>7 million students affected by sexual harassment

[Christie Hanzlik-Green]

In researching the 5th grade girl's lawsuit, I found the court dockets describing the case. It is interesting to note that the boy in the case was suspended for "hitting" a white boy, but the school took no action when the assault was on an African American female, though there was physical grabbing and poking of genitals and breasts. This case is interesting because such detail was kept as to the time/place/affect/occurances of each of the 8 incidents of harassment including the teachers/administrators knowledge of the occurances. The media coverage of the incident has been bias, obviously. LaShonda and her mother face much potential for abuse from the media and local citizens.

This case is especially important because schools help our children develop understanding on how to act in the public sphere. If children are empowered to better their environment from a young age, then they are less likely to be apathetic as adults. The court documents also discuss the precedence that would be set by different outcomes.

The following excerpt from the court docket explains how widespread sexual harassment in schools is:

"According to a 1993 survey ofAmerican public school students, 65% of students in grades eight to eleven were victims of student-student sexual harassment. See American Ass'n of Univ.Women Educ. Found., Hostile Hallways: The AAUW Survey on Sexual Harassment in American Schools 11 (1993) [hereinafter AAUW Survey].Extrapolating from Department of Education statistics, roughly 7,784,000 public school students in grades eight through eleven would consider themselves to be
victims of student-student sexual harassment.See footnote 24 Furthermore, 59% of students (including 52% of female students) in grades eight to eleven responded that they had sexually harassed other students. See AAUW Survey, supra, at 11 - 12. Thus, if this survey is accurate, around 7,177,000 public school students in grades eight to eleven, male and female, would admit to sexually harassing other students."

Here is some of the court information on the web:
http://www.lweekly.com/treas/brief2.htm
http://lw.bna.com/lw/19970909/949121a.htm


>There is a 5th grade girl, who is mentioned in this newsbite, who is suing
>her school because they have, in her opinion, failed to stop this bully
>from harassing her. I think that is amazing! I think that this case
>involved more than "teasing" and I hope that the court or courts involved
>take this case seriously. I do not know the full details of the case, but
>whatever the case, I think school yard/playground harassment is a serious
>issue. As Aedrienne said, we need to stop blaming this violent young
>male/boy behavior on "boys will be boys" and teach children, boys and girls
>alike, how to treat each other with tolerance and respect. I understand
>that a certain amount of teasing is normal between boys and girls, but I
>think that in some cases the teasing becomes harassment and if the
>teachers, parents, students, school staff and/or administration fail to
>intervene, some, not all, of these children may grow into adults who have
>progressed from teasing to battering, stalking, raping and killing. I guess
>I may be going to extremes, but I do believe this is an important issue.
>
>----------
>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> To: STUDIES IN WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Subject: Re: Some Newsbits....
>> Date: Saturday, January 16, 1999 2:32 PM
>>
>> maybe if we did cut down on this sexual bullying little boys do & stop
>calling
>> it boys will be boys then they would stop growing up to be rapists, wife
>> beaters & other forms of sexual offenses. duh!
>>
>> Aedrienne
>>
>>
>> In a message dated 1/12/99 4:56:15 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>>
>> >
>> >
>> >WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court justices questioned Tuesday how to draw
>> >the
>> >
>> >line between schoolyard teasing among students and sexual harassment in
>> >
>> >debating whether schools can be held responsible for such conduct. "I'm
>> >
>> >sure schoolchildren nationwide tease each other. Little boys tease
>little
>> >
>> >girls," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said during arguments on a Georgia
>> >case
>> >
>> >involving crude and allegedly threatening conduct by a fifth-grade boy.
>> >"Is
>> >
>> >every one of these incidents going to lead to a lawsuit?" Justices
>Antonin
>> >
>> >Scalia, Stephen Breyer, Anthony Kennedy and David Souter also expressed
>> >
>> >doubts about how to make that distinction. The court is expected to
>decide
>> >
>> >by July whether educators violate a federal law when they fail to stop
>> >
>> >students from sexually harassing other students. See full story
>> >
>> ><http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558008781-7e3>