According to CCHS guidance counselor Karen Smith, many high school students may be unable to tell where the line exists between harmless play and harassment, or when they’ve crossed it. “There’s some confusion over where that boundary line is,” Smith said.
By KATY MAYFIELD – Print Staff Writer
Recent widespread national news coverage covering sexual assault, harassment and consent has sparked conversations of the issues within the Clarke Central High School community.Video by Nicholas Byrne.
As hundreds of students at Clarke Central High School bustle through the dim, crowded hallways to get to their classes, shouts erupt every so often, usually from male students lining the walls or trailing female students, who try to ignore what they hear. “Hey, girl!”, “Damn,”, “What’s up?” Sometimes girls strike back with a slap or a defensive gesture. Other times, they avert their eyes to the ground and just keep moving.
Sophomore McKenzie Valentine says she experiences both verbal and physical forms of harassment up to three times a day, most frequently while walking the halls between classes.
“The other day I was with my friend and we were walking down the hallway and some guys turned around and started catcalling us and I looked at them and told them, ‘Hey, look, that’s not right.’” Valentine said. “For us females, we’re basically a toy to guys. It really brings down your self esteem, it hurts your feelings, it makes you feel like you’re nothing… knowing that from experience.”
The Clarke County School District Code of Conduct defines sexual harassment as “unwelcome verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct that is sexual in nature which interferes… with another person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the school’s educational programs.” This includes “offensive sexual flirtations, advances, or propositions” and “offensive verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” Sexual harassment can take many forms: catcalling, groping, or repeatedly asking for or demanding sexual favors.
Freshman Hallai Ferrer says that she, too, has been targeted. Ferrer says that, after a while, she became desensitized to harassment.
“(A male student) was talking about me, saying that he liked the clothes I had on, and I took that as a compliment, but he kept going on, he said ‘You look thick in them jeans,’ and stuff like that, and after that it kind of felt uncomfortable,” Ferrer said. Ferrer said she didn’t report the harassment to administration. “(Verbal harassment) has happened to me before. And I’ve just gotten used to it, I just don’t care about it anymore,” Ferrer said.
Sophomore Derek Wheeler says the frequency with which he sees not only verbal, but also physical harassment is unsettling.
“At least three times every five minutes when you’re walking down the halls you can’t help but overhear that it’s all pretty much sexual talk. I mean, everybody’s calling to each other and everybody’s feeling up on each other. It’s quite a scene,” Wheeler said.
Valentine, too, says the kind of harassment she sees goes beyond “sexual talk”.
“(I see) boys chasing down the girls and pinning them down against the wall,” Valentine said.
During each class change, Math department teacher Eric McCullough stands as a hall monitor outside his classroom on the main hall, where he says frequent threats and other sexually coercive behavior occurs.
“I see a lot of grabbing, touching inappropriately, whether it’s on the butt or on the breast or wherever, as well as the way they talk,” McCullough said. “With the harassment issue, (students) don’t necessarily see it as harassment because it’s how they feel they interact with each other.”
Wheeler said he rarely sees victims react strongly to being harassed.
“They usually play it off as if it’s fun, as if it’s a joke. They’ll give a nice shove or a playful laugh but usually they don’t take it seriously,” Wheeler said.
Sophomore Lawson Landers, however, says that while harassment may exist, he does not see it as a major issue that needs addressing.
“I think there’s more important things to focus on. Like, making people do better in class and stuff is more important than focusing on what goes on in the hallway,” Landers said.
Senior Martin Garin says he has simply never witnessed harassment at CCHS.
“I just haven’t been exposed to it, I haven’t seen it. I could see that (happening) but I haven’t witnessed it,” Garin said.
None of those students reported what they would identify as harassment to administration, for various reasons, paramount of which is the feeling that it is not bystanders’ responsibility to report, according to Fleming.
“I wouldn’t (report harassment) because it’s not my business,” Fleming said.
Even when students are aware that sexual harassment is taking place many are unwilling to tell and authority figure according to counselor Susan Strickland. “I don’t know if it is a lack of trust of adults, if it’s a desire to want to handle it alone,” Strickland said.
Counselor Susan Strickland says the apparent anti-reporting culture among students is one of the biggest issues in terms of harassment at CCHS.
“The code of silence among students– that right there is the biggest barrier. And I don’t know if it’s a lack of trust of adults, if it’s a desire to want to handle it alone or be there for friends and handle it or if it’s not recognizing when some adult intervention could happen,” Strickland said.
Clinical psychologist and CCSD guidance counselor Karen Smith, whose daughter attends CCHS, attributes the pervasiveness of the issue to miscommunication between students.
“There’s definitely some real, clear, crossing the boundary issues if someone is being hurt, but maybe there’s some confusion over where that boundary line is between appreciation and harassment,” Smith said. “And then there’s another boundary between disrespectful and harassing or coercive, and another boundary between coercive and abusive.”
On Nov. 11, the CCHS PTSO held a meeting entitled “Dating Culture in High School and Beyond: From Sexting to Consent to Assault… It’s Complicated.” Smith, who serves as the PTSO secretary, says she was inspired to hold the meeting after speaking with her son about California’s recently-enacted affirmative consent laws.
“Since my son is in college in California, I thought, ‘let’s talk about this.’” Smith said. “And then the more I thought about it, I thought, ‘Well, really, the time to be talking about it isn’t in college.’ I mean college is a fine time to be talking about it but we really need to be talking about it way before college, in terms of what habits that get started and values that get established.”
Counselor Susan Strickland said she hopes the national media’s attention will aid in sparking conversation.
“If there’s more opportunity to have discussions about how to have healthy relationships, period, then things like bullying and harassment take care of themselves,” Strickland said. “The core of it is being a healthy person and demanding a healthy relationship and being worthy of a healthy relationship.”
According to Psychology Today’s website, sexual harassment can have adverse and long-term psychological effects on its victims, including an increase in rates of depression and anxiety as well as increased self-objectification and decreased self esteem.
“It can either make (victims) feel as if they’re being watched, make them feel as if they’re just something to be whistled at or stared at, or a target. Because it’s just something that would be on your mind all day, you wouldn’t be able to focus and do well in school,” freshman Molly Walker said. “It makes me feel as if one day I could be a victim or that someone I know and love could be a victim.”
Strickland says sexual harassment in schools is difficult to combat.
The infographic data was taken at Clarke Central High School by Aaron Holmes, Robert Walker, Claire Elliot-Gower and Dalace Thomas. The full first question stated “Do you know the CCSD definition of sexual harassment is:“unwelcome verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct that is sexual in nature which interferes… with another person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the school’s educational programs.” This includes “offensive sexual flirtations, advances, or propositions” and “offensive verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” Based on that definition, have you ever witnessed sexual harassment at Clarke Central?
“If you’re gonna run a discipline report and see how many students were disciplined for sexual harassment, it won’t tell the whole story,” Strickland said. “It’s that those are the rules and the burden that’s been placed on the schools from the parents of the perpetrators. And so over time what has happened is it’s ridiculous what schools have to do before we can discipline.”
Wheeler, too, said he rarely sees disciplinary action in terms of harassment.
“Sometimes (teachers) will say ‘Hey, not in the halls,’ but nothing too serious,” Wheeler said.
Associate Principal Marie Yuran says that she occasionally encounters sexual harassment at CCHS and addresses it personally.
“If I even suspect that it’s (harassment), I try to intervene and prevent it from happening and have a conversation in the moment,” Yuran said.
Yuran acknowledges that students may have a hard time reporting sexual harassment, but says teachers are expected to address it and report it if need be.
“(As students), you have to determine if this is something you should intervene in, or should you follow up with one party later, you know, if things are heated or vice versa,” Yuran said. “But teachers–or another adult in the building–need to address it or report it to the appropriate personnel.”
McCullough, however, says that teachers are rarely instructed to deal with sexual harassment.
“They never really target specifically sexual harassment, but just that ‘You need to be in the halls, monitoring the kids, making sure they’re where they’re supposed to be,’” McCullough said. “If I see a kid talking to somebody in a certain way that they shouldn’t be, I’ll just let them know, ‘Hey, you need to go to class,’ that sort of thing.”
CCSD Disciplinary Hearings Officer Sam Preston handles hearings for students at the district level, overseeing meetings regarding conduct issues like sexual harassment. He says that since the 2012-2013 school year, there have been four disciplinary hearings for students across the county regarding sexual harassment.
“These low numbers suggest that schools are addressing complaints effectively when they do occur so that problems do not continue,” Preston said. “As there have been so few cases brought to hearing regarding sexual harassment, from my perspective it is not among our most pressing issues. Any occurrence should be taken seriously, though.”
In light of what she suspects is a lack of direct combatting of the harassment, Strickland emphasizes the need for adult intervention in cases of harassment, verbal or physical.
“I think what’s key to combatting it is helping students identify trusted adults. That’s something that we can do, and it’s not just teachers, it’s not just counselors, it’s not just administrators,” Strickland said. “If it’s happening at school or related to school then it absolutely is going to be a conversation with an administrator. If nothing else, it’s a conversation about, ‘This is happening and we need to be attentive to it.’”
