A teacher told Kay to go and have a wash after she was sexually assaulted
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Kay was sexually abused by a stranger when she was on a school trip.
She was very let down by the response from school staff after she reported what had happened.
When Kay was 12 years old, she went on a trip with about 30 other pupils and five or six teachers. In the evening, the group were in a large crowd at a venue, watching a display.
She was standing on a bench so she could see better, and a man she didn’t know sexually assaulted her.
Afterwards, Kay burst into tears and her friend told a teacher she was upset. Kay then told the teacher what had happened to her. She says ‘She looked at me and said “Go to the bathroom and wash yourself”’.
Kay went alone to the toilets. She was very distressed and remembers a woman in there comforting her. ‘She was more kind and considerate than the teacher’ she says.
None of the teachers suggested that Kay should report the assault to the management of the venue.
When the group arrived back at school, Kay says she was told to stay on the coach alone, while staff told her parents outside the school gates that ‘something had happened’.
Later at home, Kay’s mum told her that one of the senior teachers had said to her ‘This isn't the first time something like this has happened and it won't be the last’.
Kay’s parents asked her what she wanted to do, and she said she wanted to tell the police. But by the time they contacted the police, the footage from a nearby CCTV camera had been destroyed, and they were told nothing could be done.
After this, Kay was too upset to leave her home for several weeks, until the end of the holidays when she had to go back to school. She developed anxiety about going to school. No member of staff spoke to her again about the incident.
Kay’s mum made a complaint to the headteacher and tried to get support for Kay, but he was not helpful. The matter went to the school governors and the head accused Kay of telling lies.
After this, Kay felt she was targeted by the headteacher. She says there were occasions when it felt to her ‘he wanted to catch me out’ over minor transgressions. He unexpectedly took early retirement. Later, Kay received an apology from the new head for the way she had been treated.
Over the next couple of years, Kay developed an eating disorder, she began binge drinking, and took an overdose. She had some sessions with children’s mental health services but these ended abruptly.
She was admitted to hospital with an alcohol-related illness. She told a health professional how she was feeling but she was not offered any more support. ‘I felt I couldn’t trust anyone to give me the help I needed’ she says.
Kay feels if there had been better supervision of the children by the teachers this might have prevented the assault on her. She also thinks the police should have been contacted by the school staff.
She would like to see good support for children and young people when they experience sexual abuse. She says ‘I can’t comprehend how the teachers responded … I wouldn’t want anyone to get the response I had’.
Kay went on to achieve highly in academic studies, and she is aiming for a professional career.