What should schools with pupils accused of sexual assault do?

[rosemary201]

I guess we've done to death the testimonies, now I'd like to explore from the best minds of Mumsnetters what should schools do now, in the medium term, and in the long term to deal with this.

I imagine the schools are reaching out to all sorts of consultants, advisors, psychologists, educationalists, PR experts, lawyers etc to plan their response and future steps.

Right now, of course schools are speaking with the authors of letters, inviting people to come forward to help investigations. Not sure how far these investigations will go given most testimonies are anonymous.

What else should the schools do?

@Wearywithteens

If they got the girls to rate their experience and made it part of league tables you can bet your bottom dollar schools would turn the whole thing around overnight.

Why only girls are given the choice to rate the schools?

Sadly this isn’t identifying, as I’ve come across other schools which had this problem.

I taught in a school where a child was accused of raping two other students. It was a police issue, but while we were waiting for it to go to court we had to provide an education for all of the students.

From a safeguarding perspective we had concerns about him anyway, which helped, and we wouldn’t let him mix with any students alone.

We put him in a completely separate half of the year from the girls, so they were in different streams, thus no chance of classes overlapping. Eventually we had senior members of staff accompanying him between lessons.

He was permanently excluded for other reasons before it got to court.

@Wearywithteens

I thought we were talking about sexual harassment, low level everyday unwanted attention and assault - it’s overwhelmingly girls who are victim of this?

If you read the letter sent to Dulwich College, it was written by a boy and including testimonies from other boys.

If you read the letter it's also boys, ep and including queer boys. But also, in a broader sense, all men and boys are victim to toxic masculinity. DH practically has ptsd from his childhood where/when the only option acceptable was to be an alpha rugby male. This isn't just not got for the girls. It's not good for the boys too, both those who are "successfully" alpha and those who aren't.
(And of course I'm not saying that the it is the same as being raped, but that doesn't mean it's not important.)

Schools are required to have robust safeguarding procedures for Ofsted but primarily for pupils. Ofsted check them out but in every day life it’s a procedure for the protection of pupils - in school.

Schools do have jurisdiction on the way to and from school too. Lots of grads run away from this. Out of school, it’s a police matter.

I’m amazed a child continued in school with teacher protection. Most schools would have at least done an exclusion pending investigation. Or Permanent exclusion immediately.

Schools need to work on their culture. They need to work on PHSE and with parents. Independent schools can take a fairly hard line about behaviour. They have the courts to answer to but they must be strong about this. State schools must also work harder to ensure all feel safe in the school environment.

It was reported today that Soma Sara has stoped publishing school names on everyonesinvited as she fears some schools (I.e. the ones currently in the press) are taking disproportionate blame for these issues which does not reflect reality (I.e. the problem is everywhere). She further states that by “pointing the finger at certain demographics and institutions we risk making these cases seem like anomalies....”

Oops apologies I posted this on the wrong thread - so many threads related to this topic. It’s good that people feel passionately...

So I saw today the schools have referred the testimonies to the police. Is that shifting the blame? Getting them covered from legal perspective? Getting the first box ticked?

We know most of the cases will get to nowhere (realistically), so should the force spend their resources dealing with floodgates of cases while learning from experience that even in the highest profile cases (US - Brett Kavanaugh and Australia - Chris Porter) after intensive forensic investigation nothing was concluded.

I really don't know but I do know that the problem often isn't that schools aren't doing anything. All the schools I've worked in have had extensive PSHCE on consent, everyday sexism, what constitutes assault, toxic relationships, respect etc.
The problem is we can't do it all. If the culture in wider society, online and at home is encouraging these thought patterns and behaviour, these boys categorically will not and do not listen to us. I can talk until I'm blue in the face, show them hardhitting statistics and heartwrenching case studies, but it means nothing if their family and their mates online laugh it off - especially since I'm a woman. Some of them have been taught not to respect or listen to female teachers before they join us at 11. When we talk to parents about it they just say 'oh, he doesn't respond well to women' like that makes it ok.
It's also nigh on impossible to expel someone (they have a 'right to education' did you know ). It's a long process and we have to 'prove' their offences with concrete evidence (ie not her word against his) which we can almost never do.
And if we report stuff to the police half the time they just say 'deal with it in school'. Except we can't...
So what do we do? We need a whole look at how assault is dealt with in the education system. Individual schools can do very little to stem the tide of misogyny and violence that is coming from online.

@SchrodingersUnicorn Great post.

@SchrodingersUnicorn is right.
How do schools prove allegations - especially when it happens off school property or you can't hear the words said on cctv. The police and CPS have problems prosecuting sexual assaults so why would schools be any more successful in providing good enough evidence for trial? I can't see how Dulwich College can deal with historic cases- they can only crack down on current culture and attitudes.

Schools exclude thousands of pupils. Independent schools don’t go through the same hoops. Schools have rules and if DC break them, they can be excluded. And they are! Their “right” to an education can be in a PRU. Does not have to be a school.

@PresentingPercy you have to have a cast iron reason and evidence for any allegations or you end up with legal action.
In state schools it is a lengthy process before you get to PRU point.
In independent schools it can be easier but there is still a need for evidence. They can't just kick pupils out without it. I've worked in both. It really isn't that simple.

Thanks @SchrodingersUnicorn for your candid view from within the school community.

Perhaps the reason for little action by schools as reported in the testimonies is due to problematic investigation / verification of accusations when legally everyone is entitled to be innocent until proven guilty.

So does that mean 5-10 years from now we'll see another floodgate of testimonies?

Few state schools ever get faced with legal action. The proof does not have to be at the same level as in a criminal court. It has to be breaking school rules and persistent. That’s not the same as a criminal court. If the higher standard was required no young person would ever be excluded. That’s simply not the case.

In 18/19 there were 7500 permanent exclusions from state schools. 20 pupils per 10,000 in secondary schools. So some schools are managing to permanently exclude.

Legal action is more of an independent sector issue, yes. But it doesn't make expulsion a straightforward or quick process in the state sector either. The idea that schools could just expel all these boys is naive. Even when they do manage to expel the worst and most obvious perpetrators, the culture is such that there's a dozen others under the radar waiting to take their place as alpha toxic male.
There is also a shortage of spaces in PRU units so they just end up at another local school which inevitably also has a problem with sexism and rape culture.
This is a huge cultural problem that needs tackling way beyond school level.

20 pupils per 10,000?
That is nothing considering the extent of the problem and how embedded it is. I would be interested to know if there is any data on what they were expelled for. It is much easier to expel someone (although still, not quick!) for punching someone else in the playground for the umpteenth time in front of everyone than it is to expel someone for repeated harassment of the girls in private with no witnesses.
I'm not saying no one ever gets expelled - my school has expelled one this year already. I am saying it is not straightforward, it is not quick (certain number of suspensions first is normal) and you can't just do it without evidence of the behaviours they are accused of. Sexual assault by its very nature often does not have evidence.

Obviously that’s historical data. It’s clearly not data following these posts of assault. I didn’t say they could exclude all of them. Obviously not. However persistent rule breaking (that would depend on school rules) is a matter for discipline and possibly exclusion. Safeguarding may also be an issue. So schools need to look at their rules and need to look at how that ties in with behaviour policies and disciplinary actions. The standard of proof is not at court level. The worst that might happen to a state school, if all the procedures have been followed, is the child’s parents might be able to afford a lawyer. Most cannot. Usually permanent exclusion sticks. The Governors look at but no appeal can rescind the decision. That isn’t to say it should be unfair but schools will need to decide what their rules now should be, what will not be tolerated and what punishments will follow.

Excluding historically could be difficult for some schools depending on their policies. When DC misbehave off site is a grey area. The rules cover the school, not parties. At school or representing the school is different.