Sexual Harassment in school usually occurs during passing, recess, or during lunch. Sexual harassment can range from a quick glance to a hoot or whistle. In many cases, one does not know that they are being harassed or harassing someone. Maybe a friend tells you a dirty joke or someone who you see everyday and who you do not know gives you an unusual smile.
Do you feel offended by the joke? Are you uncomfortable with the person giving you a smile’some may say that this is more of a paranoia problem and then just push it aside, but in most cases, it is not. Harassment usually is instigated by heterosexual males either trying to pick up a female or teasing a homosexual. Harassment usually begins in the early years in grade school. Unfortunately, in grade school, they usually don’t look at sexual harassment as a problem because teachers and parents generally think the children are too young to be having sex or even think about it.
This usually results in the children believing that what they are doing is not at all bad and that they will receive no consequences when committing the act. But it does have consequences. Most teens when harassed, will usually try and ignore the comment, or the offence. But that is bad. What should be done is a confrontation of the assailant. He or she should be told that what has been said is very disturbing and that it is very offensive to the victim.
Also he or she should be told that if the action is evercommitted again, that an authoritative person will be informed. That usually gets the perpetrator scared. He will most likely not bother the victim again. Harassment sometimes isn’t as public as walking down the halls. Many relationships are broken up because one of the mates is jumping to third base when they have only previously gotten to first.
The other partner gets scared and runs away. Sometimes, when it’s the male mate that is making the moves, the female doesn’t have enough power to say ‘no’. Guilt trips or ridicule can be used to entice the victim to submit. Many women are brought up to believe that if they do not ”give in”, that they are teasing the man or that if they do give in, they will be with the man forever. Unfortunately our society does not always hold a man responsible for the obvious consequences of such actions.
Too frequently young women become further victimized by becoming single parents without the moral or financial support of men. One of the saddest things about sexual harassment is that men and women feel uncomfortable through no fault of their own, but somehow end up blaming themselves for their own victimization. Frequently our society puts the blame for an attraction on the victim rather than on the perpetrator. It is not uncommon in court cases for the defendant’s attorney to place the blame for harassment on the victim of the crime.
The fact is that any person has the right to dress or speak or anything else in whatever way they want. This is supposed to be a free country. No human being deserves to be treated as if the way they choose to express themselves is a crime. Many of the victims are not even trying to attract any attention to themselves though, and they still are harassed. Unfortunately our society tends to minimize the impact of this type of harassment, and the result is that some children suffer through years of it through no fault of their own.
A wink from a teacher when a child has a legitimate complaint is simply serving to terrorize that child, and make them feel that they have no recourse, or that they are somehow responsible for the unwanted attention. This is simply unacceptable since the only recourse us kids have, are our teachers. Men also suffer through these indignities and should not be ignored when they have a complaint. Although it may seem that men have a better defense, the fact is that they are even less likely to be taken seriously than girls.The fact is that sexual harassment is .
