Youth Challenge
Unit 4: Tackling Sexual Harassment in Your School
Back to Table of Contents || Stage
3
Activity: What is sexual harassment?
Look at these situations.
There is a group of boys in the
school yard. They gather near the entrance to the girls’
toilets. They pick on some girls, but not others. Some girls
tell them to get lost; some just laugh at it; some ignore
it; some are really upset and affected by it.
There is one girl they always harass, and
try to flick her school uniform up as she goes past. They
also make sexual comments and remarks to her. They always
make sure that there are no teachers around when they do this.
They have told other students that there’s
no harm in it, it’s just a bit of fun. |
There is a boy who is very friendly
with a group of girls. He doesn’t mix with the sporty
males. They call him names and pick on him whenever they can,
especially in front of the girls.
He starts to avoid places where these boys
hang out, so starts to spend more time alone, and away from
a lot of the school facilities. Some of the girls stick up
for him, but most just walk away when he is being harassed
by the gang of boys. |
Choose one of these cases.
Think about such aspects as why the harassers are doing
it, how the harassed kids feel, what possible actions could be
taken, what the implications are for those involved and for the
whole school.
Summarise your ideas on each of the questions in the
spaces below. Comment on it from each of these points of view:
| The
student being harassed |
|
| One of the harassers |
|
| A
friend of the student being harassed |
|
| A
friend of the harasser |
|
| A
bystander |
|
| A
teacher on yard duty |
|
| The parent of the student being harassed |
|
| The parent of the student harassing others |
|
|
Discuss your ideas with your classmates. Did they come
up with similar responses to yours?
Work together to discuss the following questions. Write
down the major points raised by your classmates.
| Why
do people harass others? |
|
| How does harassment
make the target person feel? |
|
| What are the
best things a person who is being harassed can do about
it? |
|
| You see someone
being harassed - what are the best things you can do? |
|
|
Now that you have considered the legal definition of
sexual harassment, go back and look at the answers you gave in the
quiz in the first activity sheet. Would you change your responses
based on your new knowledge about the definition of sexual harassment?
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