Imagine the scene: you are a female primary teacher comforting a student who is crying. The male headteacher suddenly pops his head around the door and says, in front of your class of six-year-olds, that he wishes he could sit on your lap, too. That’s what happened to one of the respondents to a poll on sexual harassment in schools by the NASUWT teaching union.

The survey, which was released last year, paints a grim picture. More than 80 per cent of the 1,200 teachers polled had suffered some form of sexual harassment at school, with 7 per cent experiencing harassment from colleagues and 6 per cent from a manager. More than 40 per cent of victims didn’t report incidents, fearing that nothing would happen (68 per cent) or that they wouldn’t be believed (28 per cent). And they may have been correct: of those who did report when something had happened, 21 per cent said no action was taken, while 10 per cent felt they were not believed and had their claims dismissed.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, says the scale of the problem is likely to be much larger than the figures suggest. “So many women came up to us at our conference to say they were pleased that we’d done this because they’d been in that position, too,” she adds. “We’ve become a bit anaesthetised to it because it’s so common.”

‘It’s everywhere’

The NEU teaching union conducted its own survey in 2017 to gauge the amount of gender-based discrimination in UK schools. The resulting report was titled “ ‘It’s Just Everywhere’: a study on sexism in schools - and how to tackle it ”.

Ros McNeil, assistant general secretary of the NEU, says that although much of the research was based on student experiences, staff were eager to discuss the sexist culture sowing the seeds for harassment. “Teachers told us that stereotypes about men and women are still dominant in schools,” she explains. “Things like PE teachers needing to be male or the men carrying the chairs.

“We need to continuously challenge those ideas, like making jokes about people’s appearance or [dismissing] sexual comments as ‘banter’. The normalisation of it makes people feel unempowered. Teachers say to us that they don’t have the language to indicate that they feel uncomfortable with it.”

A recent report on ending sexual harassment, released by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), found that claims were routinely dismissed, or blame was placed on the victim. It cited cases where women were told that it was their fault for wearing tight clothing or for flirting. One manager said to a victim: “You know how he is - just stay out of his way.” (The report also found that nearly all of those who had been sexually harassed were female.)

So, what should school leaders be doing to protect staff from sexual harassment in the workplace? Admitting that it exists is the essential first step, says the EHRC, followed by ensuring you model appropriate behaviour.

Beyond that, the EHRC says that having a clear policy on sexual harassment is essential, and that this should be easily accessible on the company (or school) website, and should be evaluated by staff for its effectiveness.

This is not happening at the moment: the NEU survey found that 64 per cent of secondary teachers were unsure of the existence of policies relating to sexism in the schools. “We’re concerned about how poor the policies tend to be,” Keates says. “We’ve got lots of policies on how pupils should be treated, but very little in terms of personnel.

“A good policy is one that defines the issues and expectations around sexual harassment, so that people can examine themselves against them.”

This could help to kill off the common “banter” defence, she suggests, putting an end to people claiming that their “jokes” have been taken out of context or that they didn’t realise their behaviour was inappropriate.

The EHRC also says that training is essential for staff at all levels, especially those who may receive reports of harassment, to ensure unbiased treatment of those who speak out. It adds that the government should create “targeted sexual harassment training for managers, staff and workplace sexual harassment ‘champions’ ”.

Keates agrees, proposing that the Department for Education should take the lead. But, in the meantime, leaders should begin by talking to staff rather than offering top-down directives or, worse, silence.

“They should start a discussion,” she says. “Discuss the issues and what you need to put in place to address them, what the expectations are about how people behave towards each other, and what people need to feel safe and comfortable at work and to be treated with dignity.”

Confidential reporting

A modern and efficient reporting system is the cornerstone of an effective approach, according to the EHRC. The report backs the use of confidential reporting methods, such as “telephone lines run by a third party or anonymous online reporting tools”.

Likewise, it praises the set-up in one university, where there is “a network of dignity advisers to act as a confidential first port of call for concerns”.

But underpinning it all is, again, the need for everyone in schools to recognise that, sadly, their colleagues are capable of behaving this way.

“We need a space where people feel they can stand up and say this does happen, because it does,” Keates concludes. “People have to know there’s a system in place that can help them. And if we can’t get it right in schools, where are we going to?”

Zofia Niemtus is a freelance writer

This article originally appeared in the 8 February 2019 issue under the headline “Ending the sexism that leaves teachers out in the cold”