British teachers feel helpless when faced with sexual harassment among students

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Crime scene school: Around a third of the teachers have already witnessed sexual assault (symbol image)

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After numerous reports of sexual violence in UK schools, many teachers acknowledge that they know about the problem - but feel helpless and unsure how to deal with it.

This is the result of a survey of more than 1,500 teachers on behalf of the BBC and the British teachers' union NASUWT.

Accordingly, more than half of the respondents said that the processes provided so far for dealing with abuse are not sufficient, as the broadcaster reports.

Further results:

• Almost a third of the teachers say they have witnessed attacks among schoolchildren themselves.

• One in ten teachers even perceives harassment on a weekly basis.

In Great Britain there has been heated controversy over the past few months about a so-called "rape culture" in schools and universities.

This means that a society normalizes certain behavior such as sexual harassment, derogatory sexist comments or groping.

All of this paves the way for serious crimes such as sexual abuse or rape, as activist Soma Sara recently criticized in SPIEGEL.

more on the subject

• UK Students Advocate Test: Understand What Consensual Sex Means?

• British debate on “Rape Culture”: “From the age of 14 or 15 sexual harassment is part of everyday life in London” An interview by Julia Smirnova

• "Locker room talk": What men tell each other in the locker room by Lou Zucker and Leonard Grütte

Sara started the Everyone's Invited initiative.

The website collects thousands of reports from school pupils and students who have been molested or raped in their schools or universities.

The child protection organization NSPCC now also has a hotline that victims can contact.

Hundreds of calls were received there within a few weeks.

Fok / dpa