The "macho culture" in some schools is giving tacit approval to the sexual harassment of women teachers by some male pupils, the secondary teachers' union, ASTI, has said.
Name-calling, graffiti and "inappropriate touching", particularly of young women teachers by male students, had become a matter of concern in the past few years, the union's general secretary, Mr Charlie Lennon, said at a pre-convention briefing yesterday. He said the touching happened when pupils bumped into women teachers in crowded corridors.
There had been very serious difficulties in a small number of schools. Two very significant incidents in the past two to three years had led to expulsions.
Such incidents had been extremely rare 10 years ago, but they had now become commonplace in some schools to the extent that the school authorities found them difficult to deal with, he said.
"The macho culture in some schools gives approval to this unless it's effectively dealt with," Mr Lennon went on. "It's not just a question of dealing with individuals, but of making everybody aware that this is unacceptable social behaviour in any social context."
He said the harassment was often of part-time and temporary young women teachers, whose job insecurity and lack of self-confidence made them easy targets, and made it difficult for them to report it to principals and other school authorities.
It even appeared in objectionable sexist comments in school essays, where "the clever ones can do it in such a way that it appears to be creative writing."
The 1998 ASTI convention handbook contains the wording of a recently signed agreement between the ASTI, the Teachers' Union of Ireland and the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools to deal with sexual harassment; and of a draft agreement between the ASTI and the secondary school management body, the JMB.
These emphasise that sexual harassment is illegal under the 1977 Employment Equality Act, and list a number of forms of sexual harassment, including demands for sexual favours, unwanted physical or verbal advances, unwanted touching, and displays of pin-ups and pornographic material.
They stress that three kinds of sexual harassment will not be tolerated: by one staff member against another; by a student against another student or staff member, and by a staff member against a student.
Mr Lennon said another development which would have been unthinkable 10 years ago was violent assaults on teachers. There had been up to six incidents annually in recent years of varying degrees of severity.
A couple of incidents in the past year involved brothers of pupils. As a result of these some second-level schools had restricted access to the public.