I am aware that we have had several threads on this over the months, but with the news thatsome 85 incidents were reported to police a day last year, I thought it might be worth starting a thread on how best to recognise the situation. Previous threads have tended to be rightly indignant at the idea of CSE but not to deal with the issues that surround its recognition.
Even as a teacher, I'm not sure that I would easily spot the signs. This could be something to do with the fact that in the 80s and 90s, I was the recipient of a number of accusations of bullying by pupils against other pupils, only for investigations to show that either there wasn't bullying, or that a specific accusation could not have taken place because one or other pupil wasn't in school that day, or - and this took place several times, pupil A would accuse pupil B of bullying them, followed later that day or week pupil B accusing pupil A of bullying them, only for deeper investigations to show that they were both being bullied by pupil C who had skillfully enticed them into thinking that the bullying was coming from each other.
Now, I appreciate that CSE and bullying are two very different things, but the fact that someone being bullied doesn't necessarily appreciate where that bullying is coming from can be transferred into the CSE arena, as so many of the victims of CSE don't - at least initially - realise that theis is happening to them. Their groomer has made it appear to them that this is 'normal' behaviour.
How many of us here would recognise CSE if it was reported to us?
