"It's like the school trusts the media more than its community," a student's mother said.
An Avonside Girls’ High School parent has spoken out against the recent release of the school’s sexual harassment survey, condemning the timing of the survey and how families were left in the dark.
The survey was carried out jointly by Avonside Girls’ High School and Shirley Boys’ High School, which share the same New Brighton premises in Christchurch.
Its results revealed thousands of instances of sexual harassment between both schools, including a glaring 21 cases of rape or near-rape at Avonside Girls’ and 25 cases at the all-girls school where consent was withheld.
It’s a conversation the parent, who NZ Herald has agreed not to name, believes needs to happen - yet the report “removed the ability for family and whanau to have those conversations at home first”.
The parent said the school notified them of their intention to carry out the survey at the start of the year, they were sent an email on Tuesday informing them the results would be released the next day.
The survey report landed in the hands of parents shortly after 9am on Wednesday, over 24 hours after media had already been given a copy of the results under embargo - an approach the parent disagreed with.
“The media had the results, albeit it under embargo before parents were told. That’s appalling,” they said.
“It’s like the school trusts the media more than its own communities, they handed information about our own kids’ trauma to media before giving it to us.”
The parent said by the time school families had a copy of the report, most of them were likely to have already dropped their kids off and started the work day.
“The first time I’ll get the opportunity to speak about the context of the story with my daughter will be tonight, after school is finished,” said the parent, before adding most students have phones and were likely to have already discussed the results with each other first.
It was also noted the school results came at the end of the school year, with end-of-year exams right around the corner. This contrasted with the Christchurch Girls’ High School release date, which came in the middle of 2021.
“[Students have] already had a disrupted year with Covid outbreaks, to now add this level of stress on top is basically ignoring any potential to protect student wellbeing,” the parent said.
“They talk in the survey about mitigating a health and safety risk, but they’ve actually created one in the way they’ve handled it.”
When asked whether Avonside Girls’ High School backed the timing of the survey’s release, principal Catherine Law responded with a resounding “absolutely”.
“We’ve worked really hard since January or February this year to have a well-scaffolded communication response plan.”
Law said the school carefully observed the timing and processes used by Christchurch Girls’ High School in the approach they took to their survey, to work out “the best process”.
“We let parents know last night [Tuesday] to talk to kids today, the most important thing is we did talk to kids about it. What I hope is, as many parents have already said to me, they already had conversations with their kids. I hope they continue to do that.”
Tim Grocott, principal of Shirley Boys’ High School, said the approach to releasing the survey is “a tricky one”, given media would have copies of the results as soon as the community have access.
“The timing around the matter is difficult to manage,” he said.
Shirley Boys’ students were made aware on Friday the results would arrive the following Wednesday, according to Grocott, However he apologised to parents who felt they hadn’t been given the chance to raise it with their kids.
“The timing will always be difficult, but the information we’ve gleaned from the survey - the ability for us to address the issues raised, they outweigh the timing issue people raised.”
More than 3000 instances of sexual harassment were reported at the two neighbouring Christchurch High Schools in the first two terms of 2022 alone.
The most common form of harassment at Avonside Girls’ was name-calling and verbal assaults, others claimed they were also subject to “creepy requests” and shown photos of genitals without permission.
A number of students cited the boys’ school generally, or particular parts of it are “to be avoided at all times” - particularly the sports areas.
Shirley Boys’ students reported 559 instances of sexual harassment in the first two terms, the worst they’d experienced was sex without consent and “fingering” - which involved inserting a finger in the anus.
“It allows students to see the extent of the issue and an opportunity to address it in a positive way,” said head boy, Kururangi Wetini.
• If it’s an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
• If you’ve ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone call the confidential crisis helpline Safe to Talk on: 0800 044 334 or text 4334.
• Alternatively contact your local police station.
• If you have been abused, remember it’s not your fault.