Meg

I’m 17, and this happened when I was 11 and in my first month of year 7. In my comprehensive school, the year 7s got to spend their P.E lessons swimming. What myself and a majority of the girls in the year did was we came into school with our bathers on underneath our school uniform, and then changed into our underwear we had in our P.E bags after the lesson. One day swimming was cancelled, so I decided to just keep my swimming costume on and leave my underwear in my bag. I had maths in the morning and had accidentally left my P.E bag in the classroom. I didn’t realise I was missing it until the end of the day, and as a nervous year 7, I rushed back to the maths block to collect it before my mum arrived. I knew the year 11s had maths in the afternoon, and I asked one of them if they had seen my bag in the classroom. They told me someone in the year 11 class had opened it and dumped the contents down the stairs. I went to the stairs where they were thrown and all I found was my pair of goggles lying on the steps. I was certain that someone had taken my underwear. I was hyperventilating, on the verge of a panic attack. I was a terrified 11-year-old in her first month of Comp who’s underwear had been stolen by a 16-year-old boy. Fortunately enough, my amazing maths teacher had collected all of my P.E bag and kit (minus the goggles) and had kept it with her in her room until I came to collect it. She was my true saviour that day. However, I have never felt as ashamed, embarrassed and violated as I did that day. Knowing that a majority of year 11 had seen my underwear and god knows who had held them or what they had done with them still makes me feel sick to my stomach now and makes me feel just as helpless and terrified as I did that day. I never told the school or my parent’s because I was a small girl, who was told that to survive in this kind of environment you had to draw as little attention to yourself as possible. I didn’t realise how much it ate up at me until I told my wonderful, strong friends today and they reacted with the anger of a thousand suns! It doesn’t cross my mind anywhere near as much as it used to, but I thought sharing this would help me clear it from my brain.