Ibbotson said incidents like these can lead to traumatizing events in the future, such as sexual assault and rape.
"I remember my friends, other kids… in Grade 7 getting sent or sending unsolicited text messages and we really don't realize the severity and the prevalence of this issue," she said. Ibbotson says sexual harassment is common in schools for students as young as 13. Of those self-reported sexual assaults, 47 per cent were committed against young women and girls between the ages of 15 and 24. "So I think it's really important that we touch on consent even younger in age, because we're really only learning it a little bit in high school and that's it."Īccording to the Canadian Women's Foundation, 30 per cent of all women age 15 or older report experiencing sexual assault at least once, and only one in three people in Canada understand what it means to give consent to sexual activity.Īdditionally, a 2021 study from the University of Calgary found that one in three youth in Grades 9 and 10 had experienced adolescent dating violence.ĭata from Statistics Canada, published in 2017, reported that there were 636,000 self-reported incidents of sexual assault in 2014 in Canada. "High School Too wants to create a safe space for students to go to, to be able to heal properly and feel heard, and schools don't always do that," Meier said in an interview on Wednesday.
Jenna Meier and Bronte Ibbotson, 17-year-old high school students from Niagara, Ont., told CTV's Your Morning the organization wants to see more consent education and resources implemented in schools to combat sexual violence.
A student-led Canadian network called High School Too has launched a nationwide campaign to end sexual violence in secondary schools, an issue two of its organizers say isn't being adequately addressed.