC (United Nations Convention on The Rights of The Child) as a backdrop to its work with children, we are told that this Action Plan will have a positive impact and contribute towards making the UNCRC a reality for children in Wales.
Who could argue with that?
Trauma informed Wales
As well as a children’s rights approach, sitting alongside, we are told, is a trauma informed approach.
The Trauma Informed Framework is a foundation that will enable everyone in Wales to understand the impact trauma can have and everyone’s roles in supporting those who are affected.
We are told this at the beginning of the Action Plan to set the scene for what is to come. So, everyone will be ‘trauma aware’ we’re assured.
You would think that to have a government so ostensibly aware of the impact trauma has on the lives of our children and which has developed a framework that would enhance and inform support is a big step forward in terms of both preventative and support work.
However, on reading the rest of the Action Plan it immediately becomes clear that Welsh Government’s understanding of being trauma informed conveniently misses out on a core tenet of working with those who have been subjected to sexual harassment and other aspects of male violence and abuse.
Welsh Government’s mantra of “Transwomen are women, transmen are men and non-binary identities are valid” immediately places males in spaces where women and girls experiencing trauma through male violence will be receiving so-called ‘trauma informed’ care and support. This is a masterclass in stupidity. Calling something ‘trauma informed’ doesn’t automatically make it so. It is not just a label to be applied in order to tick a box on a monitoring form. Welsh Government needs to go back to school on this.
Definitions
Welsh Government quite rightly acknowledges sexual harassment as a violation of human rights, harmful sexual behaviour and as a form of violence against women and girls.
We are helpfully told at one point in the Action Plan that girls are the primary target of sexual harassment in schools, alongside LGBTQ+ learners and those with ALN (additional learning needs). So, the Introduction conveniently forgot to tell us about girls and relegated them to an afterthought. But hey, at least they are there.
We are also reminded of the intersectionality of those pupils at the receiving end of sexual harassment.
This action plan aims to reflect the nature of sexual harassment as an intersectional issue and, in doing so, meet the needs of different groups of learners such as Black and minority ethnic, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse and disabled learners.
This keeps cropping up in the Action Plan. I would usually have no issue with this, and in fact would usually be pleased that vulnerable and minoritised groups are included, but I can’t help thinking this is simply another way to get the TQ+ element into print and into the public domain and public’s conscience under the guise of being caring, supportive and forward thinking.
Language
The language used in the Action Plan directly supports Welsh Government’s push for the erasure of sex and to replace it with gender neutral terms. This erasure of language quite simply puts girl at risk. If you can’t name who is sexually harassing who, then how do you keep those subjected to harm safe? How do you give girls the skills to recognise harassment and abuse? How do you call it out when it’s apparently random and happening to anyone and everyone?
Reading through the document just feels… wrong. You know the words that would naturally be used to describe children (boys and girls) are not being used. There is something uneasy about that. It simply doesn’t sound right or sit right. Your gut instinct tells you something is amiss.
The graph below shows the number of times certain words to describe children in school are used in the document. You can immediately see the high prevalence of gender-neutral descriptions compared to specific descriptions that highlight the sex of the student. When we know sex is an important contributor to being harassed and being the harasser, this is unacceptable.
Scope
The scope of the Action Plan focuses on pupils in primary and secondary schools and FEIs. This is part of its Curriculum for Wales work.
Anything outside of this (including school staff) we are told is already covered. It goes to great lengths in telling us of the current Welsh Government policy and legislation around support for those affected by the broader aspect of VAWDASV (violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence). The VAWDASV Act and VAWDASV Strategy 2022 -26 are good pieces of legislation. Whether they have been effective in tackling the issue is a blog for another day.
It also mentions the Enhancing digital resilience in education: An action plan to protect children and young people online but shamefully omits reference to biological sex – boys and girls – which is a risk factor for online abuse. Another example of Welsh Government’s persistence in placing the importance of gender over sex and displacing safeguarding to the sideline.
The Action Plan does a great job in laying the groundwork for the task of discussing and tackling sexual harassment and supporting those girls subjected to it in schools and colleges.
However, it fails miserably when it comes to the task of recognising this Action Plan as an opportunity to acknowledge that being a girl is the biggest risk factor and an opportunity to tackle this inevitably difficult task of eradicating sexual harassment. The data on the recipients and perpetrators of the sexual harassment is obfuscated by Welsh Government’s insistence on cutting biological sex out of the equation. How it thinks it can tackle this issue, which is experienced in the main by girls because they are female, without acknowledging the impact of biological sex, sexism and stereotyping on boys and girls needs to be seen.
It is disappointing that Welsh Government isn’t using the research already undertaken in the Estyn Report, especially in regard to the evidence of what is happening to girls (not students, or learners as they’re described).
Estyn tells us that school uniforms are an important conduit for the sexualisation of girls and the sexual harassment that follows. It states that the majority of girls have some experience of having their skirt lifted up during their time in school, blaming boys for “always pulling up girls’ skirts and looking up their skirts when they sit down”. Some girls also say that boys will “touch their bums” if they wear tight skirts to see if they are wearing any underwear.
Instead of schools taking the lead and safeguarding girls from boys’ behaviour, girls are implementing their own tactics for safeguarding themselves. This is unacceptable. This is a far cry from the bra strap pulling of yesteryear and is another example of how girls police and have always policed their own behaviour to keep themselves safe.
Vision
Its vision gives an impressive list of things it believes children should be able to achieve in terms of healthy relationships including;
Children and young people in Wales grow up free from damaging and limiting ideas around gender roles…
This is a laughable point when the whole Action Plan erases any notion of who does what to who, muddying the waters with nondescript neutral language. This is a totally inadequate way to discuss such important issues with children.
If Welsh Government wants to have children free from damaging gender roles, then the starting point should be discussing what those limiting roles are and why they exist. Biological sex and associated language (girls, boys, female, male etc) must be grounded in reality and be part of that starting point.
Just as erasing racist language from our vocabulary does not stop racism, the same applies to sexism and gender roles. Erasing sex-based language does not erase behaviour and attitudes related to sexism. It is downright foolishness to believe that.
Actions
After numerous pages of very interesting information around other action plans and legislation we are finally introduced to the ‘actions’ Welsh Government tells us are going to make an impact on the prevalence of sexual harassment. Very briefly these are:
- Prevention: To adopt a whole system approach. To provide a safe environment. Appropriate RSE Code to enhance learning.
- Early intervention: To identify and provide support for children and young people experiencing, witnessing and perpetrating sexual harassment. Work alongside ‘partners’.
- Learner support and wellbeing: ‘…ensure all learners have access to a safe learning environment that promotes their wellbeing and empowers them to be able to report and safely challenge all forms of harassment…’. Establish a Children and Young People’s Advisory Board. Update guidance on related issues.
- Professional learning and leadership: ‘The Welsh Government will ensure the development of quality professional learning, designed collaboratively with children and young people, to ensure that education settings feel confident speaking and teaching about all forms of sexual harassment, gender stereotypes and misogyny in a developmentally appropriate
way…’ Numerous action points relating to LGBTQ+ learners’ needs. Again, girls as a risk factor is omitted. - Parents, carers and the community: Supporting parents, carers and families to talk to children about sexual harassment. Campaign for parents and carers.
- Addressing sexual harassment in the online context: Supporting children and young people and their families to better understand online harassment and its impact. Using Hwb (a website and collection of online tools provided to all schools in Wales by the Welsh Government) as a focus. Campaign around the issue. Support the UK’s Online Safety Bill.
- Research and evaluation: ‘…will continue to explore solutions, undertake evaluation, and learn from existing or planned research into sexual harassment.…drawing on the expertise and guidance of children’s charities, academics and the Children’s Commissioner for Wales as appropriate.’
‘…partner with Swansea University on the C2CHAT, Child2Child Abuse Talk research project which will scope how linguistic analysis of child-to-child sexually abusive digital discourse could enhance practitioner understandings.’
Measurable outcomes
The seven actions are all well and good, but there is no identifiable way of measuring, achieving or evaluating them. There are no time scales or no way of knowing if they have been achieved. For example, how exactly will ‘Supporting parents, carers and families to talk to children about sexual harassment.’ (Action 5) be measured? Who will be doing this? More talk than action.
Welsh Government may have developed a framework to do this, but this is not mentioned in the Action Plan. God forbid they do something that the public can measure, and they can be accountable for.
Conclusion
Put simply, this is a Report, mainly on what Welsh Government would like to see, and not an Action Plan on what they are going to achieve. It is all words and no action.
Once again, Welsh Government is more concerned with delivering a message (on this occasion its message that gender identity overrides biological sex) than achieving what’s right for children. A remarkable piece of publicity without a hint of shame for what they are doing to the children of Wales. Give with one hand and take with the other. A classic political move.
