School

Enid

We don’t have school uniforms where I live; pupils generally wear formal-ish streetwear to school (often jeans and a pullover/t-shirt). When I was in sixth grade, a teacher used to ‘pun’ on my then-favourite pullover by calling out “I spot a hot chick” every time I so much as passed him by in the corridor. I eventually stopped wearing that pullover to school.

S

I went to turkey with my family. I was 15 at the time. I was groped multiple times in the train by men who were way older than me. I felt so uncomfortable. i din’t say anything but i moved away from them as quick as possible the moment i realised it. it happened about 8 times. Turkey is a hot country so i was wearing a skirt though i know what i was wearing would not matter. Just being a women is enough to be targeted. I once had a long distance friend who i spoke to on instagram, he was a guy and he once told me to show hims my tits. when i said no he said “other girls do that stuff” so i said “not me” he didn’t continue further wiht the request but he did moan over the phone and that was when i went silent on the phone until he hung up. 7 months later he randomly said he wanted to “fuck me” and he once told me that he would want to see “someone fuck me in the bum because it would be funny”, I did not find it funny at all, i felt vulnerable and small. I didn’t realise how bad it was because majority of the time we had a great friendship that it completely took me by surprise when it did come up. I kind of hinted at the shift in his behaviour and he just said “looks can be deceiving”. Once in school i was on a school trip and i went to a girls school, there was a moment when everyone was walking ahead of me and i stood still because i was really caught up daydreaming and suddenly i felt a presence beside me, it was a teacher who stood right next to me in a very empty room so his arm can tough mine and at first i didn’t really think much of it and i thought he would move but he just stood there but facing behind me i turn around and i can see that he was pretending to read writing on a wall but really it was just so he could be close to me i was a kid so i froze up like children normally do when they are scared but i had a feeling that he had this weird interest in me by how he stared at me and how he made sure i sat near him in one of his classes because of his seating plans.

L

These boys were on my maths class and started discussing maths then one of them said something about bottom and another boy says “yeh X has a big bum” like wtf!! Not sure if this is sexism but it made me feel uncomfortable and I wish I’d done something about it

13 yr old, uk

I asked for tape in science. In reply, “go and make me a sandwich” from 12 yr old boy. they’re being taught these bullshit stereotypes this young.

L

This is really small compared to others but I’m going to share it anyway .So I was gathered by this male teacher to tell us of for our skirts being to short and one of the girls asked why and he said it was because it was a distraction to the male teachers. Like wtf. Anyway I went home and told my mum and she didn’t believe me neither did my mum’s friend whose a teacher at the school. She said I was making it up! Also on a smaller note we always learn about males in history and hardly any female figures:but tbh it is taught by a male teacher so…..

L

So at my school we were playing netball and NONE of the boys would pass to us girls. i also have this friend who will never choose any girls for his football team because he says he wants to win .

anonymous

It was only after someone came to talk at my school that i realised that i have been sexually assaulted by my ex boyfriend. Before this i always thought that sexual assult and rape only really happened with people that you dont know. But this happened when i had met him at school, i had had a bad day and was crying wanting to talk to him but i was wearing my school skirt and he started touching my thighs and my legs, i was so uncomfortable and said clearly no and stop and he just said “I cant help myself” and carried on touching me. It made me feel really sick and disgusting, afterwards he did apologise to me but it still didnt feel right. There were other times with him where for example we went to the beach together and i just wanted to chat and have fun in the water and all he wanted to do was touch me trying to make me moan and kept on telling me to do it when i didnt want to and i dont know if this counts or not because i didnt say no. Another time was when i told him i was leaving our school and was really upset we talked for a little bit then he suddenly said “well we still have time to do things” and he suddenly lifted up my skirt and started touching me, i told him to stop and he did but i still dont think that was right.

Elie

I have a few, might write some others later but here’s one. When I was around 12 I played for a mixed gender cricket club- I was the only girl though. One week when I went to training there was a new coach, male. We started playing and then it was my turn to bat, with the new coach bowling. I walked up and he said “don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you” with the sort of encouraging smile you might give to a very small child. I felt a sort of indignation and managed to hit the ball very hard over the boundary, at which point he sort of turned to some of the boys and went “oh, she’s alright” then looked back at me and told me “well done sweetheart”. I just felt patronised, and the condescending manner he spoke to me just made me feel so unimportant. Don’t speak to women or girls like this please guys

Melid

We changed our seating plan at school, our teacher forced the girls in the class to sit with boys so that they would “influence” them positively. When confronted, she laughed it off. After she asked (jokingly) a boy in our class which (female) seat neighbour he wanted to sit next to, they were able to choose, but our autonomy was violated, all in the hopes of our class being quiet. Thereafter another boy made a joke about my female best friend being so attractive to her (male) seat neighbour, that he would be erect. Our teacher laughed.

Anonymous

I am a young high school student and was walking home one day at around 3:30pm, with a bunch of other girls around me and these (middle aged-late twenties) men started whistling and cat-called me. I was so shocked because it never happened before and I knew about it but never expected it to be me. I turned around to look at the girl behind me and she’s looking at me with a face that says “not again”. I walked all the way home and never told anyone because I was ashamed and thought that this was normal.