EIGHT out of 10 sexual harassment perpetrators at schools and colleges were teachers, religious teachers and wardens, the All Women’s Action Society (Awam) said in an analysis of 275 testimonials collected via social media.

“The perpetrators of sexual harassment were predominately figures of authority.

“Out of 311 perpetrators, 247 (79.4%) were teachers, ustazah, ustaz and wardens,” the non-profit group working with victims and survivors of gender-based violence said in a statement today.

Of the 275 cases, Awam said that more than half of the incidents (164) of sexual harassment took place at schools.

“125 cases involved period spot checks, 108 were bullying and 88 were sexual harassment with many survivors experiencing more than one form of violation.”

Awam had collected the testimonials via social media influencers and from direct survivors from April 16 to 26, after news reports of period spot checks in schools and rape jokes by a male teacher hit the headlines.

It said it collected the testimonials as part of efforts to understand how pervasive these forms of sexual harassment in schools are. Of those collected, 269 were collected by two social media influencers and six others came directly from survivors.

While the testimonials showed that there were student perpetrators as well, such as prefects and senior students, especially in cases of period spot checks, these violations were committed in the context of a normalised practice that was openly sanctioned and enforced by teachers, ustazah and ustaz.

The testimonials on period spot checks provided specific details about the nature of violations involved.

These included stripping and showing sanitary pads to figures of authority, which was the highest form of violation with 30 reports.

This was followed by groping (23 reports) and cotton bud/tissue swabs (21 reports).

Overall, in terms of gender, Awam said that 91.6% of the survivors were women and girls, while men and boys constituted 6.2%.

For male survivors, the forms of sexual harassment included nipple pinching, groping of private parts and being stripped by figures of authority to check for signs of puberty.

Bullying experienced by male survivors included public humiliation, being slapped and punched, and racial bullying.

Of all the testimonials collected, 108 of them revealed their ages, and of this, 36% of them were children.

“The age subgroup of 13 to 15 years old, when students (especially girls) experience pubertal changes, was found to be the stage when sexual harassment and bullying were most prevalent,” Awam said.

These episodes of sexual harassments and bullying took place predominantly at primary, secondary and boarding schools, while similar, but fewer cases occurred at colleges, day-care centres and school camps.

Awam said that the Ministry of Education need to prioritise long-term solutions to ensure educational institutions become safe places where sexual harassment and bullying will not be the norm.

Some of the long-term solutions, said Awam include implementing gender sensitisation programmes, including sexual harassment subjects into teachers’ code of conduct and having a monitoring system that promotes gender equality. – May 18, 2021.