Boys Gender and Schooling > Issues for schools > Better behaviour >

Addressing sex-based harassment at school

While definitions and guidelines are a useful starting point, teachers and others in schools will always be called upon to make professional judgments. Good professional development and a whole-school approach can strengthen and support the efforts of school personnel to ensure a safe, supportive environment for all students.

If we do not take action against sex-based harassment, then in the eyes of our students we legitimise harassing behaviours and gender hierarchies. We support the marginalisation of some while privileging others. Only by taking action can we 'open out to students the possibilities of more equitable and respectful relationships …' (Alloway 2000:14).

Alloway (2000:29) makes the point:

Regardless of how many official policies and procedures are in place to prohibit it, if educators do not take action against sex-based harassment, they nod their heads in tacit assent to its practice.

A strong policy platform addressing issues of gender and harassment has supported some excellent work in schools. However there is evidence that progress has been uneven and significant difficulties are still prevalent.

Research throughout the 1990s demonstrated that:

40% of primary and 45% of secondary students (in a study of over 10,000 students) reported that 'nothing happened' at their school when they complained about sex-based harassment (Collins et al. 1996:173);
groups such as Indigenous students (Herbert 1995), high school girls from various backgrounds (Gilbert and Gilbert 1995) and same-sex attracted young people (Hillier et al. 1998) report a similar lack of school response.

Consequences of inaction

The consequences of a lack of action on sex-based harassment in schools are serious and far-reaching. They include:

continued underperformance, alienation and disconnection from school by targeted individuals and groups
damaging health impacts including injury, anxiety, depression and self-harm, and links with homelessness and poverty
limited choices and experiences for all students because of gender boundary policing and a potentially hostile learning environment
links between 'at school' and 'outside school' sex-based harassment and violence, with offenders in both arenas overwhelmingly male
increasing litigation involving schools' failure to protect students from harassment.

^ Top of page