IT’S a sobering thought that nine out of 10 girls between 11 to 16 years of age consider that sexual harassment is a problem at their school.
More than half say that staff dismiss such claims as boys being boys.
The #MeToo movement has propelled such issues to the top of the political agenda and not before time. It’s difficult to reconcile the experiences of so many women with the low profile such experiences have been awarded.
The Scottish Government is to be commended for taking innovative and decisive action to explore avenues of easing the problems so many young women encounter in their everyday lives
The project at St John Ogilvie High School in Hamilton we feature in today’s Sunday National has already recorded some success in its attempt to change attitudes around this issue, and it has more than a year to run.
Several other schools have since joined the programme, which will run until 2020. After that the Government will decide whether to roll out the programme across the country.
It is perhaps too early to make a definite decision at this stage, but if the St John Ogilvie results are repicated elsewhere it would be hard to argue it should not be embraced nationally.
It’s essential we do all we can to make sure women can live their lives without the scourge of sexual harassment. That’s an ambitious aim which will not happen overnight. But where better to start than in the classroom?
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IT’S no wonder such a conspiracy theory has grown up around the death of Willie MacRae. There are so many questions which have never been answered. How did the gun get outside the car? Was the lawyer under surveillance at the time of his death?
Today we add another question: Did the bullet enter the back of his head rather than the right temple. If so, the official suicide theory looks even less likely than it did previously.
It’s hard to know exactly how the truth can be uncovered ... but it would be comforting to know someone was trying.
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