sixth form

Anonymous

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Boys in our sixth form have been highly sexist for over a year now (making ridiculous comments about how women only belong in the kitchen) and the other day were caught joking about sexual assault. They were saying awful things like ‘is it really sexual assault if the girl enjoys it?’. When confronted about this by two girls in our sixth form (who had both been previously sexually assaulted) they simply laughed. When this got reported to our head of sixth form, he said that they were stressed due to being in year 13 and that they didn’t mean it maliciously. He also essentially told the sixth form that if they wanted to say things like that, they shouldn’t do it in front of the girls. Essentially allowing the behaviour to happen, but just not around us. The girls were also told off for getting angry at the boys, yet the boys were not punished or told off for joking about sexual assault. We also found out the other day that safeguarding told us that our previous reports would be told to the headteacher, however this never happened. Most senior staff had no awareness of the fact that the majority of the boys in our sixth form hold quite extreme views and like to joke about them, despite us being told that the senior staff are aware and that it was being dealt with. The school have given us assemblies on consent, however I know it is only so the school look like they are doing something. Absolutely appalling, me and all the girls are outraged!! It’s a classic case of the boys get protected for being sexist and the girls get blamed for being angry.

Emma

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My A-Level maths class is 80% male, the teacher is an older/middle aged male, he made sexist ‘jokes’ every lesson, about how women were stupid, or talked too much. I was working up the courage to confront him, when one lesson he pointed out that I apparently glared at him every time he made a sexist comment. I wasn’t aware I was doing this. He pointed out that I didn’t find this amusing, and paused like he was waiting for me to explain why. I couldn’t find a way to explain something that obvious in a way that wouldn’t get me expelled. The boys all started laughing. After this, I considered approaching sixth form management about it, but the very next day, the people we are all supposed to to turn to if we have a problem, declared that there would be a female-only dress code assembly. This angered, annoyed, and terrified everyone, but there’s no one we can go to about it. It was exactly what we’d expected. “Pull your skirt down, the fact that you;re treated like an object and not a person is inconveniencing us.” I’m hoping to study engineering, and I’m perfectly okay with any gender or sex, unless they cause the problem. So the fact that there are far more males than females are engineering events is annoying, but does not affect the way I live my life. But when the Dean of a university I went to a three day course on stood up at the end and said “Look at all these girls.” we all stared at him, refusing to respond to or applaud anything he said. The ratio of the group was 51% female, exactly as it should be, progress is perfect, being surprised by progress says you weren’t trying for it. Perhaps he could have mentioned the things we’d done, the things we’d learnt, the fact that this residential course was our first taste of university, the fact that he was trying to convince us to go to his university. But no, the shock of the mythical female in STEM must have completely fried his brain.

k

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so my best friend was raped by someone in her friendship group at sixth form, someone that she should be able to trust. And guess what how her other friends in the group have reacted? “Don`t tell anyone, he`ll get in so much shit.” Regardless of the amount of times I`ve told her to report it, she won`t as she knows she will loose all her friends and they will turn against it. WHY ARE WE IN 2016 AND PEOPLE ARE STILL STANDING UP FOR THE FUCKING RAPIST. If anyone else has been through a similar situation I urge you to report it. We need to stop this once and for all because the rapist is to blame, never the victim.