An interview with Lucy Bluck, the London Co-Manager of ‘Schools Consent Project’
*This article discusses topics relating to sexual violence, reader discretion is advised*
By Catherine Gregson
According to the UN, 1 in 3 women globally will be beaten or raped during their lifetime. The ‘Prima Facie Play’ website homepage displays more facts and figures that would bring a chill to anyone’s spine. It reads: “In the nine months to September 2021 there were 170,973 recorded sexual offences… of these 63,136 (37%) were rapes…nearly 33% of rape victims withdraw their complaint in the first 3 months of it being recorded… in the first nine months of 2021 the average time between offence and court hearing is 1,020 days … and after that only 1.3% of rapes are prosecuted”. These facts clearly illustrate that something is wrong with the way victims of sexual assault and rape are treated, by a legal system which was supposed to be built to protect citizens. Something needs to change, and fast. This situation has been tolerated for far too long and it’s time that British citizens sought to change it.
‘Prima Facie’, the play written by Suzie Miller perfectly encapsulates this injustice. In the solo performance the brilliant Jodie Comer plays a young woman named ‘Tessa’, who is a barrister. The play shows the audience her humble background, and how with determination she passed her exams to get into Cambridge law school and subsequently, became a barrister. She works as a defence lawyer, representing men accused of sexual assault. Tessa is shown to have a good social circle, and she goes from strength to strength in her career and her life; until the day she goes on a date with one of her friends who works in law, the date goes well. They meet again, for a second date where they both consume a large quantity of alcohol. This is where the plot takes a downturn. The second date also goes well, and Tessa invites him back to her place. They have consensual sex and fall asleep. But he later rapes Tessa. He then falls asleep, and the play cleverly depicts Tessa as she escapes her own house, into the street and is then takes a taxi to the police station to report the rape. The clever stage production displays the agonizing days that go by until her case is heard in court (782 days). When court day finally arrives, roles are reversed as Tessa is on the other side of the witness box. The man who raped her isn’t prosecuted.
The most poignant part of the play is at the end when Tessa talks personally to the audience, breaking the fourth wall to exclaim “Look to your left. Look to your right”. This serves to illustrate that one in three women will be sexually assaulted in their life. The case files of court cases that line the 3 walls of the stage then serve a very heart-breaking purpose, as a third of them light up in the darkness in which Tessa sits.
The play was hugely compelling and depicted the urgency of the change that is needed in the criminal justice system. People on Twitter agreed: “I am completely wrecked. I’ve never had a theatre performance like that before. Jodie’s performance was intimate, raw, soul-bearing.”, “Jodie Comer killed it in calling out and showing a concentrated, furious rage at a horrible system that needs burning down to be rebuilt, far better than what is”, “This play needs to be shown to all year 11 students. Regardless of sex or religion. I mean you hold your breath all the way through it. Very powerful”. The latter tweet is a call for children to learn about sexual violence and its impact, in the hope of acting as a deterrent.
Consent was introduced as mandatory teaching in the education system in September 2021. Under the Department for Education’s ‘statutory guidance’ it states that pupils should know: “the concepts of, and laws relating to, sexual consent…harassment, rape… and how these can affect current and future relationships” and “how people can actively communicate and recognise consent from others, including sexual consent, and how and when consent can be withdrawn”. It should be noted how late in the day consent education was introduced as part of mandatory sex education for children, and what might have perhaps been prevented if it was introduced much earlier.
It’s not just the missing education of children which is perpetrating the problem, however: as shown in ‘Prima Facie’, it’s the professionally trained defence lawyers too. In 2018, in Ireland a court case took place relating to the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl. In this trial, the defence lawyer ridiculed the girl to the jury, saying “Does the evidence out-rule the possibility that she was attracted to the defendant and was open to meeting someone and being with someone?… You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front”, as if this meant that the girl wanted to be raped or was ‘asking for it’. The man (27) was found not guilty.
In 2012, a speech was made by MP George Galloway about the fact that Julian Assange had been accused of rape. In the speech he made online, he said “Woman A met Julian Assange, invited him back to her flat, gave him dinner, went to bed with him, had consensual sex with him, claims that she woke up to him having sex with her again. This is something which can happen, you know. I mean, not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion… might be… bad sexual etiquette, but whatever else it is, it is not rape or you bankrupt the term rape of all meaning”. For an MP to blatantly speak in an apparently casual and flippant manner about rape like that is setting an abhorrent example to citizens about what does and doesn’t constitute rape. British MPs are supposed to represent a constituency and behave in a respectable manner. If that speech was a display of a respectable person, then something is wrong. People in power should be respecting the law. The UK law states that, “a person consents if they agree by choice, and have the freedom and capacity to make that choice… a person commits rape if they intentionally penetrate the vagina, anus or mouth of another person with their penis without consent“. By upholding the law, this would mean that Assange had raped the woman because she didn’t consent to the sex the second time (as she was asleep), and everyone “needs to be asked prior to each insertion”.
‘Prima Facie’ sponsored ‘Schools Consent Project’ in conjunction with the play. They urged people to text a number to donate to the charity. Founded in 2014 by Kate Parker, ‘Schools Consent Project’ seeks to educate children in schools about sexual consent, and the law regarding this. To find out more about the excellent work this charity undertakes, I interviewed Lucy Bluck, one of the London Co-Managers of the charity. She has been working for ‘Schools Consent Project’ since 2019 and was made one of the London Regional Managers in 2021.
Lucy Bluck said she came across the charity in an email from her Pro Bono Officer in the law firm she works for: “it sounded like such an important message and ethos… I wanted to be involved. My overwhelming feeling was, I wish that this had been around when I was at school.” ‘Schools Consent Project’ goes into schools and runs workshops for children aged 11 to 18. But Lucy reckons “the earlier the better… teaching consent to very small children… things like ‘it’s ok to hug your friend as long as they’re ok with you hugging them. You need to ask them if they want you to’. If children were exposed to that sort of education earlier: that would make a huge difference.” Lucy explains that the interactive workshops are conducted by lawyers or law students and are split into two parts: “in the first part we look at what consent is, alongside everyday examples like ‘can I borrow your pen?’, then we break down the legal definition of consent. Then we look at consent in the context of sexual relationships, and we have some sort of case study and ask, ‘is there consent here?’, ‘if not, why not?’, ‘what does this mean?’, ‘Does that mean an offense?…’” Through the workshops, they explore sexual assault, rape, and sexting.
‘Schools Consent Project’ workshops begin with information about who the school’s designated safeguarding leads are. The volunteers ensure that pupils know they can talk to them if they wish to after the session. They ensure the children know that if they confide in the volunteers, they can’t necessarily keep it confidential, as they might have to report safeguarding information. I asked Lucy what she’d do if someone asked her what to do if they’d been affected by the topics in the workshop: “at the end of the workshop, we have a slide with different resources… legal and non-legal options, confidential and non-confidential options. It’s very difficult. It’s actually only happened to me once where a girl came to me at the end and was saying that this had happened to her friend… it became clearer that it wasn’t, she was talking about herself… We can’t keep things like that. If someone says something like that to you it’s about being there to listen and be compassionate… rather than trying to give loads of advice and try to fix everything as much as that’s a very human instinct”.
There are many benefits to the workshops being conducted with volunteers who have experience in law: “It gives a degree of confidence that the person teaching has the relevant knowledge and expertise… that makes the students more engaged and trusting, which is hugely important given the subject matter”. Lucy also commented on how it’s “key to get the students to feel comfortable in a safe space we’ve created… the workshops work best when everyone gets involved and isn’t afraid to answer questions. The children do pay attention”. However, sometimes “there are difficult groups… but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work well… every group takes it seriously and listens”.
Lucy told me that volunteering for ‘Schools Consent Project’ is incredibly rewarding work, “I’ve been delivering workshops since 2019 and I’ve never left a school feeling like I’ve not got through at all to anyone. I think I’m always struck by how important it is that young people learn about this stuff… I always feel proud and pleased that we can provide such an essential education”. Lucy wanted to highlight that “with education comes empowerment… that’s what we are”.
I asked Lucy if she had an idea of how society should try to improve the situation to prevent sexual abuse towards women in the first place. She told me: “Educating people and making sure that leads to long term changes in attitude. We have content on victim blaming in the workshop… we sometimes get questions and comments (but they’re not very often which is a good thing): ‘she was drinking’, ‘she was wearing this’. We always bring it back to the legal definition of consent. With the workshops I say, ‘if you only remember one thing, remember the legal definition of consent and the 3 elements: choice, freedom and capacity’. We make the point that this is stuff that you do every day: how to read people’s facial expressions and interpret body language. It’s the same thing”.
She also commented on the way sex education is currently taught in schools across the UK: “they’re put in a difficult position where they’re teachers who aren’t lawyers and aren’t legally trained, having to teach young people about the law accurately and in a way that’s reliable… Those conversations are incredibly formative and young people ask a lot of questions. If the information given out isn’t accurate or not understood properly by students that could have really significant consequences.”
Lucy and the ‘Schools Consent Project’ team went together to see ‘Prima Facie’. I asked Lucy what she thought of the play and how it captured the issues within the criminal justice system, she commented: “it was brilliant… it conveyed such an important message.” In the play, it accurately depicts the things people who have reported a crime of sexual violence endure, such as having to be swabbed for biological substances. Tessa is portrayed almost as the one who committed the abhorrent act- rather than the one who it had been committed against, as she was aggressively questioned and asked to hand over her phone by the police. This second dehumanising experience for women who report a case of sexual violence is wrong and must be reassessed. There’s no way to treat someone who is already shaken up from the consequence of what they’ve suffered. I asked Lucy what she thought should be changed within the criminal justice system, “over the past few years there have been several proposals and suggestions… changes in how victims give evidence… special measures in court… it’s what’s needed. This is a problem and damaging kind of access to justice, for victims and things like reducing the huge delays between reporting an incident and, if it goes to trial- when it goes to trial. Greater public awareness on what actually happens when you report a sexual offense is needed. Also, considering the barriers to reporting, why people aren’t and improving the treatment of those who do need focusing on.”
I was interested in how much additional exposure ‘Schools Consent Project’ had gained after ‘Prima Facie’ and Lucy told me: “We’ve noticed a huge uptake in inquiries from schools… but also from lawyers and law students wanting to become volunteers. From loads of other people too though… we had a lovely lady wanting to leave a gift in her will. It’s helped hugely. We’re a small charity, with little to no funding to date. We’re 100% volunteer led. So, all donations have a huge impact. On twitter and Instagram, it’s not just nationally that the charity is physically growing, but in terms of people becoming aware of what we’re doing all over the world. We’ve had a lot of people from the US contacting us with questions and asking how they can help- that’s even before the play’s gone out on Broadway.” Most importantly of all: since the charity was created, ‘Schools Consent Project’ have reached around 25,000 students with empowering education about consent and issues surrounding sexual violence. Lucy concluded by telling me that she’s excited to continue her volunteering with the charity, to see it grow even further, and to educate even more students.
The criminal justice system in the UK is currently deterring women from coming forward in the first place, to report cases of sexual violence. But to the ones that do: many are faced with a horrendous, lengthy process on the road to an uncertain verdict of whether they’ll receive justice. “Something has to change” because “the law has been shaped by generations and generations of men” (‘Prima Facie’). Time for the law to be shaped by women. Near the end of the play Tessa says “Look to your left, look to your right. I am broken. But I am still here. And I will not be silenced” (‘Prima Facie’).
‘Schools Consent Project’ is a charity seeking to arm children with knowledge about what consent is, and what to do if a non-consensual sexual act occurs. As a charity, they’re not government funded. To donate to them, text CONSENT to 70470.
· ‘Schools Consent Project’ website: https://www.schoolsconsentproject.com/
· ‘Prima Facie’ website: https://primafacieplay.com/
· Where you can watch the play: https://primafacie.ntlive.com/
· Support links on the ‘Prima Facie’ website (including ‘Papyrus’, ‘The Mix’ and ‘Rape Crisis’): https://primafacieplay.com/trigger-warning/
· The 2018 Irish alleged rape case mentioned in the article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46207304
· George Galloway speech about the accusations against Julian Assange (2012) mentioned in the article: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/aug/20/george-galloway-julian-assange-rape
