Sexual Harassment Stories and Experiences

This is all so confusing and infuriating

Patty B

My daughter is being harassed at school by two classmates (she’s a sophomore in high school).

She has been groped on the behind, and one boy shoved her into the lap of another. When this happened the other boy started “grinding” on her and moaning.

We have reported this to the school administrator, who has dealt with it. However, since these boys have been making vague threats about our daughter, we also notified the authorities.

This is all so confusing and infuriating. Have we done the right thing? Is there anything else we can or should do?

This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Sexual Harassment in Education, Retaliation, Backlash, and Victim-blaming. 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.

3 Responses to “This is all so confusing and infuriating”

Ryan Says:
December 30th, 2007 at 8:12 am
I think you did the right thing. While most of these threats may be “benign”, there are some people out there who believe that they can get away with anything if there is even the slightest chance they can push the boundary.

It is smart to stay very firm in these situations, and perhaps also smart to make sure your daughter has some way of defending herself, just in case.
C Yee Says:
January 4th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Please teach your daughter to speak up for herself too. It doesn’t get any better once they go to college and there’s no one there to protect them.

Most men are not animals, but the few that are can seriously damage your daughter’s trust and self-esteem. She needs to learn how to tell the difference and say “No!” and “Get lost, Creep!” to the ones that are.

If the harassment continues, it might make sense to have her report it directly to officials. It makes the statement that she is standing up for herself.

In retrospect, I wish my own parents were more open about men and sex. It would have helped me understand the delicate balance between trust and distrust.
Kaitlyn Says:
February 4th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
I was sexualy harrassed in eighth grade, it was stopped before it got this bad but I still had a very hard time dealing with it. You definitly did the right thing, I wish I had reported my harrassers to the police. Do whatever you can to make sure this stops ASAP! She’s my age, by the way.