Sexual harassment can undermine the effectiveness of school systems. This is a problem that administrators must take seriously. The best way to prevent violence in the school is to teach children how to resolve conflicts and express anger. This requires changing their beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), sexual harassment is a form of sexual discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (OEEO, 1992, p. 1). Additionally, "victims of sexual harassment and other forms of sex discrimination in schools may sue for monetary damages" under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which "prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in schools and colleges that receive federal funding" (Lumsden, 1992, p. 1-2). A 1997 publication from the Office for Civil Rights declares that Title IX protects students from unlawful sexual harassment in "all of a school's programs or activities, whether they take place in the facilities of the school, on a school bus, at a class or training program
sponsored by the school at another location, or elsewhere" ("Sexual", 1997, p. 2).
According to a 1993 report published by the American Association of University Women, 85 percent of the girls and
76 percent of the boys in their study reported some experience of sexual harassment in school (Asimov, as cited in Larsen, 1998). Despite the high percentage of boys reporting harassment in the AAUW study, 50 percent-60 percent of all sexual harassment offenses are perpetrated by males against females (Clay, as cited in Larsen, 1998). Approximately 20 percent of all offenses are females against males. Roughly 20 percent of offenses are male-perpetrated behaviors including taunting or physically abusing younger boys, effeminate heterosexual males, and gay males (Larsen, 1995, p. 2).
Victims of sexual harassment report "decreased feelings of competence ...