Teenagers are being told to call out their peers after a survey at a Christchurch school revealed high rates of sexual harassment.
Student leaders from over 60 schools in the city want young men to stop cat-calling and so-called locker-room talk, and have agreed to encourage a change in behaviour.
Christchurch Boys High School head boy Henry Allott said they’ve been promoting a message of “five seconds of courage”.
“What that means is if boys see someone doing something or saying something that they know isn’t ok, they build the courage and call them out,” said Allott.
A survey of 700 Christchurch Girls High students alleged 60 per cent had been sexually harassed, and 20 students had been raped.
Head Girl Amiria Tikao said she was pleased head boys were supporting change across the city.
“It’s totally needed, we’ve got all the students united behind this,” said Tikao.
Riccarton High School head boy Silas Zhang said male student senior leaders need to be encouraged to speak out.
He said it was important to shut down “things like locker-room talk, sexist and misogynistic jokes, slut shaming, the non-consensual photos which are procurator to sexual assault”.
The Government has promised to carry out a national survey into abuse, and recently made sexual consent education compulsory.
Christchurch Boys High School headmaster Nic Hill said students’ use of the ACC Mates and Dates programme, and outside facilitators are being brought in to assist with learning.
But he told 1 NEWS that “this is not about a curriculum or a work shift”, rather “this is about good people getting alongside good kids” to help them make grow to good judgements.
Christchurch Girls High School principal Christine O’Neill agreed that the curriculum was “really important” but that the “most powerful influence on young people is what they model to each other and what the adults model to them”.
Allott is hoping the initiative will spread across New Zealand.
“Call the issue out early we stop the issue extending to something far more serious. I think if we all start doing that we will see a great shift towards improving the situation.”
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