Nikita Anderson, left, was one of the students who raised the survey with Principal Law and Head Student Olivia Kingi, right. Photo: RNZ / Niva Chittock
More than 20 rapes or near rapes and thousands of cases of sexual harassment have been revealed in a survey of students at two Christchurch high schools.
The survey at Avonside Girls High School documented incidents of body shaming, cat calling, taunts and unwanted touching.
Meanwhile, the survey at Shirley Boys High School, which shares the campus, found instances of homophobia.
The most frequent harassment was online or through electronic images - verbal behaviours like rating and name-calling - plus a wide range of physical and sexual acts, up to and including rape.
For Avonside's Head Student, Olivia Kingi, the results of the survey were not surprising.
"You know that this is happening all around the world, but to see proof that it's happening in your school and it's happening with your friends is an entirely different feeling.
"It took us about two hours to read it and then like another hour to just sit and reflect before we could go back to class because it was so incredibly confronting and saddening."
'It was so incredibly confronting and saddening' - Avonside Head Student Olivia Kingi
Of all the cases of harassment reported, only one involved the police.
Principal Catherine Law said she was proud of the girls for speaking up.
Principal Catherine Law said she was sympathetic to the students. Photo: RNZ / Niva Chittock
"Huge sympathy, huge aroha to those girls who have experienced that.
"It's something that none of us would want, as a mother myself I would never want to hear that, and as a principal, for any of our young women."
"However, those results ... we're not immune to that in society, are we?"
'We need to make sure they are empowered to be safe.' - Principal Catherine Law
Speaking to Checkpoint tonight, Law said students reported a range of different kinds of harassment, including 21 cases of rape. None of the rapes were reported on campus.
The report showed that 75 percent of the harassment happened to students outside of the school, Law said.
"That's something that's really important for us, to look at what we can do to support them.
"We can obviously make them feel really safe at school, but when they walk out the door, we need to make sure they are empowered to be safe."
The surveys are anonymous, but the information shared would hopefully help deal with the problems, she said.
"It's important to take a minute and realise the courage of those young people to put that stuff down on paper."
The two schools share a campus. Photo: RNZ / Niva Chittock
The surveys were conducted by Dr Liz Gordon, from Pukeko Research. She said results varied across the two schools.
While the boys reported lower rates of harassment on the whole, they experienced more physical incidents like bottom slapping.
"Most of the harassment that they experienced was in the school setting, either in the school itself or the school campus or so on.
"It was very physical, whereas the girls there was a lot of cat-calling and meowing and shaming and naming and a minority of physical abuse."
Dr Gordon said the Shirley Boys' results also indicated a homophobic element to the harassment.
"The males who are bi- or homosexual report significantly higher rate of sexual harassment than straight boys.
"It's very disappointing really, getting on for 40 years since the Homosexual Law Reform Act and boys are still getting harassed at school because of their sexuality."
Shirley Boys' students Kururangi Wetini (left), Head Student and Associate Head Student Thomas Hopgood. Photo: RNZ / Niva Chittock
Shirley Boys Head Student Kururangi Wetini believed the results indicated a naivety amongst the male students.
"The lack of maturity from some of our boys needs to be improved.
"Once they read through the results of our survey, it may start to open up the light to what's been happening, give them an understanding of to be cautious, or tūpato, just to be careful of the type of language that you use."
Principal Tim Grocott said he knew some harassment was going on but the extent revealed in the survey surprised him.
He wanted his students to realise the impact words or so-called jokes could have.
Principal Tim Grocott said his students need to pay close attention to the report. Photo: RNZ / Niva Chittock
"Our students actually need to read it. And in our assembly last week when I announced this was coming out, I encouraged them to read it, to actually have a look at it and get an understanding of what's happening around the school.
"We hear all the time a lot of positive things that happen, but we also need to hear some of the things which are not so positive."
Both schools are setting up working groups of staff and students to implement changes, including the establishment of safe spaces and a review of the health curriculum.
"One of the things, we encourage parents to talk to young people," Law said.
"I've had a number of parents approach me over the last few days saying 'I'm actually talking with my daughter about this now and I didn't know how to and I didn't know what to say,' so that's been really, really important.'"
Where to get help:
Victim Support 0800 842 846
Rape Crisis 0800 88 33 00
HELP Call 24/7 (Auckland): 09 623 1700, (Wellington): 04 801 6655 - push 0 at the menu