KEY POINTS:
"I'm a Westie chick, have been most of my life," Kylie Tippett shouts above the din of class 10/7 at Selwyn College as she launches into a rape education session.
"I have five brothers and sisters. Who can beat that?" she asks, trying to capture the attention of
nine girls and 17 boys aged around 14. One hand goes up, someone with a larger family.
Then a quick recap on the previous week. "How many girls are raped or sexually abused?"
"One in three." They remembered the answer.
"How many boys?" "One in six."
It degenerates from there. Tippett and Mexican colleague Sara Ugalde from Rape Prevention Education (formerly Rape Crisis Auckland) deliberately keep the tone light and humorous, distributing balloons which the students are asked to blow up and use to write down "an emotion that someone might feel if they are sexually violated".
Then they have to think up "the number one thing women do" in response, and "some positive things they do". And not just women - rugby player Norm Hewitt's passion for sport is mentioned to explain how he coped with having been sexually abused years earlier.
It's a long way from the work with old people that was Kylie Tippett's first job after graduating with a social work degree from Massey. But surprisingly, one job grew out of the other.
"I saw the effect on older people where they had mental health effects as a result of sexual abuse years earlier, so I gained an interest from there," she says.
"I wanted to get involved in prevention education instead of frontline bottom-of-the-cliff work."
A study found that 20 per cent of New Zealand women experienced unwanted genital contact before the age of 16, including 13 per cent before the age of 12.
For girls, 35 per cent of those cases are incest, usually with a father, brother, uncle or grandfather. Only 7 per cent of offenders are total strangers.
"Before, I was living in a nice little world where I didn't realise it happened as much as it does," Ms Tippett says.
"This changes your way of thinking about sexual violence. It breaks down those myths like, 'She shouldn't have gone home with him', 'She shouldn't have worn what she wore', 'If you're going to be that drunk and do that, you deserve it'."
She says sexual offenders simply take advantage of opportunities, such as drunk women getting into their taxis.
Her "BodySafe" programme ran in 17 high schools last year and will go to 30 schools this year. It comprises three one-hour classes, usually run in successive weeks.
The emphasis is on protecting yourself and others, and where to go for help if a friend discloses that she or he has been sexually abused.
There is also discussion about the meaning of consent which, Ms Tippett teaches, does not mean agreeing to sex when you are drunk or on drugs, or asleep or unconscious, or feel under threat or force.
The programme gives some students the courage to speak up.
"The school counsellors report an increase in disclosures after we've been there," says Ms Tippett, who also has students disclose incidents to her as she is preparing to leave.
The programme gets Ministry of Health funding and was sponsored to the tune of $40,000 last year by cosmetics company Elizabeth Arden.
Where the money comes from
BodySafe sponsor Elizabeth Arden was introduced to Rape Prevention Education by the Robin Hood Foundation, an Auckland-based charity that brokers "partnerships" between companies and non-profit organisations.
Robin Hood lined up the whole Elizabeth Arden management with two potential partners, the YWCA and the one they chose, BodySafe.
Elizabeth Arden NZ manager Valerie Riley says: "It's not only girls, it's even boys. All the team at the office felt that would be a good one to go for."
