Given the sexual assault statistics we need to move back to single sex schools

[jeaux90]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/oct/04/child-on-child-sexual-abuse-schools-england-and-wales

We could have a debate about the causes of course but the current government won’t ban porn for example so my view, we need to completely segregate at secondary school now if the government is serious about stopping VAWG.

My comment was meant to be for the Sharia law comment.

But the report you’re quoting says that a third of the victims were male. The focus surely needs to be on safeguarding, consent, boundaries and tackling the behaviour itself, regardless of the sex of the victim or perpetrator. This shouldn’t be happening to any child, period.

I was sexually assaulted at my all girl secondary... there were also multiple girls with EDs and the pressure to not eat, or to spend 2 hours getting ready each day was actually worse than when I eventually switched to a co-ed school

This seems a rather knee jerk reaction to a problem which is a symptom of our deeply misogynistic society.

yes porn should be highly regulated so let’s campaign for that. Social media and the internet should be highly regulated so let’s campaign for that. Let’s also campaign for better social structures as I am sure it is no coincidence that a highly individualistic and selfish society produces highly selfish individuals.

having single sex schools feels like misdirection to me.

I think you are conflating two issues. The point being made is that girls have the right to learn and focus on their education without the additional pressure, day in day out, of fending off, or coping with, assault.

Boys whose behaviour has been distorted by porn, incel ideology, misogynistic religious beliefs and Andrew Tate etc need to be rehumanised, and taught that toxic behaviour is not normal masculinity, it's just toxic.

Demonising boys is making the situation worse. Yes, the vast majority of sexual assaults are committed by males. However, that does not mean that most males are sexual predators. The majority are decent humans. A small minority commit sexual offences. Teaching our daughters that they should be scared of all males is madness. Yes, we need to teach our children that there are some awful people out there (male and female), and to be careful, but sending the message that they should be scared of men is ridiculous.

Yes, some teen boys behave appallingly. However, there are plenty of awful teen girls, not necessarily physically, but often psychologically.

If you bring your children up properly they wont sexually assault anyone. doesnt matter what sex they are. you are being ridiculous, how would a same sex school even stop this. have you ever heard of a lesbian?!

YANBU. If only. Labour couldn't give a fck about women and girls. They are the most misogynistic sexist party we've ever had.

I agree with this. Painting boys as predators and girls as sweet and innocent little souls is ridiculous. I’ve seen plenty of instances of girls pestering boys, probably more so than the other way around.

I have children of both sexes, so see it from both sides.

We did exactly the same mixed, single sex, mixed 6th form.

The ages 11-16 are so important and boys at that age are little shits a lot of the time. Mixed with porn and general misogyny in society, it's truly awful in some of the schools.

Yes girls can be cliquey etc, but better that than sexually abused.

It's not one or the other is it? Goodness me, strange stance.

Yes, there are some boys who have been harmed by viewing misogynistic content. However, there are plenty of girls who’ve been exposed to things like pro eating disorder content, which obviously isn’t healthy either. I wouldn’t want a daughter of mine mixing with anyone from any sex who’d been exposed to harmful content.

How about boys are taught how to behave properly by their parents? This is a societal problem and the solution to it starts at home.

Yes.. Agreed. You will always get the not my nigel on these threads though. Unavoidable.

I think this is weird. Girls are not stage props for boys education on how to treat girls. I would have thought that this is the job of parents?

No, it isnt. The article specifically says they don't have the figures, but the journalist believes the perpetrators are "likely" to have been other pupils. They could however, not be pupils. Also, we are talking about 5 incidents a day across the entire country. With over 3 million pupils in England, we are talking about an issue that affects 0.00016% of pupils. Or, looking at it the other way, 99.99% of pupils are not affected. And we are talking about children. Not adults.

Your logic suggests that the children the journalist believes are likely to be responsible for the assaults somehow magically stop doing it when outside school. So it follows that you also believe in segregation in other settings. If not, what is your basis for believing these assaults stop when kids are outside of a school setting?

I don't think we should be taking action like sex segregation for an issue that affects less than 1% of children.

The point the poster is making is that creating single sex schools won’t solve the problem. It just shifts it somewhere else. We need to focus on solving the problem in the first place.

Are these statistics completely accurate? I would think not - boys are way less likely to report it, and its usually brushed off as girls being girls. you clearly only have girls so are completely one sided. and maybe just fancy a good argument.

The internet really has cause so many things to go wrong hasn't it? I mean, yeah, amazing invention but jesus, just shows how humans ruined great things constantly.

Parent's need to step up. Schools need to step up (wasn't Labour going to teach consent in schools?), the amount of Andrew Tate wannabe's online with huge followings of children needs to be stopped. And yes, there is very much an argument of single sex schools now for girls. The damage has been done imo, but something has to improve for the next generations.

Agreed. I have a husband and son, and love them both to the end. If somebody asked me though ‘would they abuse somebody?’ - I don’t know. Because you never ever truly know another person, and I believe all the women who said their abuser ‘seemed like the perfect son/friend/colleague’. So I’m 99% sure, but never 100%.

So, when do you sit down with your sons and tell them they are sexual predators?

When did you have that conversation with your husband, father, brother?

and you will always get people who think all boys are sexual deviants!!!

Sorry it’s a parent problem.

Parents need to stop doling out phones and tablets willy nilly for some peaceful ‘me’ time, and actually parent.

If kids had dumb phones until 16 and a laptop in a shared family space, this would all be massively reduced.

I think a lot of parents are secretly scared of their teen sons plus they just want a peaceful life; so all the bollocks about ‘needing’ the tech and ‘what are the school doing’ comes out.

You misunderstand. All males are potential sexual predators, as far as a girl / woman is concerned.

Yes these are ONS statistics.