Created on: 06 Dec 2019 | Last modified: 20 Jul 2022
Around 20 EIS members from across the country have participated in training around addressing sexual harassment in education environments.
Training considered sexual harassment as experienced by staff and students, and explored the law, policies and procedures, as well as support and resources available to practitioners.
Training was delivered free to EIS members by Rape Crisis Scotland, RASASH and supported by the SUL Learning Fund.
Some key messages were:
A lot of people don’t want to categorise their experiences as sexual harassment, which for them is a coping mechanism. Recognition of what constitutes sexual harassment is rooted in an understanding of legislation, which needs to be simple to understand and widely available.
Normalized behaviours do not equate to healthy behaviours.
Adults in the learning environment can teach consent and respect through modelling behaviour for young people. These whole learning environment approaches should involve young people, colleagues, parents, carers and the wider community.
Find out more on the topic:
There are a lot of practical tools for use around the subject. One comprehensive, recently refreshed example is the Healthy relationships and consent: key messages for young people resource. Available from the Scottish Government website.
www.justrightscotland.org.uk is Scotland’s legal centre for justice and human rights.
While developed elsewhere in the UK, the free AGENDA toolkit offers age specific resources to enable young people to build positive relations.
www.contextualsafeguarding.org.uk offers resources on safeguarding young people taking into account their whole life experiences.
Tea and Consent is a short video that helps explain consent with learners, that teachers and lecturers have reported works well in discussions around sexual harassment with young people.
The Follow It app is a discreet programme that enables anyone thinking they may be the subject of stalking to gather evidence and access advice.