In primary school the boy that was my “boyfriend” used to always touch me in class and assembly. This happened every day for over two months. I remember trying one time to make him stop but he made me feel as though there was something wrong with me. I was so scared to tell anyone because I didnt want to get in trouble. When the teacher saw it happening one day she blamed me for not telling him to stop and not saying no. I was eleven.
In 2019, I was engaged to a man who is a third grade teacher. He is white and 50 years old. Even though we were sexually intimate regularly, I believe he gave me a roofie and assaulted me. He took me to a bar in an expensive restaurant where I had one drink. I have absolutely no memory after consuming some of that drink. He told me he had to carry me out. He photographed me slumped over in his car. He said we had “crazy” sex. I had bruises and cuts on my body. I remember nothing. But based solely on his admissions, I believe he put a roofy in my drink at that bar for the purpose of asserting power and control over me and assaulting me.
I was born and brought up in a very small town in Kerala. I was a big girl from a very young age (only by body size), and my breasts were bigger compared to other girls of my age during my teenage years. When I was 10 years old, I started wearing a sports bra. One day, a teacher called my mother and spoke to her in private about buying me an actual bra. She said teachers were talking about my breasts in the staff room. My mother took me out for lunch and took me bra shopping. My 11-year-old self was utterly humiliated wondering why teachers were talking about my breasts at school. I was one of the first to wear jeans and Kurti (a typical attire these days in my place). One day a lady who runs a shop on the street came and told my father that all the autorickshaw drivers who park their vehicles at the opposite end of the street were getting tempted with my breasts and so he had to make his daughter cover up her breasts with a shawl. I still wonder what was her actual problem. It’s true I’ve got stares and some weird comments from the group, but I always closed off my ears. Anyway, after the lady’s recommendation, my self-confidence went down a notch and my mother too recommended it was better to wear a shawl than create trouble.
when i was in my first year of secondary school, i changed class because of my grades after three months. i was worried i had offended one of my teachers during class so i stayed after to apologise, and he accepted it because i hadn’t done anything wrong according to him it was a joke at a bad time. however, when i went to get my book from his classroom before the holidays, he made me stand on a chair to collect my book from the top shelf and put his hands on my hips, at the time i didn’t understand so quickly left the room even as he tried to stop me from leaving. he stood in front of the door and grabbed my wrists. i left as quickly as i could. it was nerve-wracking, he left a few years after but i always hated hearing about him and what he was doing.
I am 13. ( 14 in like a month) Before the coronavirus, I always have a teacher like this. They say, “I need a strong boy to carry this”. When I raise my hand, they always say. (Oh Camille, leave it to the strong boys, you are WAY to delicate”. It drives me crazy. It is so little, but it happens SO often. It has been told to me since 2nd grade.
before an exam at school, a teacher came in to say that showing our shoulders and wearing shorter skirts (in the summer) is unfair to the male teachers at the school, that it is too distracting for the male students and that we were being inappropriate.
So this isn’t as great as the other stories, but it still means a lot to me. So here it goes… When I was in 6th grade, I was in a gym class, with many girls who were feminists, including me. However, the boys in that gym class were very rude and sexist, not to mention 5th graders(younger than us). Our gym teacher was also quite sexist, as he would inlist the boys to lift the ‘heavy’ gym mats instead of us girls. Anyways, the boys in our gym class wouldn’t pass to us so we decided to take our concerns to the teacher, who LITERALLY said to us, “Maybe if you would play better and not sit on the sidelines they would pass to you.”Most of us were always open and still, the ball was never passed to us. After our gym teacher said this I realized how sexist this world really is. Now I am a feminist, who is writing a 5-minute speech on sexism in schools. I have used this website quite a lot and enjoy reading everyone’s stories. Everyone on here has inspired me so much, thank you.
I was in class with a male teacher, there was rumours going around my school that he would grab girls skirts and move them or look down their tops, I don’t normally do my top bottom of my shirt up this most teenage girls at my school but for this particular class we would all the our top bottoms up to be safe, it was a Japanese class and I needed help with one of the words so I raised my hand and asked if I could have some help he came over and squatted down next to me and started touching my back he then proceeded to put his hand on my thigh, my best friend was behind me and saw the entire thing, she poked me and mouthed wtf is he doing and I just shook my head in confusion he was finished helping me and when he went to stand up he grabbed my crotch and that’s when one of the guys in my class who had been watching the entire thing grabbed him and pulled him to the floor, I haven’t seen him since
On several occasions in my mixed primary school a teacher (I have all female teachers) has come in to my class room looking for help to move some tables (keep in mind our tables are very light and easy for anyone to lift). that teacher has come into our classroom and said “excuse me can I borrow some STRONG BOYS to help me lift some tables”.I just found this very offensive that she thought us girls are “too weak to lift anything”.
This seems minor but it has really annoyed me. In maths class, we were discussing how weight was different on the moon. The teacher then said, girls, if you want to lose weight go to the moon. He was implying that girls all want to be thin and lose weight which is not the case. Also, some boys may want to lose weight etc