Madison High School students were gathered to decide where sexual harassment begins and a joke ends.
“Where do you draw the line? When does it go too far?” asked Dr. Catherine Hill.
“How far is too far?” added H. Gideon Sanders.
What is the line between sexual harassment and a joke? “I think you can see it on someone’s face when it hits them,” responded Aydar Shaildayev.
Hill, Sanders and Shaildayev participated in last week’s Gender Equality Awareness Week at James Madison High School. During a lunch time workshop on Wednesday, March 21, students like Shaildayev, a junior, explored the issue of sexual harassment with Hill, research director of American Association of University Women, AAUW, and Sanders, teacher of the school’s Combating Intolerance class which organized the week’s activities.
The week also included workshops and presentations on the education gap between genders, equality in gender pay and the legal system, and women in medicine.
STUDENTS SELECTED the topics, arranged for speakers, raised funds for speaker honorariums and advertised the event. “They’ve really been responsible for every step of the way,” said Sanders. “I provide oversight. I try and get them” to undertake “a serious matter in a serious manner.”
Students confirmed that they’ve witnessed and, in some cases, experienced sexual harassment. The group discussed the type of “joking” that occurred in middle school. “It kind of gets old. In middle school everyone [made sexual jokes]. Eventually, someone goes over the line,” said Shaildayev.
In determining when comments become harassment, Mike Pivik, a junior said, “One person’s rights end when another’s begin.”
Ways to address sexual harassment were explored such as telling friends and others to stop. “Even just not laughing at a joke makes a difference,” said Sanders.
Hill distributed a booklet “Hostile Hallways” and directed participants to AAUW’s Web site containing strategies for handling sexual harassment such as, contacting the school Title IX officer.
SENIOR ELIZABETH EXTER noted that everyone learned in kindergarten “compassion and sharing and ... ‘If you don’t have something nice to say then don’t say anything.’” She wondered when did it change and said, “It still applies. It seems even more mature, being respectful.”
Hill raised the issue of objectification, viewing a person “entirely as a sex object. What do you do with an object? It doesn’t matter what you do. You don’t have to respect objects. You can throw it away,” said Hill.
“When you have complete respect for someone that’s when you stop objectifying,” said Shaildayev.
Sanders said he was impressed with his students who organized the week’s events and feels their organizing abilities have evolved 100 percent.
“It’s always interesting what’s important to them. By opening up the discussion, we tend to start to understand how others feel and that can only lend itself to greater respect,” said Sanders.