School rape culture: 'Her death could have been prevented'

Since Everyone’s Invited, a campaign raising awareness about rape culture in schools, was set up in June 2020 over 54,000 anonymous testimonies have been submitted by current and former students across the UK. BBC Three has spoken to people who say more needs to be done by the authorities to prevent sexual assault in schools and support victims.

Zara McDermott was 21 when she was assaulted while walking home. It was daylight and she was only minutes from her parent’s house.

A teenager, who had been following her, forcefully pushed her against a fence as he tried to take off her clothes and put his hand down her trousers.

Zara says she was lucky, as passersby saw and ran over to help and she was able to escape.

"He was a school boy, probably 15 at the oldest," she recalls.

She reported the incident to the police, but they were never able to find or punish the perpetrator.

Her experience got her thinking about rape culture and how behaviour like this might escalate from a young age: "I wanted to catch him because I thought this is going to be a gateway offence to more serious assaults."

Since Zara shot to fame after appearing in Love Island in 2018 she has been working as a model, influencer and presenter. She says she put the incident to the back of her mind because things like this are so normalised for women and girls.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/b41fb362-6615-4e9b-950e-36859358e023
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True not only of the UK, but in the US and globally