Twenty-one students from a Christchurch school say they've been raped or nearly raped.
That's one of the findings from a survey commissioned by site-sharing schools - Avonside Girls' High and Shirley Boys' High.
School is supposed to be a safe place. But according to a student survey of sexual harassment, Avonside Girls' High School hasn't felt safe enough.
"My heart goes out to all our young women of their experiences from catcalling to rape," Avonside Girls' High School Principal Catherine Law said.
Twenty-one students said they'd either been raped or nearly raped in a survey jointly commissioned by Avonside and Shirley Boy's High School - which share some spaces on campus.
It was sparked by a trio of year thirteens.
"We decided enough was enough so we wrote up a document with recommendations and why we needed this," Avonside Girls' High School student Nikita Anderson said. "Because it is so thoroughly normalised to be experiencing catcalling and casual harassment," Avonside Girls' High School Head Student Olivia Kingi said.
The survey followed similar research of Christchurch Girls' High School last year.
At Avonside Girls' High School 400 students said they'd been sexually harassed and 163 said they were sexually harassed two to five times.
It found 75 percent said they experienced sexual harassment outside of school, at parties, work and while using public transport
The largest category was catcalling, but the most frequent harassment happened online finding unsolicited nude pictures was a big issue.
Fewer students responded to the Shirley Boys' High School survey but 19 percent of those who did say they'd been sexually harassed, including groping and unwanted touching.
"It's definitely pretty eye-opening it's letting us see where the issues come from and a lack of maturity we see around the school," Shirley Boys' High School associate head boy Thomas Hopgood said.
The most common harassment-related activity was playing video games with sexual content (69 percent) and watching pornography (57 percent).
"It's not just a school problem what's quite clear is it's a societal problem," Shirley Boys' High School Headmaster Tim Grocott said.
Researcher Liz Gordon said boys and girls experience sexual harassment differently.
"It was like they were on different planets and it raises big challenges in terms of overcoming sexual harassment," Gordon said.
Education is the way forward.
"Fifty percent of students felt that they were somehow to blame, it is not your fault," Anderson said.
"Stand up and speak up," Kingi said.
A call to all who may be experiencing sexual harassment.
