Dr Helen Wright considers how recent news headlines are a wake-up for schools, and how schools, parents and students need to work together to confront dangerous and disrespectful behaviours

“What is amazing and utterly commendable about the ?Everyone?s Invited? initiative is that it is a wake-up for schools. It lays bare the extent of sexual abuse perpetrated on young people. If you were ever in any doubt about the extent and impact of sexual abuse, then read some of the testimonies. As a parent, you will be shocked and horrified ? and I urge you to read them, for this very reason. All of us – parents as well as educators – want above all to keep our children safe, and to do this, we need to know what we are facing. “As you read the testimonies, you will, I hope, start to question the narrative in the media that all of this is somehow the fault of schools, and that schools should be castigated and vilified for not dealing with, preventing or solving the problem of sexual abuse. You will see, as you dig deeper, that most of the abuse cited did not take place in schools, and was outside the jurisdiction of schools. That does not stop Heads becoming involved – when I was a Headteacher, I dealt with the aftermath of numerous dreadful situations that had happened in the holidays or at weekends ? situations which had occurred, even though we tried our utmost always to ensure that as a school we had robust personal development education and explicit ...