Content note: This article contains references to sexual misconduct toward minors and sexual assault

Several Cambridge students have raised concerns about the provision of child safety measures on volunteer teaching projects after an incident of alleged inappropriate behaviour involving a fellow Cambridge student at a summer teaching project in Japan last year.

The incident, which is alleged to have taken place on an English-teaching programme organised in Tokyo by the American company Come On Out: Japan, is said to have involved two members of the volunteer teaching staff, one of whom was a Cambridge student, according to multiple sources, and two Japanese minors.

The project, based in Tokyo, involved around 100 Japanese students between the ages of 13 and 21. Teaching was split into small groups, each coordinated and taught by two student volunteers, whom the company call ‘interns’, predominantly from universities in the UK and USA.

A letter of complaint, signed by 32 volunteer teachers from 19 universities, including 3 from Cambridge, was sent to the executive team of Come On Out: Japan in response to the incident and the way it was dealt with by the company. The letter alleges that “[not] enough has been done to ensure the safety and well-being of Japanese students”, including the lack of formal criminal background checks, such as DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks, for prospective interns. In the UK, DBS checks are a legal requirement for all prospective employees intending to work with children.

Come on Out: Japan has since adopted a new code of conduct including a “new incident reporting system” which “will be more transparent on how these incidents are handled throughout the summer while also securing confidentiality [for] all parties involved.”

Volunteer teachers will now also undergo a criminal background check in addition to the full character reference which was required under the company’s previous regulations. An enhanced training programme has been instituted including the requirement for a “teaching demonstration during interview” and “required training” on child safeguarding.

The letter of complaint claimed that “with the exception of the rules surrounding the sharing of contact details and material on social media, no developed safeguarding system was formally introduced” at the time concerning the relationship between the students and interns.

The letter further states that the signatories are “unhappy with the course of action taken by the leadership of the programme following multiple individual complaints of inappropriate behaviour” by volunteer teachers.

The signatories were prompted to make their complaint after two volunteer teachers, one of whom was allegedly a student from the University of Cambridge, were witnessed acting in a sexually inappropriate manner with two of their young students.

According to one volunteer teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, “the two [volunteer] teachers (one male and one female) referred to the female students in the group as the male teacher’s ‘harem’. The female students were referred to as Wife #2 and Wife #3, with the female teacher being Wife #1. They wrote their “titles” on the back of their name tags, and when they were in their group or left the room to work in a place that was more private, they flipped their name tags over away from their names and to their title.”

Responding to Varsity’s request for comment, the Cambridge student implicated did not deny this incident, and said “Although I did not make the cards myself, it is my error of judgement for allowing what I perceived at the time as a joke, though in extreme poor taste, to continue.”

Seeking to offer “context” for this “wife” description, he noted that he himself was never intended to be seen as the “husband”, and claimed instead that this idea was constructed from an accumulation of Japanese myths, video games, and the suggestions of the children.

He emphasised that “sexualisation of students” was “never [their] intention.”

The female volunteer teacher was accused of further behaviour that was deemed “physically inappropriate” by some of the other volunteer teachers, including “show[ing] off her body” to students and positioning herself “a little too close[ly]” to students when playing group games. Describing this behaviour as “flirting”, they claimed that “she was aware of the effect that she had on her students, and actively tried to encourage those feelings.”

However they also added that they “don’t think that she really understood the consequences of her actions”.

Varsity has reached out to this volunteer teacher for comment on the allegations in which she is implicated.

The allegations arose in the penultimate week of ‘Global English Camp’, a project coordinated by Come on Out: Japan.

In response to volunteer teachers raising concerns multiple times, organisers held an open meeting during the final week of the project. CEO of Come on Out: Japan, Brian Neufuss, attended and spoke to the volunteer teachers about the alleged inappropriate conduct and possible solutions.

Prior to this meeting, a message was circulated by one volunteer teacher on a Japanese messaging app, in which they criticised the company for reacting to their complaint in what they perceived as a “patronising” manner, claiming that senior staff seemed to “only care about the money, and not the safety of us or the kids.”

The company representatives at the open meeting highlighted the lack of any legal requirement in Japan for interns to undertake DBS or other similar background checks. They argued that as a company they “do not hire teachers”.

A second volunteer teacher, who also wished to remain anonymous, told Varsity that during the meeting they felt that the leaders of the organisation “didn’t seem to grasp that sexual harassment extended beyond the realm of non-consensual intercourse; they didn’t see their failure to sufficiently vet interns as problematic.”

In a statement to Varsity, Come on Out: Japan agreed that their provisions for the safeguarding of students “required amendment” and that they “believe improvement was necessary for [their] additional safeguarding processes”.

One volunteer teacher said that they felt “uneasy” during the training week, as to their knowledge “no mention was made of a classroom code of conduct or safeguarding policy”.

Speaking to Varsity, a spokesperson for Come On Out: Japan confirmed that after the incident, “two involved interns were immediately removed from the classroom, and their students were placed with another group under new volunteer teachers. The two interns acted in a way that was perceived by other interns as inappropriate and causing discomfort to the group”.

However, they stated that “[after having] contacted the [Japanese] students and parents regarding the details of the incidents, neither party felt that inappropriate conduct had occurred.”

Despite being removed from teaching responsibilities, the letter and several sources that spoke to Varsity claim that the two interns involved were permitted to rejoin the group at the end of the camp. Come on Out: Japan did not respond to multiple requests for comment to confirm this claim. However, the Cambridge student implicated in the allegations suggested that this was due to “strong request” from the students, and said that he had composed “apology letters” to his students.

One volunteer teacher claimed that they felt such action “seemed extremely dismissive and abrasive towards the [volunteer] teachers who brought up the issues in the first place” and that they felt “that they [Come on Out: Japan] placed the reputation of the program over the feelings and well-being of teachers and students.”

Come on Out: Japan told Varsity that volunteer teachers were required to supply “official documents, including transcripts and references” but “did not require a criminal background check” at any point during the application process.

The company has since adopted a new code of conduct including a “new incident reporting system” which “will be more transparent on how these incidents are handled throughout the summer while also securing confidentiality [for] all parties involved.” They state that they have refined their “procedure for intern incidents to ensure comprehensive coverage and confidentiality”.

On future projects, interns will be required to undergo a criminal background check in addition to the character reference which was required under the company’s previous regulations.

One of the volunteer teachers who spoke to Varsity explained that they felt in their experience that there was “an extremely unclear chain of command in the company” and that teachers were often unaware who they should report their concerns to.

Provisions for child welfare vary between countries and, while the inspection of a criminal record is a typical requirement for applications to enter a foreign country, comprehensive background checks are not always required for short-term projects.

Oxbridge Summer Camps Abroad, which recruits Cambridge students to teach in Japan, China and Hong Kong, told Varsity that “OSCA has a child protection policy and OSCA Cambridge volunteers are DBS-checked as part of this policy. OSCA works with local partners on child protection.”

Camvision, a UK-based education consultancy company founded by Cambridge graduates in 2017, also told Varsity that it pays on behalf of its employees for the provision of enhanced DBS checks. They added that “we are legally obliged to provide a written contract between ourselves and our employees” which “ensures the accountability of both employees and the employer”.

According to the Cambridge University Careers Service, 103 vacancies for summer camp projects were advertised over the past three years. Of these, over half operate outside the UK, “operating under that country’s own national legal frameworks and systems.”

The Careers Service added that “with such a large number of vacancies, it is not possible to independently verify each one, but we do undertake basic checks before accepting an employer onto our database and publishing their vacancies.”