Everyday Heroes

Young survivors who took part in a consultation for the Equally Safe delivery plan talked about the responses they received at school and what they felt schools needed to do to improve survivors’ experiences and their trust in talking to schools about gender-based violence.

Many of the children and young people involved said school hadn’t felt like a safe place to disclose their experiences – there were examples of teachers asking lots of questions, standing up for the perpetrator, showing a lack of understanding of their experiences, feeling judged and stigmatised, excluding them, and having little respect for their privacy and confidentiality.

They wanted school staff to have more training and knowledge about gender-based violence so that they could respond and handle things more appropriately, and be better able to recognise potential signs of abuse. And they asked that schools took care around their confidentiality and didn’t share information inappropriately.

You can read the full report here.