Hi everyone,

We are women from Marrickville High School, based in Sydney, Australia who would like to express our concerns about what is currently happening in our school.

Firstly, we would like to acknowledge the land we are studying in which is the Gadigal land and pay our respects to past and present. 

As we know, we live in a society where sexual harassment is present. This is an experience that the vast majority of women have to deal with on a daily basis and this can intensify within different intersectionalities we face such as race, economical class, etc. 

This petition has the intention to register sexual harassment experiences that are happening inside our school grounds so we can have enough evidence and support for the school to take real action.

From Jan 2021 until now, these are the main issues that we face at school and we would like to demand action taken towards them:

1) The school has been making decisions without consulting with us before on who should be invited to talk to us about sexual harassment.

2) The way we wear our school uniform seems to be a big problem when it shouldn’t.

3) Our reports haven’t been taken seriously. Instead, we get questions like “how short is your skirt?” “what were you doing?” and NOT if we give consent.

4) The school talks about the well-being of students and asks us to talk to the teachers if we have a problem. However, teachers do not care when it comes to friends supporting and helping each other in the bathrooms.They immediately think we are skipping class and don’t let us explain. The truth is that we can only rely on our friends.

5) Teachers telling us to roll down skirts and button up our shirts is extremely disrespectful and makes us very uncomfortable.

6) We have sent a full document to the school with a lists of names and intimidating situations that we have experienced. The school then decided to bring in a MALE policeman to talk about sexual harassment. We appreciate the teachers for thinking of that. They thought that it would help but it really didn’t. What would’ve been a better idea was to bring in a journalist (a woman), someone with experience and who knows what she’s talking about.

8) Teachers, including male teachers, enter the girls bathrooms all the time. Some even make COMMENTS on our clothes. This makes us very uncomfortable and it is completely unfair. The bathrooms should be a safe place for us.

9) Teachers do not permit us to go to the bathroom when we need to especially when we are on our periods and in need to change. We shouldn’t be questioned for bringing our bags to the bathrooms. In fact, we shouldn’t have to explain ourselves at all.

10) We also dislike how teachers justify boys actions by saying things such as “boys will be boys”, “your going to distract the boys”. We are sorry but that’s their problem. Their problem if they want to look or if they are uncomfortable.
We are comfortable with what we wear and comfortable in our own skin and that’s all that should matter.

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION TO PROVE THE SCHOOL THAT THIS IS HAPPENING AND THAT PEOPLE ARE AWARE OF IT ✊