These students want you to know sexual assault happens in high school too, and it needs to stop

A student-led Canadian network called High School Too has launched a nationwide campaign to end sexual violence in secondary schools, an issue two of its organizers say isn't being adequately addressed.

Jenna Meier and Bronte Ibbotson, 17-year-old high school students from Niagara, Ont., told CTV's Your Morning the organization wants to see more consent education and resources implemented in schools to combat sexual violence.

"High School Too wants to create a safe space for students to go to, to be able to heal properly and feel heard, and schools don't always do that," Meier said in an interview on Wednesday. "So I think it's really important that we touch on consent even younger in age, because we're really only learning it a little bit in high school and that's it."

According to the Canadian Women's Foundation, 30 per cent of all women age 15 or older report experiencing sexual assault at least once, and only one in three people in Canada understand what it means to give consent to sexual activity.

Additionally, a 2021 study from the University of Calgary found that one in three youth in Grades 9 and 10 had experienced adolescent dating violence.

Data from Statistics Canada, published in 2017, reported that there were 636,000 self-reported incidents of sexual assault in 2014 in Canada. Of those self-reported sexual assaults, 47 per cent were committed against young women and girls between the ages of 15 and 24.

Ibbotson says sexual harassment is common in schools for students as young as 13.

"I remember my friends, other kids… in Grade 7 getting sent or sending unsolicited text messages and we really don't realize the severity and the prevalence of this issue," she said.

Ibbotson said incidents like these can lead to traumatizing events in the future, such as sexual assault and rape.

"I just want to make it clear that these issues are a high school issue and we need to start educating our students from a young age," she said.

Earlier this month, High School Too, which was inspired by the #MeToo movement, presented ten recommended actions school boards and all levels of government could take, including implementing stand-alone sexual violence and sexual harassment policies, ending dress code policies, and offering ongoing training for staff, parents and students.

High School Too also wants to see a student-led consent committee created at every school board, mandate each school collaborates with local gender-based violence organizations, implement long-term trauma-informed healing centres for survivors and establish a National Consent Awareness Week.

However, Ibbotson said their school board has already turned down some of the organization's ideas, including a National Consent Awareness Week, but hopes levels of government will notice the importance of taking such actions.

"I have tried to address the situation [of sexual harassment] a couple of times within my own school board and… I think they're a little bit hesitant when approaching this issue just because I know it has the triggering aspect of the circumstances," Ibbotson said.

"So this is why it's so important that we now have to go to the government if the school boards can't take action themselves," she added.

Despite resistance from some school boards, Meier says the response to High School Too from students has been fairly positive.

"A lot of students are really thankful that we're taking initiative," she said. "I think a lot of students really appreciate the hard work that it takes to try to implement these changes and try and educate others and push for consent education."

By learning about consent at an earlier age, Ibbotson said students not only learn how to prevent sexual harassment and violence, but gain an understanding of what resources and support are available if it happens to them.

She said consent education can even begin in preschool with teaching kids how to understand and respect the personal space of others.

"We need to learn how to respect each other's boundaries, respecting each other's bodies, even in Pre-K," Ibbotson said. "We don't have to introduce young students… to obviously huge subjects like rape culture, but just telling them, 'Don't run around trying to touch people or hug other kids if they're uncomfortable'."

To help end sexual violence in secondary schools, Ibbotson said it is necessary youth are taught that sexual harassment takes many forms and happens both inside and outside of the school so they are able to recognize it.

"That's why it's so important to learn it from a young age because then hopefully we can prevent situations that stem from ignorance kind of happening in the future in high school and then in university," she said.

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Are you a survivor of sexual assault seeking support? The Canadian Women’s Foundation has a list of National and provincial resources for those in need of help that can be found here.