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Scenario #1 Discussion Speaker: Dr. Erma Jean Sims, Sonoma State University Now you'll notice
in this scenario that is was male-to-female.
The *** harassment between two students could very easily have been male-to-male
or female student to female student and still constitute *** harassment
and in this instance Bobby is a male and Sarah is a female.
Does Bobby's actions constitute *** harassment?
Yes, we've got a lot of incidents and occurrences on the behalf of Bobby.
We know that Sarah does not want these advances we've got a couple clues about that.
She's already talked to the teacher, she's informed her mother,
and she's talked to the principal.
Usually a student will not go to this length unless they are feeling really harassed.
Frequently students don't want to get their fellow classmates in trouble.
Many times students are not sure if they've been really violated or not.
But Sarah has taken a lot of actions to alert the people in positions of authority
in her school that she does not want Bobby's advances.
So we do have *** harassment.
The question is when there's several things that Bobby's done; he's made references
to her ***, he's asked or made it clear that he'd like to sleep with her;
both those actions are *** harassment.
And now Bobby's placed a rubber doorstop in his slacks and has rubbed his body against her body;
so we've got physical contact now of a *** nature.
So we clearly have *** harassment.
For us the question once we've identified that we have *** harassment is that it's important
for us now to think about what we can do as teachers to stop
that kind of behavior in the classroom.
Something is going on with Bobby
and as a classroom teacher you would want to have a conversation with him.
He may be acting out things that he's seen in his home environment.
He may be acting in this way because of the influence of the media and the television
where most of the programming has some *** innuendos or some *** content.
Bobby may be in need of some counseling and we want to take all of these things
into consideration and put Bobby in touch with,
if we find that is the case, with the school psychologist.
We can make referrals as teachers to appropriate district personnel
in order to get our students help.
It's clear as you pointed out that Bobby is not certain about how to make his affections
and intentions known in a way that does not sexually harass Sarah.
The other thing that we know from previous slides in this presentation is
that we have got to make a record of this.
We need to record the details of what Sarah has said to you because you certainly want
to have a conversation with her around this.
These are things that Sarah has told you; there may be things that you have observed yourself.
You'll want to make a record of her allegations, but you also want to make a record
of your own observations around this incident or this kind of behavior.
We'll make a detailed accurate record.
It's important to go to your principal or vice principal immediately shortly
after receiving this information or as soon as possible.
Go in on your recess, your lunch, or right after school if you don't have coverage
for your classroom and share with him that Bobby is sexually harassing Sarah.
One of the things that this does is its means now that the site supervisor has been informed,
and as you know in the schools, the principals and vice principals get paid on the average
of sixty to ninety thousand dollars a year.
So if anyone is going to have the liability to fall
on their shoulders we certainly want to share it with them.
It is your responsibility to report the incident, as you know.
The other thing is we have a responsibility to intervene.
We now know that Bobby has the propensity
to sexually harass Sarah and other students in the room.
So as soon as you see any kind of behavior that would alert you that something's
about to happen, you have the opportunity to intervene.
We certainly have to interrupt this kind of behavior.