A LOCAL teacher has described herself as an “accidental activist” as she is part responsible for making sure that upskirting is illegal in the North.
Sally Rees was left horrified when one of her students upskirted her in class and was then forced to continue teaching them.
Speaking at her unions Equalities Conference, Sally recalled the awful incident.
“A pupil upskirted me in my school, he wasn’t expelled and not just he wasn’t expelled, they expected me to teach him, when we decided that was unreasonable the union came in and supported me,” Sally explained.
“The school still did not expel the pupil and he was in that environment with me for 18 months and not only that but they decided to make him a prefect and a prefect of film at that.”
Sally praised her union, The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) for their support and guidance at the time.
“The union was there every step of the way and we had a long protracted legal battle with school and through the court case, through the system, and the judiciary in Northern Ireland because upskirting wasn’t against the law,” she said.
“Through that what we did was the pupil ended up being convicted of outraging public decency. the Labour Relations Agency (LRA) found in our favour that the school were at fault and that they damaged our mental health and wellbeing by continuing to have that pupil in our environment.
“Also it resulted in a personal injury settlement and we don’t actually often talk just enough about what the union do and what they are prepared to do for you.”
Ms Rees also spoke about campaigning and managing to introduce law changes.
“The final thing we achieved was we campaigned and we lobbied, we managed to introduce law changes in Northern Ireland, that bill came into force in November 23 and that meant that we have the most robust law against upskirting because we were able to use the evidence from our case, we lobbied the politicians and we ensured justice for girls and women moving forward to make this a criminal offence,” Sally added.
NASUWT said that many teachers tell us that they experience harassment and abuse in their classrooms.
“In a survey conducted last summer, 18% of teachers told us they had experienced misogyny from a pupil. If you need help to deal with behaviour issues in your classroom, NASUWT will be able to offer a whole suite of support,” a spokesperson for NASUWT said.
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