Of course schools don’t always get the details right, but if the issue is politically weaponised, pupils will suffer the most
Imagine travelling to work in the morning, listening to colleagues loudly marking your body out of 10. Imagine being groped in the corridor, catcalled, hearing rape jokes.
A woman suffering this at work would surely leave, or sue. But teenage girls at school don’t have that option, although a horrifying report from Ofsted in 2021 found this is the environment in which many are trying to learn. Nine out of 10 girls said being sent unwanted explicit images happened “a lot” or “sometimes” among their peers. Two-thirds said the same for unwanted touching. That report, which among other failings identified “weak implementation” and “poor teacher subject knowledge” of relationship, sex and health education (RSHE), was the wake-up call ministers needed to order all English schools to follow RSHE guidance. Good sex education at school matters, in a world where “leave it to the parents” would all too often mean leaving it to Pornhub and Andrew Tate.
Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist
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