Activity: If these were seen and heard in your school …
Let’s start thinking about your school. Imagine that
you heard the comments and saw the incidents on the next pages.Would they
be examples of ‘sexual harassment’?
#
Is this an example of sexual harassment?
Yes
No
Don't Know
1.
“What
they’d do was get a ruler and try to stick it up your
skirt.
They’d it all the time. It
was so bad that I was begging the teachers to let me go to
another class.”
2.
“I was sitting in the
classroom and this boy walked behind me and shouted right
in my ear: ‘UGLY’. Then he kept on walking.
I was so shocked. I left the room,
I couldn’t cope. At that age you’re going through
a vulnerable period - so that just crushed me”.
3.
A girl approaches a group of
girls. They turn away and ignore her, and exclude her from their
group, saying ‘We don’t want a lezzo like you with
us'.
4.
A boy calls a girl over to his
locker. He shows her a picture of a naked woman. The girl looks
and then walks quickly away.
5.
A boy and a girl are hugging
each other. She laughs and tells him that he’s only after
one thing. He laughs, pulls her closer and kisses her. It is
clear that they like each other.
6.
A boy bumps into a girl and
then brushes against her front, but it seems to be deliberate
because he’s done it to her before. She reacts sharply
and pushes him away. He laughs and says, ‘It was only
an accident’!
7.
‘Look, we have this teacher
and he doesn’t really do anything, it’s just the
way he always comes up behind us girls, and looks over our shoulders
while we are working. Sometimes he seems to look down the front
of our dresses. It’s really creepy!’
8.
‘I usually get a hard
time about hanging out with the girls in class and at lunchtime.
Because I spend time with girls, I get called a faggot - which
makes me feel pretty bad, like I’m not a real guy.’
9.
'As a young female teacher in
a boys’ school, they often try to provoke me by asking
if I was out last night, did I get home, do I have a boyfriend.
It’s juvenile and I ignore it.'
10.
‘Look at Jenny - the way
she wears those short skirts and tight tops. She’s just
asking for comments - right Tim? Well, if she’s advertising,
I may as well take a visit to the shop. See ya later.’
11.
‘I was new at the school.
Now I’m not a big sports jock or anything, so on the very
first day these feral girls grabbed me, started calling me ‘gay’
and ‘queer’. They dacked me in the schoolyard and
then ran away. Kids everywhere were laughing at me.’
12.
A group of students graffiti
comments in the boys’ toilet about another girl and her
sexual experiences.
How did you go with these comments and situations?
You have probably decided that some were definitely sexual
harassment, some were more general bullying and some you could not be
sure about.
To decide if your answers to the previous pages are accurate,
you need to know the definition of sexual harassment.
The Sex Discrimination Act gives the following
defnition:
Sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual behaviour which
makes a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated and that
this reaction could reasonably have been expected in the circumstances.
It has nothing to do with mutual attraction or friendship.
Unwanted or unwelcome sexual behaviour can include:
