Study to examine sexual harassment of students by teachers

Dr Kate Dawson of the School of Psychology at NUI Galway said: "To date, sexual harassment in secondary schools has been measured predominantly in terms of peer-peer harassment, mostly failing to acknowledge school staff as potential perpetrators of student sexual harassment."

People who have experienced sexual harassment by a teacher are being asked to participate in a new study which researchers said is the first of its kind outside of the United States of America.

The Active Consent Programme in NUI Galway is spearheading the new survey on the prevalence of teacher-student harassment, with lead researcher, Dr Kate Dawson, claiming there may be a discrepancy between the number of teachers disciplined for sexual harassment, and the number of students alleging they have experienced harassment from a teacher.