From: morgan@ms.uky.edu (Wes Morgan)
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.admin.policy
Subject: Re: Preventing Sexual Harassment?
Date: 5 Nov 92 16:12:53 GMT
    <1992Nov4.235558.7145@oracle.us.oracle.com>
Organization: University of Kentucky Engineering Computing Center

rchilder@us.oracle.com (Richard Childers) wrote:
>morgan@engr.uky.edu (Wes Morgan) writes:
>
>>	"In Petaluma, Calif., eighth grader Tawnya Brawdy had to run a gant-
>>	 let of boys gathered outside her school who would begin mooing
>>	 as she approached. [...] The US Department of Education found, in a
>>	 211-page report, that the schools had failed to protect her."
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>	"In what other school boards might consider a warning, Brawdy sued her 
>>	 district over "emotional distress" and collected $20,000 in an out-
>>	 of-court settlement.  Most judgments in these cases have been small,
>>	 but the potential number of plaintiffs is huge."
>
>Good for her.

Is it really good for her?  I'll discuss that a bit later......

>>There we have it; second-grade teasing is now sexual harassment, and schools
>>are being found liable for failure to prevent it.  What does this mean to
>>your typical university computing facility, where a wealth of potentially-
>>harassing material is easily available?
>
>You're full of it.  I read 'eighth grade'. Where is 'second grade' ?

I was referring to the 'maturity level', rather than the actual grade level
of the parties involved in this particular incident.  However, I believe that 
the _Newsweek_ article mentioned other cases involving primary students; if 
you'd like to read the article, I can dig up the appropriate issue.....

>>[It should also be noted that state universities are included in Title IX
>> of the Education Act of 1972.  Therefore, these cases could probably serve
>> as legal precedent for similar lawsuits at the university level. ]
>
>We'll just have to see, won't we.

I will admit that I posted these excerpts with a certain attitude; I don't 
believe that lawsuits are the answer.  In the case of the eighth grader, no 
mention is made of her parents contacting other parents OR of any efforts by 
ANYONE involved to settle the matter outside of the courtroom.  I've read 
several articles about these cases, and all of them seem to agree that the 
matter was handled as "the school isn't doing its job, so let's sue them".  

Bleah.

I guess that I look at things a bit differently than these parents.  I can
remember having problems with a few classmates, thanks to my size (currently
6'5" and 285 lbs.).  When the school's efforts failed, my parents sat
down with the parents of the other kids involved; the matter was dealt with,
and neither the school administration nor the judicial system had to be in-
volved.  I think we've all seen similar situations handled in the same man-
ner.  I consider such things as part of "parental responsibility".

Today, things are different.  As I mentioned earlier, the parents of the
'victimized' child apparently made no effort to deal with the situation 
as adults.  Apparently, they expected the school to conduct their parenting
for them.  I see a few possible means of solving this problem:
	- Teacher(s)/administrator(s) talk to the kids
	- Parent(s) talk to the kids
	- Teacher(s) AND parent(s) talk to the kids
	- Take the matter to the School Board
	- Take the matter to the State Department of Education
	- Sue the school IF none of the above attempts are successful
According to everything I've read, the parents involved went directly to
the last option; essentially, they went outside the system.  Which approach
(or approaches) would have been more beneficial to the children?  Do we want
to teach our children that lawsuits are the answer?  I find it REALLY hard
to believe that a bit of communication among the parents would not have solved 
the problem.

>There is no doubt that sexual harrassment can be _abused_, just as much as it
>can be _used_, and it is the responsibility of all interested parties to see
>that such charges aren't made spuriously, since this only weakens the regard
>people pay to such charges, in the long run, and destroys the usability of the
>laws, as well as acting against the long-term interests of the women's move-
>ment.

Agreed!  However, harassment is an _individual_ offense; I haven't read of
many cases involving *institutional* sexual harassment.  What did suing the
school *really* do to the harassing students?  What did they learn?  Is it
proper to teach kids that someone else (namely, the school) will pay for 
their mistakes/violations?

>Imagine the following scenario :
>
>	Radical lesbian gets bitmapped image of high school boy in his
>	jockey shorts, strapped down and being whipped. She displays it
>	on her workstation, as a screenlock.
>
>	Watch the men object !! ( As well as some women, no doubt. )

OK, what would you do if, after asking her to stop displaying the image,
she continued to do so?  Would you automatically sue the employer?


--Wes
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