How Safe is the Classroom for Teachers? The Hidden Reality of Sexual Harassment in Education

Georgia Theodoulou

CW: discusses experiences of misogyny and sexual harassment

It’s still wild to me that in 2026, teachers going through initial teacher training are not taught how to deal with inappropriate behaviour or how to create a safe and inclusive classroom culture. Any conversations or training that may be offered throughout your training or early career will usually only focus on what to do when sexual harassment or misogyny is targeted at students. When I was training and working as secondary school teacher, there wasn’t a single conversation about what to do when the sexual harassment happens to you from one of your students. Recent research from the NASUWT teachers union says that 1 in 5 female teachers have experienced sexist, racist or homophobic language from pupils in the last year. I’ve experienced it, my friends and colleagues have experienced it and I would hedge my bets that the reality is actually a lot higher than 1 in 5. 

My experience as a teacher
I was 25 when I was first sexually harassed by a student. Don’t get me wrong, I’d been sexually harassed by men plenty of times before then; by strangers on the street, on the train, even an ex-colleague who would repeatedly slap my bum in the office and at one point, took a photo of me from behind, up a ladder in work without me knowing and sent it in the work group chat with the comment “what a view”. 

But there was something that felt inherently different when it came from a Year 9 boy. Two of them, actually. Entirely separate situations. 

The first time, a boy had made an erect penis out of paper, walked to my desk at the front of the class, ‘masturbated’ it in front of me and then threw tiny bits of cut up paper all over me, as the grand ‘climax’. Quite literally. 

In that same fortnight, another boy in another class asked me if I knew what a certain sex position was and if I’d never tried it, he’d happily “help me out”. 

What happened next?
I’ll be totally honest, in both those moments, I didn’t go straight to report them. I felt humiliated, incredibly vulnerable and frankly, quite sick. I was an NQT (newly qualified teacher) in a school I hadn’t been at for very long. I went home and I told my Mum, who, equally horrified, told me I really needed to report it. So the next day, I went to the Head of Year and told him what had happened. Now comes a moment that has always affirmed my belief in men. The Head of Year (and one of my closest friends at the school at the time) were both men and responded as perfectly as I could have hoped. Parents were called in, both boys were removed from my lessons and put in another class and I genuinely felt very supported by them and my Head of Department. 

However, one of the boys didn’t take too kindly to all of that, and began emailing me out of hours saying I was lying, I was getting him in trouble when he didn’t deserve it and I was "ruining his education”. When I went to teach that class the following day, his entire friend group turned on me, also telling me that I’d ruined his education, they couldn’t believe I’d do that and “it wasn’t even true”. I ended up leaving the classroom in tears, and my friend came and covered the remainder of the lesson for me.

Now, whilst almost all senior staff, regardless of gender, were very supportive and assured me neither young man would be returning to my class, the Headmaster at the time was allegedly of the view that it “wasn’t that big a deal”, they “probably meant it as a joke” and they were to return to my class. At this point in my life and career, I was not very good at advocating for myself. This whole ordeal had reminded me that whilst yes, we are the adults and the professionals in our classrooms, we can be rendered almost powerless and incredibly vulnerable by some teenagers that we teach. Thankfully, my Head of Department and the Head of Year advocated for me and stood up to the Head, telling him (and me) that under no circumstances would I have to teach either boy again. (Take note: SLT and any Managers reading). 

What about now?
5 years later, and thankfully, I’ve not experienced anything quite like that since. In my next school, I did take in books from Year 11 boys that had graffitied Andrew Tate’s name on the front, and left me notes to “make me a f**cking sandwich" or “get back in the kitchen”. 

Needless to say, I don’t teach in secondary schools anymore. I teach in a Further Education College now where behaviour like that, directed to us teachers, seems to be much less frequent. In many of the sessions I deliver for Our Streets Now to teachers and education and sports professionals, I will always ask them to consider what they are asking of their staff, particularly women or people of marginalised genders. Sometimes, asking us to open and navigate these conversations with students and colleagues can be incredibly difficult, and that is not something that is considered well enough, in my opinion. We want to give our best to our students and support them as effectively as possible, but when that support isn’t there for us, that can sometimes be quite difficult. The rise of misogynistic views online poses an increasing threat to young people, and the adults teaching them, York University found that 69% of boys between the age of 11 and 14 have been served content that’s negative about women and girls, without having searched for it.

We must safeguard teachers as well as we safeguard students.
When curriculum planning and risk-assessing, please consider these issues. When speaking to your children about these behaviours, remind them that their teachers are not “fair game”, we are humans turning up every day, despite what might be going on in our own lives, wanting the best for the young people in front of us. When you’re told or witness your colleague experiencing this, speak out, do something about it, ask them what they need and want to happen and open these conversations in your workplaces and homes. 

Our Streets Now resources
The staff training and the free resources are something I wish was available when I started out teaching. Delivering these sessions to other educational professionals has become one of my favourite parts of the job. I have had so many insightful, sometimes gritty conversations with staff. But the one thing that is always fed back to us at the end is how thankful they are for us opening up those conversations and helping them develop their understanding. We cannot tackle a form of violence that exists in silence.

You can find out more about our work in schools here.