Schools remain fertile grounds for sexual harassment

IN RECENT years, the South African government has engaged in campaigns to alert us about gender-based violence and power imbalances between men and women. Despite their efforts, there are continual incidents of rape and various types of sexual harassment and violence that persists in South Africa.

- DR SHEETAL BHOOLA

The alarming fact is that these incidents at schools are still very much prevalent, which indicates that we are still grooming future South Africans to be patriarchal and dismissive of respect for the female human being.

More than often, it is girls who are often being targeted as victims of sexual harassment rather than males and the frequency of these incidents has normalised a notion that in South Africa, most women at some point will experience sexual harassment or a violence-related crime, based on their gender identification.

The number of sexual harassment incidents reported has only escalated in recent years despite the fact that schools are meant to be safe spaces for our children within our young democratic society.

Schools are also meant to play a pivotal role in developing the child holistically and teaching children about human rights, gender discrimination and the importance of human respect irrespective of race, gender and sexual orientation.

The recent incident involving a male educator sexually harassing a girl learner via text messages also indicates that sexual violence in schools involves the educators and other key players. These are adults that children and parents supposedly need to trust as their caregivers whilst the school day is in progress.