Around one in three girls have to put up with unwanted sexual attention at school, including groping, kissing and harassment, a poll has found.
Many more girls face torment such as name calling on a regular basis, said the survey of 788 16 to 18 year olds. And around one in seven of the boys who were questioned said the same.
More than one third of all the young people questioned said they had heard girls being called names such as 'slut' or 'slag' at school on a daily basis, and nearly three-quarters said they had seen sexual pictures on mobile phones during school hours.
The End Violence Against Women Coalition, which commissioned the YouGov poll, is calling on the government to address violence against girls in schools. Chairman professor Liz Kelly said: 'Not only is sexual harassment against girls at school routine, everyday and unquestioned, our results show that sexual assault is in fact commonplace in school environments.
'Disturbingly, our results show that students rarely hear from their teachers that these behaviours are unacceptable.'
Nearly one in four of the teenagers questioned said teachers had never told them that unwanted advances such as touching or name-calling were unacceptable, while a fifth said they had never received lessons or information at school about sexual consent.
Liz Kelly added: 'Violence against women and girls in our communities will not be eliminated unless the attitudes that excuse and normalise these behaviours are challenged before they are formed.'
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