There are facts and truths that "sexual libertarians" don't want society or public opinion to know, that even they don't want to know. To sum up those facts - accumulated in different human cultures and societies - we don't need sex to live a full life and be content. To define one's identity on the basis of our sexuality alone is to reduce our human value and dignity. I am a lot more than just my genitalia, and so are you. G.S.
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My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best human efforts to make sense of our lives - and of our human sexuality in particular - also including the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium. The Church has been accumulating much valuable wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7
Father Gilles Surprenant, priest & poustinik
Written submission from the Family Education Trust (SVS0051)
Executive summary
·
The problem of sexual harassment and sexual violence
in schools is primarily an issue to be addressed individually at the local
level. Parental involvement and engagement is crucial.
·
A study of the culture, ethos, curriculum and teaching
practice of schools where there is little or no sexual harassment and sexual
violence may help to highlight features which can contribute to a reduction of
their occurrence in schools where they are more prevalent.
·
Governing bodies should seek to establish a
counter-cultural school ethos in which sexual intimacy is considered and
referred to with modesty, respect and restraint.
·
Schools should review their policies surrounding the
confidential provision of contraception and sexual health advice.
·
There is no evidence to support the contention that
statutory sex and relationships education (SRE) would reduce levels
of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools. Local governing
bodies should continue to formulate their SRE policies in consultation with
parents and schools should remain accountable to parents.
·
The ‘supplementary advice’ document, Sex
and relationships education (SRE) for the 21st century, does not provide a safe and
reliable guide for schools to follow, and the Brook Traffic Light tool
communicates messages that make it unsuitable as a safeguarding resource.
·
Parents have a vital role to play in monitoring their
children’s use of the internet and social media. Schools should therefore take
care to involve parents in the development of policies and strategies aimed at
reducing levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence.
· In view of the harmful effects of pornography, schools should not take a non-judgmental and non-directional approach. Rather they should use resources which explain the dangers of pornography, offer practical advice on how to avoid it, and urge young people to seek help if it has already become a problem to them.
1.
Introduction
1.1 Family Education Trust is an independent research charity dedicated to researching the causes and consequences of family breakdown and promoting family stability and the welfare of children and young people. The Trust also publishes educational material for use in Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) and sex and relationships education (SRE) classes in schools and other contexts.
Reducing levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools
2. Can
schools tackle this problem individually or is national action needed to reduce
levels of harassment?
2.1 The
problem of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools is primarily an
issue to be addressed individually at the local level. Parental involvement and
engagement is crucial.
2.2 Headteachers and
governing bodies must face up to the reality of sexual harassment and sexual
violence where it is present in a school and resist the temptation to conceal
or deny its occurrence. The problem needs to be honestly acknowledged in the
local setting before it can be addressed.
2.3 It
is important for the school to identify the perpetrators of sexual harassment
and sexual violence and involve their parents in seeking to address
the problem and prevent its recurrence. The school should also discuss
with the parents of victims what additional support their children may require
and explain what action is being taken to resolve the issue.
2.4 Where
sexting is widespread and instances of sexual harassment and violence are
not limited to isolated incidents, the school should communicate the nature and
scale of the problem to all parents and seek their support to address and
eliminate it. The harmful consequences of sexual harassment and violence should
be spelled out, together with the steps that the school will take if any
instances come to its attention.
2.5 Consideration
should be given to the possibility that a relaxed attitude towards the
provision of contraception to young people under the age of consent may be
communicating the message that sexual experimentation is condoned and even
expected. In turn, this could embolden young men in particular to put pressure
on girls to engage in sexual activity. In many cases there may be a
fine line between such pressure and sexual harassment.
2.6 Professor
David Paton
of Nottingham University Business School has found
that: ‘Easier access to family planning reduces the effective cost of sexual
activity and will make it more likely (at least for some teenagers) that they
will engage in underage sexual activity.’[1]
2.7 Schools should review their policies surrounding the confidential provision of contraception and sexual health advice in view of these considerations and in the light of the findings of serious case reviews in Rochdale, Rotherham and Oxfordshire. These reviews revealed instances where authorities failed to act in order to protect young teenage girls from child sexual exploitation because they regarded underage sex a normal ‘lifestyle choice’ and because the ‘right of the child to confidentiality’ was being put before the need of the child for protection.
3. What
role can other stakeholders, including teacher training providers, teaching
unions, governors and parents, play in tackling this problem?
3.1 Governing
bodies should seek to establish a counter-cultural school ethos in which
sexual intimacy is considered and referred to with modesty, respect and
restraint. School sex and relationships education policies should ensure
that the accent is placed on sexual activity as an expression of love, which
involves commitment and faithfulness.
3.2 An
approach to sex education that places an emphasis on sexual pleasure and
‘informed choices’ is unlikely to discourage and reduce the incidence of sexual
harassment and sexual violence. The focus needs to be turned away from
self-gratification to self-giving in the context of a lifelong marriage.
3.3 The role of parents is key. Young people who are raised by parents who model mutual love and respect and who refer to sex only with modesty and restraint, are far less likely to become perpetrators of sexual harassment or sexual violence.
4. What
action would be most effective in reducing levels of sexual harassment and
sexual violence in schools?
4.1 There
is no quick-fix solution to the problem of sexual harassment and sexual
violence in schools. There are deep-seated cultural and social factors
contributing to the present malaise which cannot be resolved overnight.
4.2 That
said, it is important not to get the problem entirely out of proportion. Sexual
harassment and sexual violence do not feature in all schools, and where
they are present they do not occur in every school to the same extent. A study
of the culture, ethos, curriculum and teaching practice of schools where there
is little or no sexual harassment and sexual violence may help to
highlight features which can contribute to a reduction of their occurrence
in schools where they are more prevalent.
4.3 Young
people have always had a natural curiosity about sexual matters, but this is
now being fed to an unprecedented extent by sexualised messages and images via
the media, the internet and some types of sex education. Parents have an
important role to play in supervising and monitoring the exposure of their
children to the media, their access to the internet, their engagement in social
networking and their use of mobile phones.
4.4 We
are conscious that advocates of statutory PSHE/SRE will be using this inquiry
as a vehicle to advance their case. However, the evidence in support of the
claims made for statutory PSHE/SRE is in short supply. Surprisingly little
research has been conducted to evaluate the success of sex education
programmes. An external steering group established by the last Labour
government noted that: ‘[T]here is a dearth of good quality international
evidence on SRE. A literature review of the international evidence that does
exist confirms that it is difficult to be precise about the impact of SRE, for
a number of reasons...’[2]
4.5 An
examination of one ‘enhanced sex education programme’, for
example, found that while the programme increased young people’s
knowledge it had no discernable effect on sexual activity.[3] The lead researcher, Dr Marion
Henderson commented, ‘It may be that we have already seen the limits of what
sex education can achieve and we need to look wider at parenting and the
culture in which children grow up.’
4.6 Professor
Lawrie Elliott from Edinburgh Napier University undertook a
review of evaluations of a number of sex education initiatives and found that
they had little or no positive impact on the sexual behaviour of young people.
He concluded that we may have reached a threshold in what can be achieved
by population based interventions and commented: ‘Our findings challenge the
conventional wisdom that traditional public health methods such as education in
schools linked to sexual health clinics are able to affect the sexual
health of the neediest in society.’[4]
4.7 There
is evidence that, far from being the solution to sexual harassment and sexual
violence, some kinds of sex and relationships education can exacerbate the
problem. In spite of the fact that education law aims to protect children
from inappropriate teaching and materials, Family Education Trust is frequently
contacted by parents who are deeply concerned about their children being
introduced to sexual themes at school in an inappropriate way and at an
inappropriate stage in their development.
4.8 For example,
several parents have reported instances where primary school pupils
have simulated sex after viewing cartoon depictions of intercourse
in the Channel 4 resource, Living and Growing, which is used
widely in primary school sex education lessons. One parent wrote:
[T]he effects of what our children had been taught
[soon] became alarmingly apparent. Children were found simulating sex on top of
other children and some children were telling much younger children what
they had learned, much to the horror of their parents. Still others
were openly stating to parents that they now wanted to have sex.
Some children, including my daughter, became very
upset and worried about the whole matter. She was not emotionally or
mentally able to cope with this information…
I [finally] managed to find out what DVD the
school had used and I and other parents watched it on the Internet in
horror. It was so graphic and the narrative was appalling. It promoted sex
as a wonderful feeling and exciting - no wonder some of the children now
wanted to try it![5]
4.9 Most
of the components of PSHE are the primary responsibility of parents; for
example, nutrition and physical activity, drugs, alcohol and tobacco education,
sex and relationships education, emotional health and well-being, safety, and
personal finance.
4.10 The
more that schools take to themselves responsibility for these areas, the less
parents will be inclined to view them as their responsibility. If PSHE were to
become a statutory part of the curriculum, there would be a very real danger
that parents would no more consider themselves responsible for these
aspects of their children’s physical, emotional and social development than
they typically regard themselves as responsible for the teaching of English,
maths, history and science.
4.11 In
the wake of the 2011 riots, the Prime Minister called for parents to take more
responsibility for their children and not to leave everything to
schools. He lamented the ‘decline in responsibility’ in society and,
stressing the need to instil in children and young people ‘the decency,
discipline and sense of duty that make good citizens’, noted that, ‘The
first place people learn these values is in the home.’ If the government
is serious about encouraging parents to take more, and not less, responsibility
for their children, the state, through its schools and other agencies, needs to
take care not to undermine them by assuming a parental role.
4.12 In
view of the particular sensitivities aroused by SRE in both primary
and secondary schools, it is important that schools should be required to
consult with parents and be sensitive to parental wishes and
concerns. It is also vital that parents should retain the right to
withdraw their children from sex education lessons for as long as they bear the
legal responsibility for their children’s education. This legal right
is in line with the fundamental principle of education law that pupils
should be educated in accordance with the wishes of their parents,[6] and that due respect should be paid
to the religious and philosophical convictions of parents.[7]
4.13 Given
the absence of any evidence that children who are withdrawn from sex
education lessons are more likely to engage in sexual harassment and
sexual violence or placed at greater risk of teenage pregnancy and
sexually transmitted infections, there is no compelling reason to remove or
limit the parental right of withdrawal.
4.14 Sex
education policies and decisions about the delivery of SRE, including the
choice of materials, should not be determined centrally, but decided at
the local level in consultation with parents. However, if PSHE/SRE
were to be made a statutory subject, it would inevitably result in a degree of
central prescription and reduce the accountability of schools to parents.
4.15 The ‘supplementary
advice’ document, Sex and relationships education (SRE) for the
21st century, published by Brook, in association
with the Sex Education Forum and the PSHE Association, was ostensibly
prepared to equip teachers to help protect children and young people from
inappropriate online content, and from online bullying, harassment and
exploitation. However, it represents the perspective of organisations
advocating a highly controversial approach to sex education and does
not provide a safe and reliable guide for schools to follow.
4.16 The
‘supplementary advice’ refers to treating sex as ‘a normal and pleasurable
fact of life’, but it has nothing to say about the moral and family
context in which sex is to be enjoyed. There is not even a reference to the
need for fidelity and exclusivity. It is therefore not a suitable tool to
be used in an effort to reduce levels of sexual harassment and sexual
violence in schools.
4.17 The
Brook Traffic Light Tool is listed as a ‘useful resource’ in the
‘supplementary advice’. Described as a ‘safeguarding tool’, it states
that sex involving 13-17 year-olds should be viewed in a favourable light,
provided it is consensual and ‘between children or young people of similar
age or developmental ability’. The green light is accordingly given to:
consenting oral and/or penetrative sex with others of
the same or opposite gender who are of similar age and developmental ability.[8]
Such behaviour is deemed ‘reflective
of natural curiosity, experimentation, consensual activities and positive
choices’. Brook adds: ‘Green behaviours provide opportunities to give positive
feedback and additional information.’
4.18 However,
given the findings of the serious case reviews referred to
above, it is irresponsible, dangerous and an abdication of adult responsibility
for teachers, health professionals and others to treat sexual activity among
13-15 year-olds as healthy, safe and normal, and to offer ‘positive
feedback’. If we are serious about protecting young people from
sexual harassment, violence, exploitation and abuse, SRE lessons must
uphold the age of consent law and not undermine it by promoting contraception
to underage young people or by condoning or encouraging underage sex in any
other way.
4.19 The
Department for Education and the Department of Health should ensure that any
advice and guidance they provide in relation to adolescent sex places a strong
emphasis on the age of consent and in no way communicates the message that sex
under 16 is a legitimate choice for young teenagers to make.
4.20 In the light of recent serious case reviews, the Department for Education and the Department of Health should review the impact of sex education programmes and ‘safeguarding tools’ such as the Brook Traffic Light tool upon professional attitudes towards underage sexual activity and child protection interventions.
What schools can do to support students to deal better with the online elements of this problem
5. What
can schools do better to support their students to deal with sexual harassment
and sexual violence online?
5.1 Schools
should ensure that filters are in place on all computers in order to prevent
the exposure of pupils to sexual harassment and sexual violence online
while they are on school premises. However, the role of schools is limited,
since many use iPhones and/or have access to the internet at home and at other
locations outside the school environment.
5.2 The role of parents is therefore key in monitoring their children’s use of the internet and social media. Schools should therefore take care that they involve and engage parents in the development of policies and strategies aimed at reducing levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence.
6. What
impact is pornography having on levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence
in schools?
6.1 Pornography
encourages the viewer to view and, by extension, to treat people as
though they were objects. A major study of the effects of
pornography on adults and children found that:
Two-thirds of the males and 40 per cent of the females
reported wanting to try out some of the sexual behaviours they had witnessed…
And, among high school students, 31 per cent of the males and 18 per cent of
the females admitted actually doing some of the things sexually they had seen
in the pornography within a few days after exposure.[9]
6.2 Studies of the effects of pornography from outside the English speaking world show similar results. A study of Dutch teenagers found frequent exposure to internet pornography led to a greater desire to engage in casual sexual experimentation.[10] A study of Italian teenagers found a significant correlation between pornography use and sexual violence. Girls who watched pornography were more likely to be victims of sexual harassment or assault, while boys who watched it were more likely to be perpetrators.[11]
7. What
can be done by schools and other stakeholders to tackle the impact of
pornography?
7.1 In
view of the harmful effects of pornography, it would be irresponsible
to present pornography as a topic for class discussion, devoid
of any moral framework or direction. For some pupils it would run the very
real danger of arousing a curiosity to searchout more pornography for
themselves, and for others it might very well introduce the idea for the first
time.[12]
7.2 Schools
should therefore be discouraged from following the advice of the Sex Education
Forum, which suggests that pornography is not ‘all bad’ and that
young people need help in ‘interpreting’ it.[13] The ‘supplementary advice’
produced by the Sex Education Forum, the PSHE Association and Brook, referred
to above, similarly takes a non-judgmental and non-directional
view and does not provide a safe guide.
7.3 By way of contrast, the Lovewise resource Pornography: dangers and decisions aimed at pupils in Years 9-11 is marked by modesty and restraint. It clearly explains the dangers of pornography, offers practical advice on how to avoid it, and urges young people to seek help if it has already become a problem to them. Pupils are encouraged to think carefully about what they watch and read, to turn on ‘safe search’, to use a filter, to avoid using the internet alone and to be careful about what others show them. While care will always need to be taken in subjecting a sensitive issue such as pornography to classroom discussion, used with discretion by a wise teacher, this resource offers a valuable guide.[14]
May 2016
[1] David Paton, ‘Underage
conceptions and abortions in England and Wales 1969-2009:
the role of public policy’, Education and Health, 2012, Vol.
30 No. 2.
[2] Review of Sex and Relationship
Education (SRE) in Schools: A report by the External
Steering
Group, October 2008, para 22. See also T Stammers, ‘Sexual health in
adolescents: “Saved sex” and parental involvement are key to improving
outcomes’, BMJ, 2007, 334:103-4.
[3] M Henderson, ‘Impact of a
theoretically based sex education programme (SHARE) delivered by teachers on
NHS registered conceptions and terminations: final results of cluster
randomised trial’, BMJ, 2007, 334:133.
[4] Edinburgh Napier University press
release, 14 September 2010.
[5] Lisa Bullivant, Family
Education Trust Bulletin, Issue 140, Summer 2010.
[6] Education Act 1996, s9.
[7] European Convention on Human Rights,
First Protocol, Article 2.
[8] Brook, Sexual Behaviours Traffic
Light Tool, ‘Behaviours: age 13 to 17’, http://www.brook.org.uk/old/index.php/component/brookprint/?view=printready&task=display&id=482&format=brookprint
[9] Bryant Jennings, ‘Frequency of
Exposure, Age of Initial Exposure and Reactions to Initial Exposure to
Pornography’,
cited by Victor B. Cline, Pornography’s Effects on Adults and
Children. http://stop.org.za/Victor%20Cline's%20Study.pdf
[10] Jochen Peter and Patti
M. Valkenburg, ‘Adolescents Exposure to Sexually Explicit Material on the
Internet’, Communication Research, Volume 33 Number 2
April 2006
178-204, http://users.ugent.be/~wbeyers/scripties2011/artikels/PeterCR2006.pdf
[11] Silvio Bonino et al, ‘Use of
pornography and self-reported engagement in sexual violence among
adolescents’, European Journal Of Developmental Psychology 2006,
00(0), 1 – 24
[12] See Norman Wells, ‘Sex education: is
“Planet porn” really appropriate?’ Daily Telegraph, 11 March
2014. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10689770/Sex-education-is-Planet-Porn-really-appropriate.html
[13] Sex Education Forum, Sex
Educational Supplement, Issue 1, April 2013.
[14] Available
from Lovewise - http://lovewise.org.uk/
© 2006-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
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