We best believe that the enforcement of compulsory education programmes against the issues of sexual assault is necessary in order to create a change in the high rates of Sexual Assault. These educational resources would be targeted at both girls and boys starting from the beginning of high school and following through yearly. We believe that Sexual assault education should be compulsory in all New Zealand secondary schools. This is due to the fact that the education that young people experience during their early years of schooling plays a large role in the shaping of life values. The lack of education on sexual assault is not allowing the young New Zealanders to develop into knowledgeable adults that are able to make decisions that will not negatively affect others. If education was to improve and potential perpetrators are given thorough education, this would hopefully reduce alarming statistics around sexual assault. Improved sex ed would also help young people to form healthy and safe sexual relationships and recognise unhealthy ones.
From our research into the current sexual assault education, we have discovered that less than 15% of schools in New Zealand were using the Government-funded programme for sexual assault, as of May 2021.
(https://www.1news.co.nz/2021/05/07/less-than-15-per-cent-of-schools-using-government-funded-programme-on-sexual-education/).
There are some programs already existing, such as ‘Mates and Dates’, which aims to It aims to reduce sexual and dating violence, similar to what we are trying to achieve. We believe that programmes like this are extremely effective, and they should be funded to be readily available for all secondary schools in the country that wish to use the services they provide.
We believe that sexual assault education should be compulsory for every year of college, beginning in year 9 and repeating every year until year 13. This is because the more the content is repeated, the better the content will be remembered, and it will become very familiar to all of the students. We act to do this as we do not want the education on sexual assault to be forgotten as it is an extremely important issue, especially in New Zealand.
The reason that we believe this education is necessary for young adults to learn in school as research shows that sexual abuse towards young people is most likely to be perpetrated by a family member. This would indicate that the government cannot rely on family members to teach this kind of information, when they themselves may be the perpetrators. it also may be an uncomfortable topic for family members to discuss, meaning that many young adults would not be educated about the topic. Due to this, to ensure all young adults are becoming educated about sexual assault, compulsory education in schools is necessary.
The education that we would be focusing on includes; consent, awareness, short and long term effects of sexual assault, signs of sexual assault, ways to help and support a person during or after being sexually assaulted, reporting sexual assault and more.
An article that I found from July 11th 2018, ‘Teen charged with series of rapes, sex offending against girls - more charges likely’ provided insight into the fact that rape is still very prominent within New Zealand secondary schools. It describes how it can be very hard for victims to come forward and share their stories once put through this trauma. Whilst little information is able to be released, this article focuses on the fact that the perpetrator, a 17 year old male high school student, is facing three charges of raping three different young girls aged under 16, with at least two more other violations to young girls that are yet to be charged. Through this article, we can see that sexual assault is a huge problem, even in secondary schools, and education is required in schools in order to allow people to become aware of the topic and to allow victims are made aware of the options available to them. (https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/exclusive-teen-charged-with-series-of-rapes-sex-offending-against-girls-more-charges-likely/I22YARF3DKD47XSNWE2YZG62ZE/)
We are proposing that the New Zealand Ministry of Education create a compulsory sexual assault course that provides real knowledge on the purpose of sexual consent, the consequences, and the right sources of who to go to.
We also need to ensure that students are made aware of all the options and outlets they have available to them if they are affected by sexual assault.
As a part of taking action in changing our policy we have decided to create a petition. Our aim is to gain a total of 100 signatures towards our movement. We will be sending our completed petition to local MP's within the Howick/Botany region so we can gain a political perspective and hopeful gain some campaign feedback on our work.
If you would like to support the link to our petition can be found below.
Remember every signature counts!