These British students are trying to ban school uniforms in sex shops, pornography
CBC
It was Friday lunchtime at a high school in Sandbach, England, and the conversation among a group of students was bleak: teenage girls talking about their experiences of being sexually harassed on their way to school.
"I remember we were on a public bus. And the bus driver told us it was OK to take our tights off if we wanted to. He said he preferred it when we wore the old uniform at school and our skirts were shorter. I was 11," said Alice, now a Grade 11 student.
"When I was walking home once in my school uniform, I had a man in his thirties get close to me and say that he was going to rape me as he walked past. It was just horrific," said Hannah, also in Grade 11.
Hannah and Alice — whose names have been changed and ages left out at the request of their school — are part of the feminism group at Sandbach High School, located south of Manchester.
The group is petitioning the U.K. government to ban school uniforms from being sold in costume and sex shops and worn in pornography.
"When we were walking to and from school, on public transport, and we were in our school uniforms, we'd been catcalled, sexually harassed, honked at," said Alice. "And we kind of wondered why, and why people feel so entitled to, like, sexually harass schoolchildren and make us feel so uncomfortable."
The group's petition has now gained more than 13,400 signatures, meaning it has surpassed the requirement to receive a government response. But amid the chaos of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's resignation and a total reshuffle of the Conservative Party, no response has come within the usual 14 days.
They have also written to members of Parliament, but so far have only received the public support of the school's local councillor, James Barber.
The feminism group was set up by teacher Sarah Maile in 2012. Each year, Maile encourages her students to select a women's rights issue to focus on, ranging from human trafficking to female genital mutilation. But this year the group's focus is particularly close to home.
"I've experienced people coming over to me and asking me explicit questions about virginity, and when I've said, 'No,' they've called me a bitch," said Emma, a Grade 9 student at Sandbach.
A 2018 online survey of by campaign group Plan International U.K. of more than 1,000 14- to 21-year-old girls and women suggested that more than one-third of girls have been sexually harassed in public while wearing school uniform.
The vast majority of schools in the United Kingdom require students to wear a uniform up to age 16.
As an older student, Hannah no longer wears a uniform and says she has seen a "decrease in harassment" since she started wearing her own clothes to school.
Hannah's experience is echoed in research by Plan International U.K. that found "girls felt that being in school uniform made them a particular target."
