Peer to Peer Sexual Harassment

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

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r her future, doesn't it follow that it can shape a child's view of herself or himself as a male, a female, a student, or a citizen? Any discussion of peer-to-peer sexual harassment must acknowledge the fact that today's students come from urban communities riddled with, if not devastated by, violence and poverty. The facts speak for themselves: 16 percent of whites, 43 percent of blacks, and 40 percent of Hispanics younger than 18 live in poverty; these figures increase to 45 percent for whites, 67 percent for blacks, and 72 percent for Hispanics in homes with a single female parent; in short, current estimates suggest "that most of our nation's largest school districts are over 70 percent minority (nonwhite)" (Caves, 1995, p. 457). Students take their street values to school: "noncooperation", lack of respect for anyone who does not possess the power to hurt them, unwillingness to follow the rules or to get along with others (Haberman, 1997, p. 503). These street values in combination with male biology, cultural values that endorse stereotypical male behavior, and the effects of poverty (including a subculture of violence and sexism), pose a serious problem for classroom teachers and administrators handling discipline proble
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Terminators Kantrowitz, Cross Reitzug, Boys Boys, University Women, OCR Sexual, RAINN Statistics, OCR Empowerment, Title IX, sexual harassment, HARASSMENT Sexual, Smith Angell, boys boys, lumsden 1992, caves 1995, sexual 1997, statistics 1998, peer-to-peer sexual, washington dc, peer-to-peer sexual harassment, et al 1998, et al, victims sexual, kantrowitz et al, statistics 1998 washington, cited larsen 1998,
Approximate Word count = 1933
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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