Visit schools
and study the sexual abuse and sexual harassment cases
Introduction:
Child sexual abuse is generally
defined by law as any sexual behaviour involving a person under the age of
consent – usually 16 years of age. Sexual harassment is any unwelcomed or
unwanted sexual behaviour or pressure that embarrasses, humiliates or
intimidates and individual. Sexual harassment can be physical, verbal and non
verbal and visual, such as staring or gestures that are suggestive or sexual.
It encompasses a diverse set of
problem behaviours, including exposure of genitals, producing or showing sexual
images, sexual harassment, grooming and procuring, and contact offences ranging
from sexual touching through to violent sexual assaults causing physical injury
and in rare cases death. In schools, sexual involvement of a staff person with
any student, regardless of age, is likely to be prohibited by school policy,
teacher registration rules, and sometimes also by law. Sexual activity is
common among children and especially among adolescents, and is rarely harmful.
It is usually considered sexually abusive when there is a significant age-gap
(usually 3-5 years), when it involves violence, aggression, or undue pressure,
or when it occurs despite the unwillingness of one or more of those involved.
THE PROBLEM:
A clear conception of the problem
is the starting point for effective prevention. In schools, the most likely
problem will be abuse among students themselves. This is because there will
usually be many more students than staff, and particularly in high schools
because many students will have reached or be approaching puberty and will not
yet have established adequate behavioural controls. Sexual teasing, bullying
and ‘initiations’ have historically been common in schools and other
youth-oriented organisations.
Abuse of a student by a known
adult is the next most likely problem. Both the opportunity and the conducive
conditions are greatest for those adults whose roles involve sustained close
involvement with students, particularly those that involve care of
especially-vulnerable students (e.g. marginalised, maltreated or disabled
children), and those that involve emotional or physical intimacy (e.g.
counselling, pastoral, nursing, or coaching roles).
Abuse of a student by a school
visitor or passer-by is probably least likely, though perhaps the most
dangerous because of possible abduction and physical harm.
It is important to avoid
stereotyped conceptions of the problem. Children are much more likely to be
abused by someone they already have a close relationship with than by a
stranger. It is possible that a determined serial abuser may surreptitiously
seek employment or other involvement in the school in order to create
opportunities to abuse, but it is probably much more likely that abuse-related
motivations arise for the first time during the course of the potential
abuser’s involvement with a particular child or children.
There
are some prevention techniques for sexual abuse in school settings:
1. Access to the school should be
controlled. Routine employment screening should be supplemented with careful
reference checks.
2. Direct questions might be
asked about any informal concerns about behaviour in previous roles and
settings.
3. Visitors should be required to
report to the administration office and sign-in, and for younger children a
pick-up register should be maintained. In both cases identity checks should be
considered.
4. Anyone loitering near the
school should be monitored and approached as appropriate.
5. Students should be engaged in
resilience-building activities. These may be universal (e.g. involving all
students in building self-confidence and positive peer inclusion) or targeted
(e.g. ‘cocooning’ of vulnerable students).
6. Resistance-training models
(teaching self-protection behaviours) may also be considered. Other
student-focused activities may include respectful relationships education and
responsible bystander training.
7. All staff should be provided
with high-quality training aimed at establishing a clear and valid conception
of the problem and its dynamics. Credentials of trainers should be carefully
checked to ensure that myths and unhelpful ideas are not transmitted.
8. Staff should be educated in a
culture of extended guardianship where the responsibility for prevention is
seen as an ordinary responsibility of all adults. Mentoring and support should
be provided for staff experiencing personal problems.
9. Rules about staff-student
relationships should be unambiguous, widely disseminated, and supported by
in-house staff training.
10. A key focus should be on
clear and appropriate personal-professional boundaries, but severe rules
prohibiting any physical contact or appropriate care behaviours should be
avoided.
Execution
of the selected practicum:
Visit
schools and study the sexual abuse and sexual harassment cases
Aims
and objectives of the practicum:
The
aims and objectives of the practicum are:
1.
From this practicum the student-teacher will be able to find out the
information about the sexual abuse and sexual harassment cases.
2.
From this practicum the student-teacher will become an expert in implementing
awareness programmes through a proper analysis on the sexual abuse and sexual
harassment cases.
Step-wise
Execution of the practicum:
To execute the practicum, I
selected three high schools for an investigation in the town as samples.
Visiting these schools, we searched for information on sexual abuse and sexual
harassment. For this purpose, I have mainly considered co-educational schools
and girls’ school.
Presentation
Of Collected Data
Index:1
: General Information
Data
|
School-1
|
School-2
|
School-3
|
Name of the school
|
|||
Address
|
|||
Location (Village/Town)
|
|||
Number of Pupils (Boys)
|
|||
Number of Pupils (Girls)
|
|||
Number of male teachers
|
|||
Number of female teachers
|
|||
Number of male staffs
|
|||
Number of female staffs
|
|||
Medium (Bengali/English/Hindi)
|
|||
Approved board/council
|
Index:
2 : Information on sexual abuse and sexual harassment
Organized questions
|
Information gathered
from school 1
|
Information gathered
from school 2
|
Information gathered
from school 3
|
1. How much are you aware of the Vishakha
Guideline?
|
|||
2. What is your positive role in the prohibition
of corporal punishment mentioned in the RTE Act-2009?
|
|||
3. Whether there are any signs of fearful
environment of pupils (Physical, mental, emotional and providing extra
stress)?
|
|||
4. Whether there is a separate women’s cell in
the school?
|
|||
5. Whether there are separate toilet facilities
for students both boys and girls?
|
|||
6. Whether there are separate arrangements for
girls in co-educational schools?
|
|||
7. Whether the school has CCTV system?
|
|||
8. Whether there are any reports of sexual abuse
and sexual harassment at the school in the 2018-2019 academic years?
|
|||
9. What steps have been taken to protect the
girls in the school?
|
|||
10. How much encouragement is given to the
students about the harmful effects of sexual abuse and harassment through
meetings, committees, discussion or co-curricular activities?
|
|||
11. Whether girls in the school are made aware
of good touch and bad touch?
|
|||
12. Whether there is any information about
display of abusive language or eve-teasing to girls in the 2018-2019 academic
years?
|
|||
13. Whether the school has a complaint box for
reporting incidents of sexual harassments?
|
|||
14. How do authorities of school remedy sexual
abuse and harassment allegations in the school?
|
|||
15. Whether there is a psychological counsellor
in the school?
|
|||
16. Whether there are any allegations of sexual
harassment against colleagues at the school?
|
|||
17. Whether awareness programmes have been
conducted in the school by showing films on sexual harassments like “Hami”?
|
Analysis
& Interpretation of collected data
We have to analyse and explain
the data, obtained from schools. Steps need to be taken on how to deal with
sexual abuse and harassment organised in schools. School need to be reminded of
RTE Act-2009, Vishakha Guidelines 2016 so that they can take initiative to
solve all those problems.
Significance
of the Practicum:
Need and Significance of the
Practicum are as follows:
1. Student-teacher will gain
knowledge about sexual abuse and sexual harassments.
2. Student-teacher will gain
knowledge about the causes of sexual harassment.
3. Student-teacher will gain the
idea of various laws and justice system to remedy sexual harassment.
4. Students are informed of
recent incidents of student-teacher abuse and harassment.
5. Student-teacher will gain an
idea about the sexual abuse preventive measures.
Conclusion:
Victims of sexual harassment in
school are not healthy mindsets. It highlights the abominable and demonic
aspect of our society as schools are miniature of the society. Only real
education awareness and a positive role of the teacher society can solve this
problem.
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