Over 50 students and community members rallied outside Swansea High School this morning, to show their support for students condemning rape culture.
Students Reece Hill, Ngara Kennedy, Natalia Nikolic and Marnie Hol organised the event after their teacher allegedly made comments suggesting that women’s choice of clothing could provoke sexual assault and that men constantly fight the urge to rape.
A video of the students having an argument with their teacher about the comments was posted on Thursday and has since received more than 117,000 views.
Reece Hill says the students involved had no intention to slander the school for one teachers actions, however, they are calling for the teacher to be fired.
"We hope she will no longer be able to teach in school, we do not think that someone who has that mindset and think it's ok to teach these things should be around young and impressionable minds," said Hill.
Swansea MP Yasmin Catley has shown her support for the students and is calling for the Department of Education to conduct a 'transparent' and 'thorough' investigation into the incident.
"I am so proud of these young people being active today," Yasmin Catley said, "We want our young people to have a voice and be independent thinkers and that is exactly what was demonstrated today."
Catley says there is an urgent need to end 'rape culture' and begin teaching about 'respectful relationships' in the classroom.
"We need to end the culture of victim blaming and what we've been reminded of by the comments from the students is that rape is not caused by a woman wearing a short skirt, rape is caused by rapists," said Catley.
2NURFM understands the Department of Education has launched an investigation into the incident.
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| Swansea High School students at the protest this morning. Imaged sourced from the ABC. |
