Teachers in Britain have faced sexual groping, touching and leering from school children, with one teacher even being subjected to a threat of rape by a child, according to disturbing figures.
A total of 305 incidents are included in the figures, with one involving an eight-year-old boy who licked a teacher’s leg and touched her breast.
In another case a six-year-old child made sexual remarks to a 49-year-old teacher in the West Midlands.
Sexual
A 16-year-old boy told his class in Scotland that he was going to rape his teacher, in another incident disclosed in the information.
And a case of a girl who displayed her underwear to a male teacher and proceeded to “massage herself in a sexual manner” is also included.
The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, include data on primary and secondary school aged children.
Hundreds of staff say they have been propositioned or touched inappropriately, according to the information, and a newspaper reports that some of the instances passed unpunished.
Problem
Only 45 local authorities, out of over 200 authorities that have educational responsibilities, kept records of such incidents.
Earlier this week two feminist authors warned that even primary school children are being affected by Britain’s hypersexualised society, and it is a problem that is not being tackled.
And earlier this month top music producer Mike Stock criticised the music industry over provocative pop videos which resemble soft pornography.
Desired
He said such videos were sexualising young children, and that the industry had “gone too far”.
In February a Home Office report was released which said children are being harmed by exposure to sexual and violent images in the media.
Psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos, who wrote the report, has commented: “We are hypersexualising girls, telling them that their desirability relies on being desired. They want to please at any cost.
“And we are hypermasculinising boys — many feel that they can’t live up to the porn ideal, sleeping with lots of women.”
Value
“Unless sexualisation is accepted as harmful”, Dr Papadopoulos wrote in the report, “we will miss an important opportunity here: an opportunity to broaden young people’s beliefs about where their value lies”.
Over the past year there have been multiple stories of stores selling products which could sexualise young children.
In June it emerged that Asda, Tesco, Next and Gap Kids were selling high heels for girls.
Outcry
In May it was revealed a padded bra aimed at seven-year-olds was on sale at Sports Direct.
And in April padded bikinis for young girls on sale in Primark were dropped by the chain following an outcry.