Over 15,000 claims of sexual abuse experienced at schools and universities across the UK have been submitted to Everyone’s Invited.
Everyone’s Invited is a website designed for survivors of sexual abuse to share their testimonies anonymously and in a safe space.
The initiative was started on founder Soma Sara’s own Instagram, where she began to share her own experiences of rape culture and the website was developed later in June 2020.
Sara hopes that the gravity of this will help start a “conversation about rape culture with millions of people” and make people aware that experiences such as these are not isolated events.
Everyone’s Invited now lists 119 universities across the UK that have been mentioned in testimonies, including top universities such as Oxford, Edinburgh and Leeds and some of the most prestigious private schools in the country, these being Eton and Harrow.
Although in smaller quantities than that of Edinburgh and Oxford, testimonies from both the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam are included.
One testimony explains how the victim was sexually abused after going home with a Sheffield student after a night out.
The victim remembers “telling him no several times and asking him to stop” and how they “eventually passed out during it and can’t remember what happened after that”.
When they later reached out to the University counselling service they were told that their “issue was too big of a problem” which left them feeling “completely helpless and rejected by the university”.
In response to this, a spokesperson for the University of Sheffield said that the University is “committed to ensuring that our students and staff have confidence that they study, work and live in a safe and inclusive environment. Together with our Students’ Union, we are working hard to build a culture of zero tolerance towards any form of sexual harassment and misconduct.”
Another testimony from a University of Sheffield student details how their boyfriend at the time proceeded to initiate sex despite them explaining that they were “going to sleep”. Testimonies of this nature highlight that sexual abuse is present even in relationships with people that you know and trust.
A survey by RAINN into perpetrators of sexual violence found that 8 out of 10 rapes are committed by “someone known to the victim”, and many other testimonies on the website are in support of these findings.
The same University spokesperson reached out to affirm that “if any member of our community experiences any form of discrimination, we strongly encourage them to use our Report and Support platform; to access the specialist support we have available.”
Any member of the staff or student body who has been a victim of sexual abuse can report it on the University of Sheffield Report and Support website: https://reportandsupport.sheffield.ac.uk/support/category/sexual-assault
Image: Lee Hayward
