Teaching about Sexual Harassment

The Teaching Tolerance Website has some great articles for elementary and secondary school teachers to think about respecting others.  Recently, the issue of sexual harassment was addressed.  Here are excerpts.  The entire article can be found at https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/discussing-sexual-harassment-in-the-classroom

 

Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Charlie Rose, Al Franken, Louis C.K, Ben Affleck, Matt Lauer. This is just a tiny sample of the growing list of men who have been accused of sexual harassment or sexual assault in recent weeks. Many, though not all, of these men have been publicly terminated or asked to resign from their positions. 

It is no secret that powerful people sometimes abuse their power, and that this often leads to sexual abuse or harassment. What’s new is that people who hadn’t felt comfortable coming forward before—mostly, but not exclusively, women—are feeling empowered to do so now, and the public is finally seeing these men being held accountable for their actions.

Since this is happening en masse, and since these men are very high-profile celebrities, it is everywhere in the news. Our students are probably hearing about this on a daily basis, so it is vital we address it in our classrooms. Whether we initiate the discussion or the conversation develops naturally from a student comment or question, there are some important things to consider when dealing with such a sensitive topic.

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Depending on the age of your students, their comfort level with the material and your own comfort level, you may choose to talk more generally about power. Here are some questions to consider asking students:

• How does having power affect one’s sense of privilege? How might that lead to oppression or abuse?
• What might inspire survivors of abuse to come forward? 
• What has to happen for us as a society to take these allegations seriously and create a better world where these things happen less and less? 

Diving into these questions in the safe space of the classroom can help students make sense of why these stories seem to be at the top of their newsfeed every day. This discussion can also be a good opportunity to remind students of ways they can support survivors of harassment or assault by empowering and affirming survivors while also encouraging them to tell a trusted adult. Students might discuss the importance of simply listening to survivors’ stories, rather than making the situation worse by teasing, discounting or blaming them.

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It is also important to be prepared to encounter students who subscribe to the “boys will be boys” mentality. In that case, you might take time to clearly reframe the issue, reminding them that this isn’t about chromosomes or hormones, but rather about power, influence and leverage. This is also a good opportunity to point out that people of all sexes and gender identities can be survivors and abusers. We hope those in positions of power would be careful not to use their positions for atrocious acts such as those we’ve been reading about in the news. But it’s important that we hold abusers of power accountable and work to dismantle the structures that allow such abuse to happen.

Regardless of how the conversation starts or where it goes, it is essential that we as educators acknowledge that the national conversation unfolding outside our classroom doors exists. Engaging our students in a conversation about sexual harassment and assault in a genuine, sensitive manner will not only help them process the information they are hearing but will also remind them that—with everyone’s hard work—we can make the world a better place for them when they enter the workplace.