Nearly half (48 percent) of the students surveyed experienced some form of sexual harassment in the 2010–11 school year, and the majority of those students (87 percent) said it had a negative effect on them, according to AAUW's brand new report, Crossing the Line: Sexual Harassment at School. Based on a nationally representative survey of 1,965 students in grades 7–12 conducted in May and June 2011, the report provides fresh evidence about students’ experiences with sexual harassment, including being harassed, harassing someone else, or witnessing harassment. All the statistics turned up in the report indicate that sexual harassment is not only rampant, but epidemic in our schools today.
The pattern of harassment tends to continue on to college and beyond. Herman Caine and the brou-ha-ha at Penn State are cases in point. To break this cycle of harassment, the climate at schools must change from harassment as a normal part of school to harassment as totally unacceptable. Perpetrators must be punished; victims must feel free to report their harassment; dialogue on the subject must be engaged; and schools must be accountable.
This report has resonated so much that four days after the release of this report, 1,200 articles have appeared across the country, including the Associated Press and the New York Times. If you haven't got the time to read the whole report, do read a summary of the report. It's really hard to believe.
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