University of Georgia

Terry College of Business
 
 

In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school districts are liable for hostile environments created by harassers and can be sued for damages. But the court has yet to rule on whether this liability extends to peer harassment.

Attorneys litigating such suits argue that schools that are aware of sexual harassment among students but fail to address it violate Title IX. That 1972 civil rights law prohibits federally funded educational institutions from denying students opportunities on the basis of their sex.

While most district courts have allowed students to use Title IX in cases of peer harassment, in November, a jury decided against Eve Bruneau, who sued New York’s South Korright Central School District for ignoring complaints that she has been harassed by male classmates. The panel ruled that South Kortright was not liable under Title IX.

The wave of litigation may be what finally prompted the U.S. Department of Education to publish peer sexual harassment guidelines. The manual states that schools that do nothing to remedy peer sexual harassment could lose funds.

Unfortunately, schools still aren’t always clear about what constitutes sexual harassment. In separate incidents last fall, two boys, ages six, and seven, were suspended from their respective schools in North Carolina and New York for kissing classmates.

"I’m uncomfortable with the general atmosphere of schools having rules against consensual touching. They’re just stigmatizing sex, not teaching appropriate behavior," says Judith Levine, who is working on a book titled Innocence and Experience: America’s Battle Over Children’s Sexuality. "Feminists must battle to have schools teach children about sex and to tell both boys and girls how to get the things they want without hurting."

Two groups are addressing the problem. Nan Stein, director of the Sexual Harassment in Schools Project at Wellesh College Center for Research on Women, has sold more than 17,000 copies of her curricula - "Bully Proof" and "Flirting or Hurting."

The other group, Stop Harassment in Public Schools founded by Texas attorney Sylvia Cedillo, has conducted awareness workshops with about 3,000 students and organized an annual training conference for administration.

Says Cedillo: "You don’t wake up and decide to show your girlfriend around - it’s learned behavior. School’s need to recognize that ending harassment is as important as beating drug addiction."

Ms. Magazine, March/April 1997