'We need to talk to 13-year-olds about sexual harassment — waiting until third-level is too late'

'At least if we talk to first years before the worst happens, then they might have that education up through school, but nobody wants me to talk to the 13-year-olds.'

At the beginning of May, the Uachtarán of the Irish Second-level Student's Union (ISSU) Emer Neville spoke on behalf of school students at the Oireachtas committee on gender equality.

Ms Neville, along with ISSU equality officer Saoirse Exton, was there to discuss gender stereotypes, gender-neutral career advice, and the current Relationships and Sexual Education (RSE) curriculum.

But it was her matter-of-fact detailing of the sexual harassment faced by second-level students that left several of the attending politicians visibly shocked.

I personally know girls who have had images shared among the boys in that classroom,” she said. 

“It is a big problem because the girls do not know how to report issues like that.” 

Harassment is a “normalised”, systematic issue in second level, affecting both men and women and tied to toxic masculinity, she explained.

Education Minister Norma Foley TD with ISSU president Emer Neville. Picture: Sasko Lazarov / Photocall Ireland

The figures on gender-based violence are stark; one in five young women here has been subjected to intimate relationship abuse. Half of the affected women were abused while under the age of 18.

The first survey measuring sexual violence on Irish college campuses saw more than 1,100 female students reporting experiences consistent with rape.

Real change is slow, and most first-year students now attend consent workshops during their first weeks of college, a relatively new addition introduced thanks to the hard work of researchers, advocates, and student reps.

But it does beg the question — why are we waiting until third-level?

Dr Michelle Walsh of Rape Crisis Midwest.

“I’m so tired of being asked to do workshops for Leaving Cert students before they leave school, but we do nothing for kids in first year,” Dr Michelle Walsh told the Irish Examiner.

At least if we talk to first years before the worst happens, then they might have that education up through school, but nobody wants me to talk to the 13-year-olds.” 

An education and training manager with Limerick Rape Crisis Centre, Dr Walsh has been working in the area of domestic violence and sexual abuse for the last 12 years.

Through her work, Dr Walsh is regularly contacted by teachers. Recently, she was called by a primary school which was experiencing an issue with fifth- and sixth-class boys displaying sexually advanced behaviours.

She is responsible for a substantial piece of PhD research carried out in conjunction with Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI), the first to examine, in detail, what is happening with adolescents and sexual harassment in Ireland.

“We know, as a sector, that the younger that we can educate people around domestic sexual and gender-based violence, the better the chance we have of making a difference," she says.

“For years, I've been looking at NUI Galway — I came through there myself — and looking at the Active Consent program and looking at what is happening at third level with sexual harassment, and I'm going: ‘This is crazy’.

This level of sexual harassment isn't just first happening when they turn in the doors of third level, it's got to be happening when they're younger.” 

And, as she found, it is.

“If you look at the figures Active Consent are putting out in NUIG on the level of sexual harassment [in third-level students], it’s a carbon copy of what my figures are saying happens in young people in Leaving Cert,” she says. 

Response from teens

Her research findings are startling. The teens she interviewed reported being harassed by classmates, grown men, outside shops, by friends, in school, and online.

Almost half of the teenagers she interviewed did not know where to go for help or how to report sexual harassment.

Several felt if they had received more education about how to identify and report sexual harassment, it may have helped them avoid what they were exposed to.

Almost two-thirds of the students told Dr Walsh they did not know if their school had a sexual harassment policy, while a further 13% said their school did not have one.

Despite significant levels reported by the teenagers taking part, a substantial number were unable to identify their experiences as sexual harassment.

Youth workers

Dr Walsh also interviewed youth workers, with all reporting as having witnessed high levels of sexual harassment amongst the teens they worked with.

She found the younger teen group, those 13 to 16, experienced less sexual harassment and lower rates than the older group do.

That’s where the education and training needs to happen; to stop the problem before it gets to the level that we have in sixth year,” she says. 

The majority of students also told her that they were not happy with the level of relationship and sexual education (RSE) they received in school.

“I had one kid tell me as I was collecting the data: ‘You know, if this was a Leaving Cert subject and we were getting points for it, we’d all know we need to know, and this wouldn’t be happening'. 

“They are not being given the information that they want and need. 

“If you look at what we should be doing in accordance with the Istanbul Convention and the EU Convention on the rights of the child, every child should be free to live freely and without threat of intimidation. 

The only way to do that is early education and intervention, and we are not doing that.” 

The adolescent brain

Adolescence is known as a “time of storm and stress”. 

“You've got kids who are really, really exposed to information and technology that's very, very new, and an adolescent brain," she says.

“They are also very prone to becoming addicted to stuff very quickly.

Then you put the internet in front of these kids and you say: ‘Here you go, you can get your sex education from that.’

“If you are going to participate in or commit any act of violence, be it physical or sexual, what's the first thing you need to do? You need to depersonalise the thing you are going to abuse.

“The other side of it is that you have young lads going out and not knowing how to behave appropriately, how to engage properly, what is a normal sexual relationship and what a partner wants in a relationship.

This is not just about ‘keeping all the girls safe’, it’s about ‘keeping all our young people safe’, and we are not equipping them with the tools to do that.” 

It’s not just about schools, she said, adding that parents themselves also have an important role to play, as does our whole society in everything from communities, culture, policies, and legislation.

“We need a whole-of-society approach, and we need education really, really badly,” she says.

Department of Education response

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said that work is ongoing to update the RSE curriculum across schools in recognition of “the need to ensure SPHE and RSE are fit for purpose and meet the needs of young people in a modern and changing world”. 

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has been undertaking a major review of RSE, which looked at topics such as consent and healthy, positive sexual expression and relationships, the safe use of the internet and social media and its effects on relationships and self-esteem, and LGBTQ+ matters.

The NCCA will very shortly make a draft revised junior cycle specification available for consultation to all stakeholders, with the aim of having finalised lessons in schools in September 2023.

Work has also begun on the redeveloped senior cycle, and the aim is to have a draft specification for consultation, also in 2023.

In early 2024, a draft SPHE specification for primary schools will also be available for consultation, the spokeswoman said, adding that these timelines are also committed to in the Third National Strategy for Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.

In the interim, programmes are in place across primary and post-primary schools as part of current SPHE/RSE teaching," the spokeswoman stated.

“This includes the Stay Safe programme at primary school level and, at post-primary level, programmes that address personal safety in relationships and topics such as healthy and unhealthy relationships, consent and domestic gender-based and sexual violence at junior cycle and, at senior cycle, topics such as domestic violence, sexual harassment, dating violence, and rape.” 

The area of sexual harassment and sexual violence between peers in schools is a very important area being considered as part of the ongoing review of anti-bullying procedures for schools, she added.

“The department is committed to addressing sexual harassment in schools, and this can be achieved by creating a school climate that is founded upon inclusion, diversity, and above all, respect for others.” 

She added that this commitment can be seen in the recently published Third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, where the department commits to ensure the review of its “action plan on bullying and anti-bullying procedures for primary and post-primary schools considers the specific issues of sexual harassment and identity bullying, including gender stereotyping and gender identity bullying in both the physical and online sphere”.