A mother shares sexual harassment faced by her daughter aged just 9 in school (Credits: Getty Images)
Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
‘Violence against women begins in the playground’
Further to your new campaign, This Is Not Right, highlighting the shocking extent of violence carried out against women and girls, whether at home or otherwise (Metro, Mon).
I am a mother of twin girls. The worst abuse one of my daughters experienced was in their first school (which was rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted).
The perpetrator was a boy in her year. This abuse started when my daughter was nine years old.
The boy (also nine) set up a ‘sex corner’ in the playground, where he would pin my daughter to the railings and gyrate against her. He would constantly taunt her for ‘blow jobs’ and became physically violent, slapping her.
The school’s response was to play down this situation. There was a reluctance to write out incident reports and in one instance, I was told ‘he said he didn’t hit her hard’. This was from a female teacher.
His behaviour was never taken seriously in the constant five years of abuse, with it continuing into high school, before I removed both girls from the school.
Peer-on-peer abuse is rife in UK schools and an overhaul needs to take place.
Schools should be a safe place yet they so rarely are. Violence and misogyny begins at a younger age these days and schools need to address these issues rather than protect their reputations. Anon, via email
The assisted dying debate
Professor Stephen Hawking survived over 40 years from a disease that usually kills people 14 months after diagnosis (Picture: Santi Visalli/Getty Images)
‘There will be an unspoken pressure to end our lives’
Jenny Hands (MetroTalk, Tue) says legalising assisted dying would lead to the disabled and those with long-term health issues feeling pressured into taking that option in guilt at being a burden on others.
I couldn’t agree more. As a disabled person in a disabled community, there will be an underlying, unspoken pressure to end lives prematurely.
We will be made to feel guilty and selfish if we do not ease the ‘burden’ placed on family members, medics and social care.
Stephen Hawking was diagnosed at 21 and given an extremely short life expectancy. It is likely he would have chosen to end his life had he been given the choice. Instead he led a fulfilling life and career well into his 70s – the same for many spinal-cord injury people.
Many people who have accidents will want to end their lives when they experience life-changing injuries. In time, however, they come to accept and adapt and learn to live different but happy lives.
The stringent safeguards in place will get watered down over the years and before we know it, people with disabilities or mental health conditions will be offered a ‘way out’ with assisted dying. Maria, Tottenham
While I’m not against assisted dying, I wonder whether there will be an impact on insurance …read more
Source:: Metro