‘The teacher opened my shirt and touched my chest’: Survey reveals sexually inappropriate behaviour by teachers

Many former students say they experienced sexually inappropriate comments or behaviour from teachers during their time in secondary school, according to new research.

The finding is contained in a study which collected anecdotal experiences of sexual misconduct in post-primary schools in Ireland and the UK.

A total of almost 600 respondents from Ireland (224) and the UK (369) completed the survey.

All respondents took part on the basis they had experienced some form of sexual harassment or misconduct by a teacher during second level.

Trinity students block Book of Kells exhibition in protest against planned cost increases

---

‘Students are struggling in ways we haven’t seen before’

---

Hot school meals: A close look at the ingredients list is not pretty. This is industrial food

---

Most students in single-sex schools want mixed enrolment

---

The study invited respondents aged 18 or over to participate via social media platforms with a post which read: “Did you experience any sexually inappropriate comments or behaviour from a teacher during your time in secondary school? Anonymously share your experience in this 5-min survey.”

Overall, “sexist harassment” by a teacher – such as being treated differently because of their gender – was the most commonly experienced form of misconduct experienced by Irish respondents (86 per cent).

Sexual harassment (72 per cent) was the next – such as making offensive remarks about a student’s physical appearance or sexual activity – while a minority experienced unwanted sexual attention (10 per cent) or online sexual harassment (7 per cent). The patterns, broadly, reflected those in UK schools.

Among Irish respondents, most were women and aged 18-34 (57 per cent) or 35-44 (21 per cent). The remainder were aged 45 and over.

The responses also highlighted a wide range of first-hand experiences.

In the area of gender harassment, one Irish woman respondent said: “He commented on my spending time with an older male student at break time, implying I was getting a reputation for myself and also made it clear it was being discussed in the staff room.”

Another Irish woman respondent (aged 18-24) commented: “A male teacher said he heard I’d been a ‘naughty girl’ at the weekend and that he wouldn’t mind seeing ‘that side’ [sic] of me.”

On the topic of sexist hostility, respondents said sexist comments often invalidated girls’ experiences regarding menstrual pain and their participation in sports.

“I have very bad periods and presented my male PE teacher in (2017) with a note to excuse my participation. He made a snide remark and said having ‘lady issues’ was no reason to not do PE and that it helps with cramps,” said one Irish woman participant, aged 18-24.

Several former students reported receiving unwanted attention from a teacher at second level, with many reporting that they did not know how to respond.

“My [topic] teacher was not long graduated and used to always say that if I wasn’t his student things would be very different between us. I was 14. He did this for many years, and I never knew how to deal with it. He’d make comments about my body, wink when walking past me etc,” said one Irish woman respondent.

Another Irish woman student (aged 25-34) said: “I didn’t realise his behaviour towards me was wrong because I was 16 and had a crush on him, he would make sexual jokes with me and keep me back after class and was extremely flirty, but I thought it was just to me.”

“Constantly [flirting]. Friends said he was flirting but I wasn’t sure. When I left school [he] contacted me and asked me on a date,” said another Irish woman former student of the same age category.

There were also allegations of sexual misconduct.

“A teacher rubbed my thigh while I was sat on a table waiting for class to end. The same day when I’d asked to go to the bathroom in class he’d asked if ‘I needed any assistance with anything in there’ and then winked,” said one Irish woman respondent, aged 18-24.

Another said: “The teacher opened my shirt and touched my chest and played it off like he was looking at my sunburn.”

There were also examples of respondents reporting that a teacher had made unwanted attempts to kiss them outside school.

“At [social event], a male teacher asked me to dance. He’d been suggestive before, but I agreed. When dancing, he grabbed my ass and then tried to kiss me. I ran off to my friends, and we laughed about it. Later he licked my neck when we were all drinking shots at a table. At the time I thought it was a joke, but I was 17. It was horrible, and I still think about it, and it makes my skin crawl,” said a woman respondent aged 25-34.

About half of Irish respondents reported that the sexual harassment that they experienced had a negative influence on their participation in school or extracurricular events, such as avoiding classes.

Few respondents reported the incident of harassment to the school and there was no indication in the survey responses that any respondents made formal complaints to the Garda.

The research – titled “an exploratory study on teacher perpetrated sexual misconduct in Irish and UK secondary schools – was led by University of Greenwich with support from University of Galway, Massey University, and Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Pádraig MacNeela, senior lecturer at University of Galway and co-author of the study; said the study sheds light on an important issue for the first time.

“It demonstrates that the culture change we need to support in our education settings is wide ranging. It includes supporting staff who work in post-primary schools to speak up and address staff-student harassment if they ever encounter it,” he said.

Kate Dawson, lecturer in psychology at the University of Greenwich and lead author of the study, added that the findings indicate that some teachers need specific training regarding what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate behaviour.

“Reporting mechanisms also need to be put in place that enable students, or concerned school staff, to report misconduct without fear of repercussions. These preliminary findings need to be investigated further within a larger sample to find out how prevalent this issue is in UK and Irish schools,” she said.