Alex's Answer

Hello and welcome to Ask Alex. We appreciate you sending us your question and that you felt able to reach out. 

From what you’re saying it sounds like you’ve been through a traumatic and scary experience, and you’ve been very brave to contact us to talk about this as that’s not always an easy thing to do. We’d be very concerned to hear that you were sexually assaulted by four teachers when you were 10 and attending primary school. This sounds like a very serious situation and a breach of trust as these teachers have a duty of care to protect their students and not harm them. No matter who it is, no one has the right to touch you or hurt you in any way; all young people have the right to be safe and the right to bodily autonomy which means you make decisions about your own body. 

You have been through a difficult time, have you thought about talking to a trusted adult about your experience and how you are feeling? A trusted adult could be a parent, grandparent, auntie or uncle, guidance counsellor or your GP. The adults in your life have a responsibility to support you and listen to you. You never have to be alone, no matter what you might be going through. It’s important that you consider getting help in coping with what happened as traumatic events such as this can impact on our health and wellbeing.  

Regardless of circumstances, sexual assault is never the victims’ fault, the responsibility lies solely with the perpetrator(s). You have a right to know that in Ireland, the legal age to give consent is 17. This means that when you are under 17, you cannot give consent. If a young person is over 17, they still have the right to choose when and to who, they give their consent. Nobody has the right to touch you or engage in sexual activity with you when you are uncomfortable with it. You have the right to report this to the Gardaí and/or visit your nearest Rape Crisis Clinic/Sexual Assault Treatment Unit which you can find here: www.rapecrisishelp.ie/. It is important that you do this as soon as you can, even if you feel embarrassed or afraid, which is completely understandable. The Childline website has an article on consent which you might find helpful: www.childline.ie/consent/.  

If you feel you’d like to talk to someone outside your social circle you can always contact our Childline listening services. You can freephone us on 1800 66 66 66, text us at 50101 or chat with us online through www.childline.ie. All of our services are free, confidential and non-judgemental and we don’t tell you what to do. We give young people a safe space to talk through their thoughts and feelings and these services are available 24 hours a day, every day. 

Thank you for getting in touch as we hope that you find this answer useful. 

Mind yourself, 

Alex.