Sexual Harassment in Schools
Sexual harassment is a serious problem in schools and may continue to have adverse effects on the victims for years to come. In this research paper, I will address the questions of how sexual harassment is defined and of what constitutes sexual harassment, as well as why it happens. Sexual harassment is not a problem limited to any one area, nor is it limited to members of a specific age, gender, size, religion, or sexuality. Schools aren’t doing nearly enough about the problems of sexual harassment in their schools.
Sexual harassment is defined as unwanted and unwelcome sexual behavior that makes a student feel uncomfortable or unsafe. It is a continuum of unwanted behaviors ranging from spoken or written comments and stares, to actual physical assault and attempted rape. Sexual harassment demeans a student on the basis of his/her gender. It is often confused with flirting; however, sexual harassment does not feel good to the victim. It is a form of bullying; it is about the power of one person over another. (Lincoln Board of Education) One theory for why sexual harassment happens is that the power abusers are knowingly misusing their official power for personal gain. “A theory for why men who sexually harass do not seem aware that their behavior towards women plays any role in their feelings or behavior towards them is that there exists an automatic mental link between their concepts of power and sex. Automatic mental processes operate so quickly and efficiently that one is not consciously aware of their occurrence.” (The Naive Misuse of Power: Nonconcious Sources of Sexual Harassment) Sexual harassment is a serious problem in schools all across the country, as well as in other countries. According to a survey, involving students in grades eight through eleven, done by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), 81% of students experience some form of sexual harassment. Approximately 25% will experience sexual harassment on a regular basis. 18% of students are afraid of being hurt by someone in their school. 16% of students had skipped school for fear of it happening again. 11% had attempted to report incidents. 9% had dropped out of a particular activity or sport. 3% had dropped courses because of the mistreatment they experienced during those courses. The existence and presence of sexual harassment often goes unseen. In a 1992 survey done by Professor Catherine So-kum Tang of the Department of Psychology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, respondents were full-time students at different faculties and departments. 369 male and 491 female students were surveyed, with a response rate of 30%. The same survey was done in 2001. Both surveys showed that women were more likely than men to experience peer sexual harassment with the male to female ratio being 1:2. Unlike the 1992 survey, though, respondents of the 2001 survey showed that they tended to endorse more myths about sexual harassment. One of these myths is that sexual harassment was just the over-reactions of the victims or a problem of a person who could not handle personal relationships well. Others are that it is a problem invented by the woman liberation activists, or only courtship behaviors and men’s admiration of women, or that its easily differentiated from courtship behaviors. This is further proven by cases like that of an anonymous female high-school sophomore. One of her classmates in Drama started sexually harassing her after she was given a position of authority in the preparation of the play. He began by making sexist jokes about the actresses having extra clothing in their dressing room, asking if it was in case they’re feeling bloated and can’t fit. He then proceeded to tell her that she “should either be standing in front of a stove cooking, sitting in a rocking chair nursing a baby, or getting (her) husband a beer.” In the last two weeks before opening night, he grabbed her several times and brushed past her whenever he got the chance. Any time she tried to reason with him by telling him that she found his behavior to be degrading and insulting, and that she would appreciate it if he would stop, he contributed the confrontation to “PMS” and began to openly attribute any further protests to his comments or behavior to her menstrual cycle. He never did any of this, though, when other members of the cast or crew were around; he always waited until
they were along. Even though she did her best to stay away from him, he seemed to always be where she was. This ended quietly when her parents confronted him and told him to stop.
Sexual harassment isn’t limited by area, age, gender, sexuality, etc. A female student at Derby High School reported having been sexually assaulted in a school hallway in June 2002 by a 17-year old, male student. He had also been charged with the sexual assault of two other girls. (Connecticut Post—Bridgeport, CT) In many cases, like that of a Questa Junior High-school student in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the sexual harassment of a person is seen but goes unacknowledged and, so, is improperly dealt with. She, herself, was repeatedly sexually harassed and assaulted in seventh and eighth grade. She was repeatedly forced into closets or other areas in the school, where her assailants touched her private areas. Her assailants, along with other male students, repeatedly made lewd suggestions/comments, sexually degrading jokes, and sexually abusive statements. They also repeatedly slapped her rear, hit her with their hands and fists, touched her rear and breasts and groped her, spit water on her shirt and unzipped her pants from behind while in class. A school security guard witnessed once incident on January 7, 2003, in which one of her assailants slapped her rear, put his hand down her pants and grabbed her. (Albuquerque Journal) A student at Newport Heights Elementary School in Seattle, Washington reported that boys at her school had sexually harassed her starting when she was 7. She had flunked a routine hearing test and had to carry a card that read “failed” because she is hearing-impaired. One boy drew a nude picture of her with her name written on it and showed it to friends. Six other boys started taunted her by using sexual language, pinching and grabbing her, pinning her against a wall, and threatening to force another boy to have sex with her at a school-sponsored Valentine’s Day dance. She’s now a high-school freshman in a private school and doing very well. (The Seattle Times) In some other cases, the sexual harassment of a student by other students is almost encouraged by the school. A 12-year old boy, an internationally competitive ballroom dancer and straight-A student, in Pacifica, CA was taunted and abused by his classmates because they perceived him as being gay. This began the first week of sixth grade when classmates kept him from entering the boys’ bathroom, telling him that he belonged in the girls’ and said, “Gay people do not achieve anything high in life.” He was repeatedly called gay, kicked and pushed by other students, and had gum thrown in his hair. The harassment peaked when a few students began telling him that they were going to kill him. As a result of all of this, he was depressed, saying he hated his life and he was sorry he was born. In this same district, in 1997, a 12-year old boy who took up tap-dancing classes suffered the same problems that the ballroom dancer did. As a result, he lost weight, became depressed, and threatened suicide. (San Francisco Chronicle, Pacifica) A teenager in Tonganoxie, Kansas was called “jack-off-kid” and “masturbator boy” when he was 12. Though he isn’t gay, his classmates wrote that he “likes men” on a classroom chalkboard. He started crying at home and got into fights with some of the boys who taunted him. His classmates also teased girls who tried to defend him. The harassment continued for more than three years, ending when he dropped out of school at the age of 16 and pursued a GED. (The Associated Press State & Local Wire) Sexual harassment is an on-going problem that threatens both boys and girls, both heterosexual and homosexual, of any age.
Though many schools take appropriate actions immediately, many others fail, and even refuse, to respond as the law requires them to. Some even outright promote the sexual harassment of the victim, further causing serious emotion/mental damage to the victim. Consequently, the victim and his/her family have to file a lawsuit to even get the harassment stopped. The Derby High School student, identified only as “Jane Doe” filed a lawsuit against the city and the school board for failing to protect her after she reported that she had been sexually assaulted. Though she reported the incident, he remained in school and was allowed to bully and harass her. At the time of the incident, school officials, including the principal, knew that her assailant had already been arrested and charged with sexually assaulted two girls over the summer of 2002. Her assailant is now serving a three-year prison sentence for the sexual assaults. The Questa Junior High-student was molested and sexually harassed in school for two years while school officials sat back and did nothing. The principal, counselor, and teachers failed to act even after she pleaded for help. The principal blamed her for her victimization. When one of her teachers was told that she was out sick, she laughed and told the class, “Oh, I thought maybe she got molested again.” She was forced into the closet during an industrial arts class. The teacher and other students ignored her cries for help. On one occasion, this teacher admonished her for complaining and told her to “stop teasing the boys.” When the school security guard reported the incident that he had witnessed to the principal and later submitted a written report of the incident, the principal called the allegation “bullcrap” and blamed her for what occurred. He also destroyed the report. In court, the boys pleaded guilty but the principal denied the charges brought against him. According to the lawsuit, the principal is himself guilty of the sexual mistreatment of female students, teachers and staff members. The victim is not clinically depressed and suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. She has had to undergo therapy. The Newport Heights Elementary School student was told by a school counselor that she needed to “handle her own problems.” The principal refused to meet with the students until the victim’s mother threatened to call her attorney. The principal eventually called the boys’ parents, but their behavior continued and they were never punished. The principal also never reported the incident to school district officials as required by law. The student in Tonganoxie, Kansas repeatedly asked school and district officials for help stopping the harassment, but the taunts continued unhindered. Because the school wouldn’t take appropriate action against his classmates, his father filed a lawsuit on his behalf in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas. The Pacifica, California student’s father filed a lawsuit against the school district saying that for two years administrators did nothing to protect his son as classmates taunted and abused him because they thought he was gay. The school had “ignored the seriousness of the problem” and when officials did discipline the students tormenting his son, it was “feeble and purposefully ineffective.” “Because he’s perceived as gay, they’re letting the harassment go on. He’s received three death threats and the teachers do absolutely nothing.” In the 1997 case, the district settled for $160,000, promised to institute harassment awareness programs for administrators and faculty and designate two teachers in every school to help students who are targets of anti-gay bullying, an agreement that the victim’s attorney says the district has failed to stick to.
In conclusion, sexual harassment is not a small problem, nor is it on any one campus. It is an on-going issue that plagues people around the world. For many students, sexual harassment is a regular part of the school day, as an occurrence that is anticipated and met with anxiety, fear and/or anger. Students are sexually abused for many, seemingly anonymous, reasons. One reason for the victimization of others is the need of the bully to feel that he/she has power over someone. Others are victimized for no apparent reason than because they’re girls, because they’re gay or perceived as gay, or because they’re, for example, Jewish. Too many schools refuse to acknowledge the presence of sexual harassment because to do so would mean acknowledging that sexual harassment is actually a problem in their schools. Perhaps some schools refuse to acknowledge the presence of sexual harassment because they feel ill-equipped to deal with it or because the prospect of having to deal with it makes them uncomfortable. Sexual harassment isn’t a myth. It’s a very well established reality. It can be ended, in time, with proper management, preferably by the schools, with the help of students and parents, but it can’t be ended with denial.
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