All kinds of companies sexually harass teenagers.
As a former high school teacher and bullying prevention trainer, I regularly dealt with this problem. High school girls were proposed to, groped and required to date or perform a sexual act in order to get a job or a raise. Adolescent sexual victimization is a silent crime. As a career and technical educator, one of my responsibilities was to teach sexual harassment prevention to my juniors and seniors. After the performance, students would gather and share their “war” stories in the dining room, on the patio, or in the bathrooms.
How do I know this? The staff members would mention it to me and some of those girls would come by to talk to me. Brave students would stop me in the courtyard or stop by my classroom after school. These students were reluctant to admit that it had happened to them, so the conversation would usually be about a “friend” or relative who was involved in a sexual harassment situation. It was obvious that most of these “friends” thought they had to agree, that they caused it to happen, or that they didn’t want to get anyone in trouble. None of them wanted to admit that it happened to them… it just happened to their “nameless” friends.
A female student was asked if she had a boyfriend, if they had sex, and what kind of sex she liked during an interview. She got up and left.
A 17-year-old student spoke about an interviewer who told her she could get the job if she went out with him. She told him that she didn’t and didn’t get the job.
A 15-year-old girl told me she knew “someone” who had to perform oral sex on a boss to get a raise. She did not want to reveal the name of her “friend of hers”.
After graduating, one of my top students told me that she went to an interview where the owner of the company got up from his chair, walked behind her and started touching her breasts. She just sat there.
Unfortunately, this unacceptable behavior continues.
Why does this behavior occur?
- Few students are willing to report it.
- Sex is a commodity on campus and therefore seen as such off campus.
- Sexual harassment is commonplace on a high school campus and this translates into acceptable behavior off campus.
- Bullying prevention is not commonly taught in school.
- Business owners are not required to train their employees on sexual harassment prevention in most states.
What can be done to address this problem?
- Bullying on and off campus must be addressed in all high schools.
- Bullying prevention training must be offered in the first year.
- All companies must train their employees.
Teenagers are the unspoken victims of sexual harassment. They are easily exploited by authority figures and most likely won’t say anything. It is through education that schools can curb the sexual victimization of adolescents.