March - In schools across South Africa, thousands of girls of every race and economic group are encountering sexual violence and harassment that impede their access to education, a US human rights group charged in a thorough report released today. South African officials say they're committed to educational equality. If they mean it, they must address the problem of sexual violence in schools, without delay. The report is based on extensive interviews with victims, their parents, teachers, and school administrators in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, and the Western Cape. It documents how girls are raped, sexually abused, sexually harassed, and assaulted at school by their male classmates and even by their teachers.
Girls fall victims to fellow students, but more often to teachers and school employees.
Teachers can misuse their authority to sexually abuse girls, sometimes reinforcing sexual demands with threats of corporal punishment or promises of better grades, or even money. She was asked to visit her teacher in his room. There, she was drugged and raped. I had been raped before and no one believed me then. MC thought she would just forget about the rape, but her aggressor persisted in pursuing her for sex.