KUALA LUMPUR – The Save The Schools MY movement has recorded a total of 1,145 incidences of sexual harassment, period spot checks, bullying, and other forms of abuse in schools, in a survey recently.
In a report jointly released with All Women’s Action Society (Awam) today, the movement said this was based on 770 individual testimonies by former and current students.
It said 204 (26.5%) of the overall testimonies involved multiple incidents.
Of the 1,145 instances reported in the survey, 946 (82.6%) involved abuse survivors, while 199 (17.4%) were by others such as friends and witnesses of victims.
The survey found that 84.9% of all incidents that took place in Malaysia occurred in the peninsular states.
On the impact of abuse, one of the anonymous survivors said: “I never told anyone about this.
“But I couldn’t touch my family members without remembering him. I remember feeling nauseous when I accidentally touched my father’s hand. I avoided my mother’s hugs.”
“After that, I never looked at his (perpetrator’s) face again, even in class. I disassociated myself many times in his class. I panicked when I saw glimpses of his smile.”
The Save The Schools MY movement and the report with Awam comes in wake of the viral incident, in which teenager Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam spoke out about an incident where her teacher allegedly made rape jokes in class.
The report found that more than one-third (38.8%) of all incidents involved multiple survivors, while 22.1% of the incidents were perpetrated by multiple perpetrators or groups. A total of 1,051 of the overall incidents (98.1%) involved female victims.
The report also said 1,165 perpetrators had violated 1,037 survivors, of which 542 (52.7%) are no longer minors, while 199 (19.2%) are still underage. The remaining 292 (28.2%) did not provide information on their age group.
Save The Schools MY movement and Awam also found that 1,495 violations had occurred out of the 1,145 incidents of abuse reported. It said 279 (24%) of all incidents involved multiple violations.
The majority of these violations (1,046) involved sexual harassment, 299 were linked to bullying, 74 involved period spot checks and 76 were other violations.
Across all 1,145 incidents, 274 of them (23.9%) led to survivors experiencing negative psychosocial consequences, affecting their mental health, livelihood, school lives, and relationships, the report said.
It said among these 274 incidents, 85 of them (31%) involved multiple psychosocial consequences.
“Among those that frequently emerged were those of the survivor being traumatised, feeling unsafe, and being distrustful of males.”
The report said there were 17 cases of mental health conditions, with anxiety and depression making up 75% of these cases.
On academic performance, the survey found that 12 victims had skipped or no longer attended school events, six dropped out of school altogether, and five said their academic performance declined.
On the location of incidences, 488 took place in secondary schools, with another 10 involving religious schools, and an additional five occurring in boarding schools.
A total of 240 other incidents happened in primary schools, while another 20 took place in primary boarding schools.
Overall, 89.2% of all violations occurred in primary and secondary institutions.
On the perpetrators of sexual harassment, 472 were identified as peers and 320 are teachers.
The report also noted that 851 (81.4%) sexual harassment violations were not disclosed or reported to anyone. – The Vibes, November 30, 2021
