A COALITION of youth-led organisations, the Nationwide School Walkout Day (NSWD) Alliance held a protest earlier this week in response to the numerous reports of rape culture and sexual harassment issues that have emerged lately.
The protest was meant to demonstrate solidarity with students in amplifying their voice and the agency against harassments in schools.
Following the insensitive response from National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary general Harry Tan, it apparently showed that student complaints are not taken seriously and are usually fallen on deaf ears.
During a broadcast on Astro Awani’s ‘Consider This’ show on May 5, Tan opposed the walkout by arguing that there was just not enough evidence to implicate 450,000 teachers nationwide of being complicit in sexual harassment and rape culture.
NSWD disagrees with his statement, saying that the fact that he was a teachers union representative demanding for more data while undermining the stories of survivors makes painfully clear that institutions side with the perpetrator.
“It reveals the toxic practice of discrediting and disbelieving survivors and students that schools are meant to protect. It is now more than ever, that students need to stand in solidarity with each other in their fight to make schools safer,” NSWD said in its own statement released yesterday.
The protests, held on May 6-7, were done in the hope of promoting agency for children. It called on students and educators to protest in a safe manner of their choosing and in doing so, champion the movements’ demands.
Methods suggested included missing school periods with parental consent, wearing white or red ribbons in classes, or educators using school periods to teach students about sexual harassment.
From the protest, countless students and former students have come forward with their experiences of sexual harassment, demonstrating the extent to which rape culture has been normalised in schools.
“With the movement building momentum, it hopes for relevant institutions and authorities to act proactively in initiating reform and learning to listen to students’ demands. Such irresponsible and dismissive messaging such as those by the NUTP, is outrageous.
“It minimises the experiences of the survivors, and calls into question key institutions’ willingness to listen and act. Such responses reflect the degree to which the issue of victim blaming is institutionalised, and only encourages the silencing of survivors,” the NSWD continued.
In demanding to change this, the NSWD Alliance remains open to dialogue with parents, teachers, the NUTP and relevant authorities.
“These protests are just the beginning, we will be consistently demonstrating in solidarity with and demanding for students in our country to have their voices heard,” it ended.
The NSWD Alliance is a coalition of Monsters Among Us, Demokrat Kebangsaan, Young Democrats Malaysia and Rape Watchdog. – May 8, 2021
