‘Adopt whistleblower policy to check sexual harassment in schools’

A non-governmental organisation, Women and Child Watch Initiative, has called on school administrators across the country to adopt the whistleblower policy in their various institutions as part of the measures to curb the rising menace of sexual harassment in schools.
The WCWI Chairperson, Dr. Abiola Adimula, told our correspondent in Lagos that sexual harassment posed a serious problem to students at all levels.
Adimula said that it interfered with student’s ability to participate effectively in their schools’ educational programmes.
She said, “Sexual harassment is a serious problem for students at all educational levels, be it elementary, secondary, as well as vocational schools, apprenticeship programmes, colleges and universities. It is a gender-based discrimination, victimisation or deprivation that is sufficiently serious as it interferes with or limits students’ ability to participate in or benefit from the institution’s educational programmes.
“It presents itself in power based differentials, which can lead to the creation of a hostile environment that breeds victimisation. Sexual harassment may come in different forms. It can be of a student by another student, it can be of a staff member by a student, and sexual harassment of a student by a staff member. It can happen to girls and boys.
“Sexual harassers can also be fellow students, teachers, principals, janitors, coaches and other school officials. It can be requests for sexual favours or unwelcome sexual behaviour that is bad enough or happens often enough to make a student feel uncomfortable, scared or confused and that interferes with his or her schoolwork or ability to participate in extracurricular activities or attend classes.”
Adimula, therefore, noted that the responsibility for having an appropriate learning environment that could check sexual harassment primarily lay at the doorsteps of school administrators, by making the elimination of sexual harassment a top priority. This, she said, could be achieved by empowering teachers to take a stand against inappropriate name-calling and sexual comments.
She said, “Often times, it is also necessary for school owners to educate students to know the difference between friendly teasing and bullying, between flirting and harassment. Also, speaking out and taking punitive action against perpetrators should be encouraged.
“That is why we advocate that the culture of silence should be discouraged. School administrators should, as a matter of necessity, set up independent panels to which victims of sexual harassment may report incidence of such harassment, establish whistle-blower policies that should involve protection of the victim, who comes forward to expose incidents of harassment. It is necessary to state that ignoring the situation can often lead to a cycle of ongoing harassment and victimisation.
“Also, students must learn to be assertive and establish strong personal boundaries. Parental involvement is very crucial to long-term behaviour modification through counseling. Our students should be discouraged from approaching teachers or lecturers to solicit grades before or after tests or examinations. The reality of such a situation, where a student drops in on a lecturer to solicit grades, is that it invites such harassment.“