Survey: Students face sexual harassment in HS

Yawu Miller

A survey conducted by teens working with a Jamaica Plain youth organization found that of 500 Boston high school students, 80 percent have experienced some form of sexual harassment during school hours.

Nearly half of the survey respondents — 49 percent — reported being touched, pinched or grabbed by other students or teachers.

The teens working for the Hyde Square Task Force released the survey Tuesday during a State House press conference. The students said they were not entirely surprised by the results.

“I was surprised that the percentage was so high,” said Ramon Vasquez, a student at the Brookfield Business Academy. “But I’ve seen it happen. Dudes are really ignorant. I didn’t pay attention to it before.”

The teens began their work on the issue of sexual harassment last year after several of their members complained of being harassed on the streets around the organization’s Jamaica Plain office.

They launched an anti-sexual harassment campaign, printing posters and holding a press conference in the spring that drew media attention to the issue.

Numerous complaints of harassment led the students to investigate the extent of the problem in the schools.

Cisnell Baez, a student at Brookfield Business Academy who was once blocked in front of her locker for five minutes by a boy, knows that her experience is far from an aberration.

“One in four people has been cornered,” she said, rattling off another statistic from the study. “My locker is in a corner. This boy who likes me was blocking me. I was like, ‘Get out of my face.’ He just stood there.”

Baez eventually cussed the boy out and pushed by him.

“But I missed five minutes of class,” she noted.

The teens worked with graduate students from Northeastern University and MIT to design the survey and learn how to analyze the data. They then spent two weeks polling their fellow students.

Kendra Lara, a student at the Jeremiah Burke High School, said the process of conducting the survey and the data they culled helped them better understand the issue.

“It puts everything into perspective,” she said. “We found out what the process was for filing a complaint. We also found out that it doesn’t work.”

According to the school department’s regulations, students who feel that they have been sexually harassed must report the incident to a teacher or principal within 24 hours.

The department’s Office of Equity then begins an investigation, interviewing the victim, perpetrator and any witnesses.

But the Task Force students found out that there are only two people assigned to the Office of Equity. With more than 31,000 middle and high school students in Boston, the office may be ill equipped to adequately address sexual harassment and other complaints lodged by students.

And, as the teens’ study found, 75 percent of the students surveyed are unaware of the complaint process.

The Task Force teens are calling on the school department to institute a better system for reporting incidents of sexual harassment and to offer more sex education classes that deal with the issue of harassment.

Currently 36 percent of the students in the system are not getting sex education, according to the study.

“We view this as a civil rights issue,” said Maanav Thakore, a community organizer with the Task Force. “The effects of this are very similar to the effects of other forms of abuse. It’s traumatic. It completely distracts young people from other aspects of their development.”

Thakore noted that many students interviewed said they often detour around parts of their school buildings where they are likely to be harassed.

Galicia Escarfullery, a student at the Boston Community Leadership Academy, says the Task Force survey will shed light on the issue and lead to positive changes.

“Now I know that the people who are coming through the system behind me are going to have a better chance of dealing with this,” she said. “They’ll have a better idea of what sexual harassment is and how to deal with it.”