Lesson in Behavior : Law Lets Schools Expel Students Who Sexually Harass Others

Like their classmates across California, Ventura County elementary and high school students will soon be learning about a new law dealing with an old subject: sexual harassment.

The twist is that the law directly affects students and how they treat each other in the classroom.

The legislation that took effect Jan. 1 gives school officials the authority to suspend or expel a student in grades four through 12 for sexually harassing a classmate.

The law is welcomed by some students who say they have long put up with offensive remarks, gestures and physical advances from classmates because there was no recourse.

“I think it’s good,” said Andrea Watt, a 10th-grader at Buena High in Ventura. “In my biology class there are a lot of guys who are really perverted. They’re always making gestures and stuff. People you don’t even know come up to you and put their arms around you.”

But others say the new law will not change behavior because teen-agers don’t think of sexual harassment the same way adults do.

“If a guy says, ‘Hey, nice butt,’ that’s sexual harassment,” said Cecilia Meyer, a senior at Ventura High. “But some girls need that kind of reassurance.”

Teaching elementary students, who may unwittingly be among the worst offenders of the law, about inappropriate behavior would seem to pose its own set of challenges.

But discipline problems at the grade-school level will probably not be handled any differently than they are now, even with the new law, school officials said.

“Elementary schools have always dealt” with sexual harassment, said Assistant Supt. Susan Parks of the Simi Valley Unified School District. “We just didn’t call it that.

“There’s a lot of teasing of little boys and girls that goes on at this age,” Parks said. “It’s more boorish behavior.”

Teachers and parents will just have to work harder at educating young children about taking more responsibility for their actions, she said.

“They may not understand” what sexual harassment is, Parks said. “But they do understand what it is to hurt someone’s feelings, and that boys and girls are different.”

Other school officials said they hope the new law will create more awareness among all students that certain types of behavior are not just annoying, but can in fact be emotionally harmful to the targets of abusive behavior, particularly during the teen-age years.

“It can hurt their self-esteem, the ability to protect themselves in a situation,” said Phyllis Miller, who teaches a course on marriage and the family at Buena High. “Each person has a different limit.”

Miller said she has already begun talking to her students about the new law. “If we don’t respect each other,” she said, “this can lead to other abuses.”

State Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) said he was inspired to write the new legislation after watching Anita Hill testify during 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

As elsewhere in society, sexual harassment is a problem in schools, said Hart, chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

Besides, Hart said, students should be taught at an early age why such behavior is unacceptable.

The new law is “not so much to suspend or expel students but to impress upon them that they maybe need to have a different attitude about these things,” Hart said. “If we can teach them what is inappropriate behavior as kids, it will make it a lot easier for them to avoid this problem before they reach adult status.”

But some school officials and students who support the law said they are skeptical about its effectiveness and question whether it does clearly define sexual harassment.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how they enforce it,” said Saleem Aaron, 17, a senior at Moorpark High School. “That’s going to be a trick and a half.”

As written, the law defines sexual harassment as an act that is severe enough “to have a negative impact upon an individual’s academic performance or create an intimidating educational environment.”

Hart said he believes the law is clear and that school officials will not have problems differentiating between playful flirting and offensive behavior.

“School principals are professionals,” Hart said. “They know when the line has been crossed.”

Still, some school districts are already taking steps to come up with a clearer definition of sexual harassment. Some are simply revising policies for administrators and teachers to address students.

Others, like the Simi Valley school district, are writing a new set of guidelines for students.

Another example is the Moorpark Unified School District, which last month approved its own student harassment policy that lists the types of behavior punishable by the district. They include:

* Verbal harassment: Offensive comments, jokes or slurs, graphic verbal comments about an individual’s body and graphic or verbal comments of a sexual nature.

* Visual harassment: Offensive posters, cards, cartoons, graffiti, drawings, objects or gestures.

* Physical harassment: Unwelcome or offensive touching or impeding or blocking of movement.

As a catchall, the policy also defines harassment as unwelcome sexual advances, requests or demands for sexual favors with other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.

Moorpark school board President Tom Baldwin said he initiated the policy to ensure that such behavior is punished, but he does not believe that it is a serious problem.

“We have this attitude in society that boys will be boys,” Baldwin said. “But the times are changing. And girls no longer have to accept this as part of the growing-up process.”

Saleem Aaron of Moorpark High said that like the state law, the district’s definition of harassment is open to different interpretations. He said there is also the potential for abuse.

“I don’t want this to be a weapon,” he said. “You know, like someone saying, ‘If you don’t want to go out with me, I’m going to charge you with sexual harassment.’ ”

Classmate Karen Richter, 17, is also concerned about the potential for frivolous complaints.

“Someone can get in a fight with their boyfriend and use it,” she said. “It’s just going to end up being one student’s word against another.”

Meanwhile, teachers and administrators should take steps to first educate themselves about the law because they will be liable for enforcing it, said Mary Jo McGrath, an education attorney based in Santa Barbara.

“That’s going to be the clarion that gets people’s attention, when people realize that they can be held personally responsible,” McGrath said. “And liability may extend beyond what is protected by a school’s insurance.”

Teachers from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties are attending a seminar that McGrath is sponsoring this weekend in Santa Barbara about the new law. McGrath is also producing a set of five instructional videos on sexual harassment in the classroom that she hopes to sell to schools for $1,300.

Although it remains to be seen how effective the new law will be in stemming sexual harassment in the classroom, there are those who still regard it as a victory for women in general.

“It’s a new age,” said Gloria Allred, a Los Angeles attorney and former high school teacher. “We’ve spoken out, we’ve expressed our anger and now we’ve translated that into law. It shows that we are taking this problem seriously.”

“We can thank Anita Hill for this,” McGrath said. “She woke up men in America to finally realize they don’t understand the problem. Anita Hill will be the Rosa Parks of this era.”