I started my studies on a university course very happy in September. In October I started attending lectures on my course. I got unwanted attention from a male university lecturer who kept smiling at me. I thought it was my imagination but I used to get the train home from university, and he would be at the railway station watching me.  Again, I thought I imagined it but he kept showing up at the station, and outside the station he shouted lured sexual comments at me.
     I just felt very numb and the breaking point for me was at a mates birthday. I went to the student’s union bar for a night out. As I was ordering drinks, the university lecturer came over and started touching me in sexual places, and kissed me.
     I felt like a rape victim.
     I tried to confront him in a seminar class, but he intimidated me by saying that he got great joy from it.
     I reported him to my personal tutor but was not believed by my teachers even though I have witnesses.
     I have now changed my course and found out that the university lecturer who has abused me has just had a baby to my old business management teacher (she is one of the teachers who did not believe me). I feel sick every time I see both of them because they are still at my university, however I have had counselling to support me.

     It was my freshman year of high school that I was taking a science class with a “notoriously perverted” teacher, or so I’d been warned by peers.  Regardless, I needed the credit, and at a small high school, he was the only educator teaching the class.
     He proved to be overly casual for a teacher, that I noticed immediately.   And he would touch the girl’s backs, and look down our shirts.
     Once, he singled me out because of a skirt I was wearing. It was warm outside, and though my skirt had been short, it in no way broke school dress code.
     As everyone passed their papers to the front, he said to me “Bring that up here.”
     Confused, I asked “Why?” since everyone else in the class had passed theirs along the rows.
     All he responded was “I just want to see you do it.”
     So I obliged, walking to the front of the room to hand in the paper.
     As I walked, he watched my legs.  When I went back to my seat, he watched my butt the whole way, as reported by another student.
     Later, a girl reported him after he rubbed her back.  She was then transferred into a lower science class, and nothing was done to the teacher.

     My science teacher is 20 and I am 15.  He told me to stay after class one day.  I asked him “What for?” and he said that he wanted to talk to me about something and to sit down.   So I did.

     We started talking about school stuff and then he changes the subject and starts talking about my personal life and asking me questions like “What size bra do you wear?”

     I felt uncomfortable so I tried to change the subject.

     Then he started feeling my thigh.  He said, “You know, you are never to young to have sex.”

     I got up and headed for the door when he grabs me and throws me against the wall.  Then he forces himself on me.  I tried my hardest to get him off but he was too strong.   Then he unzips my jacket and unbuttons my shirt.  I was able to grab a pen from the board, and I stabbed him with it and ran.

     Then a few days later after cheerleading, I was in the locker room alone changing and he comes in there.  I tried to get as far away from him as I could but I tripped over this gym bag and fell but still tried to get away. 

     He came up to me and said that “It’s okay.” Then he put his hand up my skirt.  I tried to get up but he pinned me down and wouldn’t stop kissing me all over.   Then he unbuttoned his pants.

     I kicked him in the stomach and ran out to get help.  But no one believed me because he is such a nice teacher.  So I told my mom and she told the police but he didn’t get fired.  Everyday I wonder what would of happened if I didn’t kick him.  I sometimes cry when I think about it.

     I am a gay man and want to share my story.
     I was a PhD student and everyone said I could be a great professor or something like that. But everything changed when I went to a small European country to conduct fieldwork. (I was an anthropology major, so I had to do some research outside UK.) I needed to work with a particular professor there and he’s gay, but I didn’t think that would affect any aspects of my research or work with him.
     One day he invited me into his house to discuss my research. I went there and he was waiting for me, naked. He started talking about his sex life, and how much he likes to have sex with his students.  He told me how good looking and “cute” I was…Then he asked me to have a dinner at a restaurant with him. I was not comfortable at all but I felt I had to say yes in order to build a professional relation for my research. However, instead, he took me a gay bar, grabbed my hand and forced me to dance with him. I said “No” but he kept touching all over my body and I was completely disgusted.  A couple of days later, he again told me to come to his place to disuss my research. This time, he tried to rape me and I ran away. Later, he showed up at my home and forced me to have sex with him.
    Then he began to retaliate.  He has huge political power in his country and used it to prevent my research everywhere. He had promised me that I could teach at his university, but no. But the worst thing was that I needed his letter to obtain a visa, and he never wrote it. Also, everyone started talking about me, like “He’s your sugar daddy, isn’t he? I am sure you are so good at it and you can do anything in this country.”
     I really wanted to take legal action but never could because in that country almost all sexual harassment cases were dismissed, and there’s no such thing as gay rights there.
     So I reported what he did to my advisers at school and they told me to come back to the UK as my situation was “an extreme emergency.” I came back and talked with them. They gave me a new project to complete my PhD. I needed some rest so I went back to my mother’s house. I read papers and books and wrote a new proposal. But they never responded–there’s a strong connection between my advisers, my school, and this professor.  Instead of helping me, they buried the case.  I called everyone in the department but nothing came out of it. In the end I dropped out of the program.
    I got a very serious depression after the sexual harassment but it got worse after I left the school as it had been my dream to have a PhD and teach. Also since then I can’t form long-term relationships with guys as I am now afraid of men in some way. I also suffered from panic disorder for a while. And I am still traumatized–I can’t read any academic books, meet anyone from the school, I can go on and on regarding the effects this has had on me.
    This sexual harassment happened 2 years ago but I’m still struggling. I hope people will take sexual harassment at school and gay sexual harassment more seriously.

     My gym teacher, lets call him “Mr.Brown,” was in his mid to late forties, married, and had a daughter my age.

     I was in gym class one day and we were in our football unit. He had divided us into teams. I was just kinda a field player for my team and wasn’t really interested in what was going on.  Now when Mr. Brown came over to “check” on us, he decided he was going to play our quarterback for us.

     I didn’t care until he called me over be the center. He told me to bend over and hike the ball.  I told him I wasn’t comfortable with this, particularly since I was wearing shorts. 

     He told me I had to do it.  So, not wanting to get a bad grade, I did as I was told.

     But when I bent down to hike the ball, he didn’t reach for it.  He kept doing this over and over, but never once did he reach for the ball.  He made me do this almost six times that day.

      I am still confused and still feel violated and angry and sick about it all.  This all happened a little over a year ago, and my mom and family still don’t know.  My mother does still not know and i really want to tell her.. any suggestions on how?

     Listen to me,  if you can take your abuser to justice..do it!

     My story happened in 2004, when I first met with my professor.  At that time, I was thinking about applying for a master’s program in that school, and he is the chair.  He is nationally famous in the field, kind and  funny, widely loved by his students.  I liked him at first because he had been so patient, and really taught me a lot.  He also offered me an opportunity to do an Independent Study with him.

     But during that study, everything changed. When we were sitting at the table, talking about course reading, he was always trying to touch me. Then he would suggest we sit on the couch, saying he has a “bad back.”  Once we were on the couch,  his hand would be in my cloths…

     I didn’t know what to do. I tried to avoid meeting with him, but he was my mentor.  I thought about reporting him, but I feared no one would believe me, since he is just so famous and beloved.  I didn’t even have the courage to tell him to stop even though it seemed so easy to say, and even though I had been an advocate for sexual abuse victims…when it came to me, I just didn’t know what to do.

     I suffered through my master’s program, and didn’t tell anyone until I  graduated and got accepted by another school to do my PhD in 2007. Only  then, did I disclose it to my best girl friend.

     She asked me whether I wanted to report him now that I had no relation with him any more. But considering that my previous experience with a stalker wasn’t taken seriously by the university, I decided not to. Plus, I really just want to  put that behind me, and never think about it again. Or, just pretend  that it never happened…

     But it came back. I came back to haunt me. I know we always encourage  people to come out about it. But it is easier said than done.

     I was already finished with my first year of college and was taking a summer course. From the first day, I had an odd feeling about my professor, and even thought about dropping the class. Well, he said attend every class and he would pass us all, so I ended up going to every class and worked hard to do well.

     Over the semester, when I would go up to get my tests or have him explain something to me, he would usually smirk and start staring at my body. I thought he was just weird and didn’t think much of it at the time.

     I had food sickness on the day of the final and had to miss class.  Since he said it was a pass or fail class, I figured I would get a passing grade anyway.  So, I didn’t think of contacting him.

     A month later I looked at my grades and seen an F on the paper. I was shocked and annoyed because I knew I had done better than that.

     I contacted him and he told me he would let me make up the test.  I made it up and then he told me that I didn’t do well, but he didn’t show me the the paper nor did he even grade it or give it back.  Instead, he told me that we could work out some “deal.” 

     I thought maybe clean the classroom or take part in a school activity….

     But when I went to campus to give him my doctors note (for when I was sick), he told me that he wanted to go take a walk to talk.  We wound up at his car because he said he had to get some books out of it.  He then said, “Well, lets talk in here.”   

     I hesitated at first but figured he was my teacher, so it was okay.  He then asked me if I was ready to dance for him.  

     I asked, “What?!”   

     He said, “Strip for me, I have a hotel down the street.”   

     I was scared and in shock.  I said I need to get home, and he said, “Well, I’m doing all of this work for you, so you need to do something for me.”  He then said he would give me until Monday.

     I walked away in shock to the subway and just had a blank look on my face trying to told back the tears. I felt degraded.

     I went up to school that very week and told them what happened.  They took it very seriously.   But when it got to the main campus, I did not hear anything for a whole month. 

     I finally called them myself, and a women told me I would receive something in the mail.  Well, I did today and it said that they did not find enough evidence for my claim and have dismissed it.   I had written a 2/3 page document, and even had voice mails that he sent to me late at night.  But they told me they didn’t need to hear them.

     I am now finding a lawyer. I take it that the professor was close with the guy in charge.

     I have been harassed by quite a while now from a teacher at my school. I didn’t, and still don’t, really understand why I was the target.  I don’t think I “look” like the kind of girl that would get this kind of attention.

     Anyway this man was both my level manager and my P.E/Health teacher this year. Things started off small, so small I barely even noticed. For example I would go to leave the classroom at the end of class but he would deliberately stand in my way and I would bump into him, expecting him to move.  Whenever he came up to me he would say hello and eye me up and down, often lingering at my chest.

     Things started getting worse when I couldn’t do P.E anymore (I hurt my arm and had to take about 6 weeks off sport). While the rest off the class went out on a run around the school/oval I would have to help set up.  While I was carrying things he used to come up behind me, put his arms around me and ‘help’ me carry whatever I was holding.

     But I continued ignoring this until about 2 weeks into my injury. I was sitting down at the end of P.E class while the rest of the class was getting changed and he came and sat down and asking me questions about my arm etc etc. But he soon turned the conversation to more uncomfortable subjects, even asking me what sized cup I wore. I refused to tell him to he tried to lift up my top to see for himself so I shoved him off and ran out.

     Now, I am afraid to be alone to him, so if I ever have to see him, I take a friend with me. While he hasn’t touched me again, he has deliberately opened the gymnasium change room doors while I’m undressing.

     I haven’t told anyone except this site yet and I keep telling myself I will, but I don’t know…it’s just really hard, but when I find the strength one day I will tell about him

     I am a freshman in college and I just recently had to deal with sexual harassment with one of my professors.  He told the class to make meetings with him before each project was due, just so that we could see if we were on the right track.  Well, each time my friend and I would go see him, he would greet us with hugs.  We didn’t think so much about that at first until later. 

     About half way through the semester, I went down to his office by myself to discuss my presentation.  I was somewhat dressed up that day because I had to give a speech in my previous class.  I walked in and he said “Wow…that outfit looks amazing on you” but it wasn’t said in a seductive way. However, while I was leaving, he said “So what are you going to wear for class tomorrow?  Are you going to look hot tomorrow?”  At the time, though, I did not think so much about it.

     With about 5 weeks of school left, I went down to his office to discuss my final presentation.  We started to talk about the project but then he changed the subject.  He asked me to go get coffee with him later.  I said that I was busy and that I would not have time.  That was a lie.  I simply did not want to go.  Then, he started asking me about my sexual preference because I had talked to one of his other classes about gays, lesbians, bisexuals in high schools and college.  The questions were pretty basic at first but then he started to ask more personal questions that made me feel uncomfortable.  Then I changed the subject to talking about the project again.  Then, he asked me to come over to his house for dinner because he missed cooking for more than one person.  See, he lives by himself while his wife and baby daughter are somewhere else.  So, I said no because I was not about to go over to his house by myself.  My stomach twisted and got into knots when he said the phrase “dinner at my place”. 

     My gut instinct told me that I needed to get out of his office.  I stood up and said something about how I had essays to work on, even though I really didn’t.  My mind was spinning and I could not think straight.  He then said “oh, alright.  Well come here” and I figured that it would be the usual goodbye hug (which, of course, shouldn’t be usual).  However, he then scooped me up with an arm under my knees and one supporting my back and said “Wow.  You’re really light… I wish I could pick you up all the time” Even though I was absolutely shocked that I was in the air, I still managed to look up at him and he was looking straight down my shirt.  So, I said “okay seriously, put me down.  Now!”.  After he set me down, I walked very slowly out of his office but then I sprinted back to my room because I was shocked!

     I didn’t know what to do or who to tell.  Eventually, I went to my academic advisor and I told him about the situation.  He was very upset that this had happened to me and he called a person in the VPAA’s office.  I had to talk to a number of people in the school in order to officially file a complaint.  I eventually made it to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.  He told me that he was going to talk to my professor to get his side of the story which was only fair.  My professor ended up denying everything that he had done to me.  Everything.  Naturally, I was very upset at this.  In fact, I have never thought so angrily in my life!  After many meetings, the vice president arranged it so that I would never have to go back to that class ever again while still being able to pass the class.  I saw my professor in one of the halls and he walked up to me and said “Kaitlin, I do hope that we can still be friends”.  He was there to be my professor…Not my buddy.

     I wish that I could tell him the affect that this has had on me; physically, mentally, and even academically.  My grades slipped and since this happened at the end of the year, I barely had any time to pick up my grades.  Because of this, I had to attempt to concentrate on my finals. Even now, it is still hard to focus on things just because images come to my mind of what happened and of what could have happened.

     Now, I’m taking precautions each time I talk to a professor.  Even though I had a bad encounter with one professor, I still feel as though I can trust the others.  Why should I let him still have that control over me?  I should not let him and that situation control who I trust and cant trust. In fact, my academic advisor/sociology professor is now the person that I trust the most on my campus and I’m so glad that I have such a great support system at my college that is there for me when I need it the most.