What Should Students Do If They Experience Harassment at School?

Remember, harassment is not the student's fault. Every student has a right to an educational setting free of harassment. There are actions students can take to end the harassment.

- Tell the harasser in person or in writing that the behavior is not welcome. Ask them to stop. Be specific about actions or words that make the student uncomfortable.

- Tell someone else about the harassment, a trusted adult or friend.

- Keepa written record of the incidents of harassment, including notes of witnesses who might have observed the incident.

- If the harassment does not stop, report it to school administration. A parent or friend can accompany the student if support is desired.

- If the school does not take prompt action to stop and resolvethe complaint, file a complaint with an external agency like the Iowa Civil Rights Commission or the Iowa Department of Education.

For additional information on harassment or other issues regarding discrimination, you may also want to contact the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, the Iowa Department of Education, Iowa Pride Network, or the Iowa Safe Schools Taskforce.

What Do Schools Need to Do About Harassment?

An important part of a school's program is to take steps to prevent harassment before it occurs. An institution needs to raise the issue and confront harassment before it becomes a problem.

- Acknowledge the problem; don't deny that it could happen in your school.

- Provide training to administrators, staff, and students so that they understand and recognize prohibited behavior and how to report it.

- Administrators, teachers and adult staff should set a good example of professional behavior.

- Under Title IX, schools should have a policy prohibiting sexual harassment. Administrators, teachers and students must be informed of the policy.
- Under Title IX, schools must establish a grievance procedure that is adequate and suitable for dealing with sexual harassment complaints.

Once a harassment complaint has been filed, the school administration needs to take prompt remedial action.

- When a harassment complaint is filed, take it seriously. Assure the person that a prompt and confidential investigation will take place.

- Designate and train persons to investigate complaints. Sensitivity to the problem, sound professional judgment, and knowledge of legal standards of investigation are important.

- If the investigation shows that the harassment did happen, take prompt disciplinary action against the harasser.

What Activities Constitute Harassment?

Harassment, which is not welcomed by the recipient, falls into into four types of behavior:

1. Physical: touching in a sexual manner, pinching, rubbing up against, gestures, assault.

2. Verbal: jokes of a racial, ethnic, or sexual nature; comments or questions about a person's body, dress, or personal life, using demeaning or inappropriate terms; using crude and offensive language of a sexual nature, name-calling or racial or ethnic slurs; demeaning comments about age, disability, or sexual orientation.

3. Visual: cartoons, drawings, or caricatures of a racial, ethnic, or sexual nature; pin-up pictures or calendars; displaying sexual objects in offices or rental units. Electronic messages or e-mail are frequently used for inappropriate personal messages, or to distribute jokes and cartoons that are offensive. Even after these messages are deleted on the computer, they can be retrieved to use as evidence of harassment.

4. Hazing: teasing, practical jokes of a sexual, racial or ethnic nature, ostracizing, starting or spreading rumorabout a person's personal life or sexual activities.

What is the Emotional Impact on Students Who Experience Harassment?

Students who have been harassed have reported the following feelings and actions:

- Not wanting to attend school; staying home, or cutting class
- Not wanting to talk as much in class
- Finding it hard to pay attention
- Making a lower grade on a test or in a class
- Wanting to change schools or even drop out
- Dropping out of chosen classes or field of study
- Not being able to obtain customary letters of reference or recommendations from a teacher

Are There Protections Against Harassment in Schools?

Harassment in Education: It is Against the Law!

Harassment is illegal in all areas protected by Iowa Code Chapter 216. This includes education, employment, public accommodations, credit and housing.

Acts of harassment take place every day in schools across the country. Frequently these acts, even if reported to administration, are dismissed as harmless, as "kids will be kids," or as "no big deal." Many people do not realize that harassment that interferes with a person's educational progress is illegal, just as it is illegal in the workplace.

Harassment because of sex, race, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and physical and mental disability is illegal. Both boys and girls can experience sexual harassment. And both girls and boys could be harassed by someone of the same sex.

Hallways and classrooms are the places where harassment most frequently takes place, in spite of the fact that these places are public and other people are usually present. Other places where harassment takes place include school grounds, the gymnasium, pool, locker rooms, restrooms, parking lots, school buses and on field trips. Four out of five students who are harassed are targeted by a current or former student of their school, with the remainder of the harassment coming from adults or school staff.

What Does the Iowa Safe Schools Law Prohibit?

Iowa Safe Schools Law
Effective September 1, 2007, Iowa Code Chapter 280 requires both public and private schools to establish policies prohibiting harassment and bullying against students by employers, schools volunteers, or other students. Students may now seek remedies under both Chapter 216 (Civil Rights Act) and Chapter 280.

What Does This Law Prohibit?
"Harassment" or "bullying" can e written, verbal, electronic, or physical conduct based on an actual or perceived trait or characteristic of the student which creates an objectively hostile school environment. "Hostile environment" means one or more of the following:

• Conduct which places the student in reasonable fear of harm to the student's person or property
• Conduct which has a substantially detrimental effect on the student's physical or mental health
• Conduct which substantially interferes with a student's academic performance
• Conduct which substantially interferes with the student's ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities, or privileges provided by a school

Who Does This Law Protect?
The safe schools law, unlike the Iowa Civil Rights Act, applies only to students, not to school employees.

How Can Harassment Affect Employers?

The Costs of Harassment

Harassment is expensive. A harassing atmosphere at work will cause low employee morale and high turnover. Low morale usually translates to low production or poor quality work. Many times a victim of harassment will simply quit and leave a job rather than have a confrontation about it. This costs money for the employer to hire and train new workers.

There are costs involved if a harassment complaint is filed internally with the employer, i.e., staff time needed to investigate and resolve the complaint. If a complaint is filed with an enforcement agency, there will be additional costs for staff time and legal counsel to respond to the complaint.

If there is an adverse decision from the enforcement agency or a court, the employer may have to pay damages for lost pay or emotional distress. If a charge of harassment becomes public knowledge, a business could suffer a loss of customers and public good will.

Employer Liability

When a termination has been made that harassment did occur in the workplace, the follow liability standards apply:

• Harassment by a supervisor or manager involving a "tangible job action": the employer is always liable. A "tangible job action" includes such things as hiring, firing, failure to promote, loss or raise, etc.
• Harassment by a supervisor or manager involving hostile environment: employer is liable unless the employer proves that they exercised reasonable care to prevent and remedy any harassing behavior, and that the complainant filed to take advantage of preventive or corrective measures or otherwise avoid harm.
• Harassment by a supervisor or manager: the harasser may be individually liable, as well as the employer.
• Harassment by a co-worker, non-employee or other outside person: the employer is liable if the employer knew or should have known about the harassment and did not take prompt remedial action.
• Co-workers may also be individually liable for damages caused by harassment.

Owners, managers and supervisors need to be aware of the provisions of the laws prohibiting harassment in order to handle problems if and when they occur.

What is Workplace Harassment and Are There Laws that Prohibit It?

What is Harassment?

Harassment is behavior which has the effect of humiliating, intimidating, or coercing someone through personal attack. It is behavior that will make someone uncomfortable or embarrassed, and cause emotional distress. It frequently occurs when one person wants to exert power or control over another person.

Harassment may be intentional with a person targeted personally, or it may be unintentional. What matters is how the person receiving the behavior perceives it to be.

While harassment because of sex gets the most attention, harassment because of other protected characteristics such as race, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, or physical and mental disability is also prohibited under state and federal laws. Harassment because of marital status or appearance may also be illegal, depending on jurisdiction; it is always disrespectful and inappropriate workplace behavior.

The Laws that Prohibit Harassment

Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in the workplace because of race, color, sex, religion, and national origin. Other federal laws prohibit discrimination because of age or disability. Harassment is a form of discrimination covered under these laws.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued guidelines on sexual harassment in behavior and which set forth the standards followed by enforcement agencies and the courts in handling charges of sexual harassment. The definition's framework can also be applied to harassment for other reasons.

The Iowa Civil Rights Act of 1965, Iowa Code Chapter 216, also prohibits employment discrimination because of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, national origin, age, color, or disability. Harassment is considered to be a form of prohibited discrimination. The state goes beyond Title VII by also prohibiting discrimination in the areas of housing, public accommodations, credit, and education.

In addition, many cities have human rights / civil rights ordinances that prohibit discrimination in the workplace.