Sexual Harassment Stories and Experiences

C, Georgia  

     My daughter, who is now 18 yrs old, was a victim of sexual harassment when she was just 12 years old and in the 7th grade. 

     She wore sweat pants to gym class, and two boys thought it would be funny to pull them down.  They exposed her to all the students in the hallway.

     She immediately reported it to a teacher and they hurried her off to the bus instead of calling me to inform me of the incident.  But my daughter immediately called me when she got home and told me of the incident. 

     The next morning I went to school to talk with the principal.  She tried to dismiss it as a prank, telling me that it was not sexual harassment because they did not actually touch her body.  Then she tried to blame my daughter for wearing sweat pants (not baggy).  

     The boys tried to convince my daughter to tell everyone that they accidentally stepped on the hem of her pants and they fell down.  She was afraid of what would happen to them and agreed.  I knew better. 

     After days of not getting cooperation from the school, I informed the principal that I was taking my daughter to the police station to file charges.  Then I started getting a response.  The police came and filed reports on both boys and said we could charge them. The school convinced me to drop charges and they would suspend the boys for the incident.  I fell for it.  I dropped the charges and found out they only suspended one of the boys for one day, and the other was given in-house suspension. 

     When confronted with this, the principal said she could not confirm the punishment because it was confidential. 

     I tried to teach my daughter about respecting her body and personal space, and that she does not have to tolerate such acts.  If she didn’t stand up for what happened to her this time, what might happen if another incident occurred. Or what about other victims.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Sexual Harassment in Education, Formal Investigations and Litigation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.