Abstract / Summary
Abstract Challenges with the protection of children in the South affect not just the behaviors of individual perpetrators, but the structural barriers of child protection systems as well. This study seeks to understand how senior high school students and school staff in Ghana perceive and understand the concepts of sexual boundaries, means for disclosure, confidentiality, and the protection that institutions offer. The study employs a qualitative multi-source approach and is based on nine semi-structured interviews that were conducted in July and August 2026, in the Northern, Ashanti, Greater Accra, and Volta Regions, involving five adolescents between the ages of 16 and 18 years and four educational stakeholders, which include one Safe Space Focal Person. The data are explained through the existing policies and through public discourse. Using a thematic analysis, I describe four themes: adult access to students was not equal across boarding and day schools, while professional boundaries were observed; disclosure was viewed as exposing oneself to further vulnerability; delay and the presence of a single Focal Person contributed to social media as a means for protectors to fill the gap; and protection was distributed among differentiated authority figures. Using child protection and the resilience of organizational systems as a framework, I argue that protection should shift from the responsibility of individuals to the institutional and systemic ability to nurture protection and offer care. I provide a five-level, gender-responsive model of school-based protection for use in Ghana that addresses the range of protection gaps and different guardianship systems present in schools.