Sexual Harassment
“It started out as simple fun—emailing off-color jokes to a group of friends, joking with each other in the teacher’s lounge, meeting with a group of friends after work for down time. Then he started making sexual comments about others to me, started mentioning when his wife would be out of town, getting a little too close. I enjoy our friendship but am starting to get uncomfortable. He’s my team leader, though, so I don’t want to jeopardize my job. I love my job. I don’t know what to do….”
 
Sexual harassment between students, teachers, or students and teachers is illegal and prohibited by law. To learn how to protect yourself and others from sexual harassment, read the following information.

Enduring Understanding:

Board policy prohibits sexual harassment and requires all recognized and reported sexual harassment to be investigated.

Essential Questions:

  1. What constitutes sexual harassment for students and employees?

  2. How do I report sexual harassment?

  3. What occurs after sexual harassment is reported?

Did you know?

Texas Penal Code, Section 21.12(a) makes it a second degree felony for any employee of a public school to engage in sexual contact, sexual intercourse, or deviant sexual intercourse with a person (except the employee's spouse) who is enrolled in the same school.

What constitutes sexual harassment?

Board policy for students states that:

Board policy for employees states that:

Sexual Harassment of Students by School Employees

The following links to the district's updated policies will be available online in October 2005.

Employee Welfare: Freedom from Harassment DIA (Local)
Employee Welfare: Freedom from Harassment DIA (Legal)

Title IX protects students from unlawful sexual harassment in all of a school’s programs or activities, whether they take place in the facilities of the school, on a school bus, or at a class or training program sponsored by the school at another location. Title IX protects both male and female students from sexual harassment, regardless of who the harasser is.

Sexual harassment of students by school employees may be of a quid pro quo nature.

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§A school employee may cause a student to believe that he or she must submit to unwelcome sexual conduct in order to participate in a school program or activity

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An employee may cause a student to believe that the employee will make an educational decision based on whether or not the student submits to unwelcome sexual conduct

 

  • An example: A teacher threatens to fail a student unless the student agrees to date the teacher.

Sexual harassment of students by school employees may create a hostile environment.

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§Unwelcome sexually-harassing conduct may be so severe, persistent, or pervasive that it affects a student's ability to participate in or benefit from an education program or activity or creates an intimidating, threatening or abusive educational environment

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A hostile environment can be created by a school employee or someone visiting the school, such as an employee from another school or from an outside contractor

The school district may be liable if a school employee sexually harasses a student and a school official who has the authority to address the harassing behavior has actual knowledge of it and fails to adequately respond, or is deliberately indifferent to the conduct.

An individual supervisory school official may be held personally liable for a subordinate's sexual harassment and/or abuse of a student if the supervisory official knew of facts or a pattern of inappropriate sexual behavior by a subordinate pointing plainly toward the conclusion that the subordinate was sexually harassing and/or abusing the student and the supervisory school official was deliberately indifferent and failed to take action obviously necessary to prevent or stop the harassment/abuse.

Sexual Harassment of Students by Other Students

Only one of the links below to the district's policies is available now. The other district policies are being updated will be available online in October 2005.

Student Welfare: Freedom from Harassment FFH (Legal)
Student Welfare: Freedom from Harassment FFH (Local)
Student Welfare: Child Abuse and Neglect FFG (Legal)
Student Welfare: Child Abuse and Neglect FFG (Local)

The school district may be liable for sexual harassment of a student by another student if certain criteria are met. The student must be subjected to gender-oriented conduct that is severe, pervasive and objectively offensive to such an extent that it denies the student an equal educational opportunity or benefit or creates an intimidating, threatening, hostile or offensive educational environment. Also, a school official must have actual knowledge of the sexual harassment and is deliberately indifferent to it, thereby causing damage to the student.

Sexual Harassment does not include simple acts of teasing and name-calling among our school children, however, even when the conduct targets differences in gender.

Regardless of which type of harassment occurs, a school must take immediate and appropriate steps to stop it and prevent it from happening again. The judgment and common sense of teachers and administrators are important elements of any response. However, the school is responsible for taking all reasonable steps to ensure a safe learning environment. The school district can be held liable unless reasonable steps are taken to prevent student-to-student harassment.

In the 2001 American Association of University Women (AAUW) study "Hostile Hallways,"

  • 83% of all girls and 79% of boys reported having been harassed at school

  • 76% of students have experienced non-physical harassment while 58% have experienced physical harassment

  • Girls are more likely to report being negatively affected by sexual harassment

 http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/ocrshpam.html

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

Sexual harassment in the workplace is a form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Sexual harassment may take the form of quid pro quo harassment or hostile environment harassment.

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.

Sexual harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances, including but not limited to the following:

  • The victim as well as the harasser may be a woman or a man. The victim does not have to be of the opposite sex.

  • The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee.

  • Sexual harassment can occur even though the victim submits to the advances.

  • Unlawful sexual harassment may occur without economic injury to or discharge of the victim.

  • The harasser's conduct must be unwelcome.

It is helpful for the victim to inform the harasser directly that the conduct is unwelcome and must stop. The victim should use any employer complaint mechanism or grievance system available. (Source: http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-sex.html)
 
Examples of potential sexual harassment

  • Calling a person a hunk, doll, babe, or honey

  • Asking personal questions about sex life

  • Making sexual comments about a person's clothing, body, or looks

  • Telling lies or spreading rumors about a person's sex life

  • Turning a reply into a sexual comment

  • Turning work discussions to sexual topics

  • Asking about sexual fantasies, preferences, or history

  • Making suggestive sounds

  • Telling jokes of a sexual nature

The school district may be liable if a supervisor with authority to take corrective action failed to take immediate and appropriate action reasonably calculated to end the harassment.

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How do I report sexual harassment?

  • Any person who knows or believes that any student or employee, including him or herself, has been the subject of sexual harassment should immediately report the alleged acts.

  • The report may be to the:

    • Campus principal or immediate supervisor

    • Human resources office at the Instructional Support Center (ISC)

    • Title IX Coordinator (Roy Garcia)

    • Superintendent

  • Report can be oral or in writing

  • Report must include:

    • Name of the alleged harasser

    • Detailed description of harassing acts

    • Names of any possible witnesses

    • Time period of harassing acts

    • Whether any tangible job action has occurred (demotion, termination, missed promotion, undesirable job assignment)

  • Complainant will NOT be required to confront the alleged harasser as part of the reporting or investigatory process.

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What occurs after sexual harassment is reported?

  • All reported sexual harassment will be investigated

  • Employees may report harassment to a supervisor or campus principal, the Office of Human Resources, the district's Title IX Coordinator (Roy Garcia), or the Superintendent.

  • Complaint procedures are outlined in DIA (Local) for employees and FFH (Local) for students

 

Check-up Questions:

  1. (Choose one) Title IX protects (students, employees, employees & students) from sexual harassment.

  2. (Choose one) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects (students, employees, employees & students) from sexual harassment.

  3. (Choose one) Students must be protected from sexual harassment while:
    a. At school   
    b. On the school bus   
    c. At a school event off campus   
    d. All of the above

  4. (True/False) Schools may not be held liable for student-to-student sexual harassment if they took reasonable measures to prevent the harassment.

  5. (True/False) When reporting sexual abuse, the complainant must face the harasser as part of the reporting and investigatory process.

Have questions about sexual harassment?
Your CFISD contact person is:
Marney Sims (marney.sims@cfisd.net)

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