How to Fight Harassment on College Campuses

Last Updated on April 26, 2024 by Ryan

Despite all the tries and public campaigns created to stop sexual harassment, it is still an issue that continues to spread around the United States. This destructive behavior is especially rampant on college campuses, where 61% of male students and 62% of female students have reported that they have been victims of campus sexual assault. Based on research about this problem, many of those cases are noncontact, but still, those students are victims of physical harassment.

Sexual harassment is prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and all schools and universities that receive the title IX founds must do everything in order to prevent sexual harassment and protect their students. And many teachers, in order to achieve that, implement it as part of academic education.

You can constantly see teachers discussing and giving lessons on this topic in classes the same way they would discuss a specific library book. Making controversial problems on college campuses much more acceptable for students. Also, students are constantly writing a dissertation, term papers, and essays about sexual harassment in college, and in it, many of them include information from Me Too movement essay samples. Mainly because the essays on Me Too Movement and the movement itself helped them feel more confident and less afraid to talk about harassment, particularly in their colleges with their tutors, teachers, or any other faculty staff.

What is Sexual Harassment?

Sexual harassment is related to any unwanted physical, nonverbal, or verbal attention or contact that has a sexual nature. And that may include comments about a person’s physical appearance, gender-specific putdowns, sex-based jokes, and anything else that can make a person feel threatened or intimidated. Some examples may include spreading rumors about a person’s sexual activity, steering them suggestively, showing them explicit photos, badly patting or touching someone, etc.

Harassment can happen to anyone. It can be from strangers or even from a person you know very well. And the victims can be of any gender, even the same sex. Also, the victim of the abuse doesn’t have to do anything to trigger that behavior. So, to identify sexual harassment, the best thing you can do is trust your instincts.

How to fight sexual assault on college campuses.

This behavior is against the law, meaning that every educational facility is obligated to create a safe environment for the students. The Office of Civil Rights has clear instructions that every faculty member with a diploma needs to follow. The following are some steps that you can use to appropriately deal with sexual harassment.

Tell them to stop. You should let the person who is harassing you know that their behavior makes you uncomfortable. Don’t think about what you are going to say. Use precise language and tell them that you want the harassment to stop at that same moment.

Document the abuse. Write everything that happens, when it happened, and the names of people that witnessed the harassment. And, of course, how it affected you. Just make sure that you do it as fast as you can, in order for every detail to stay fresh.

Report the harassment. Check your school policies and procedures for this type of behavior. Then report it to a school official, such as a professor, coach, mentor, etc. But be aware that they will need to report the harassment to a faculty member with a Ph.D. degree and represent a higher-up person at your school under the law.

Talk to someone. It is very important that you tell someone what happened. Just make sure that the people you talk to are close to you, such as family members or best friends. If you are having trouble getting past the abuse, you can even ask to talk to someone with a career as a counselor at your school.

It is not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong, so you shouldn’t blame yourself for the incident. The law exists to protect you from any kind of harassment, so anything less than full protection should not be acceptable. So, make sure that you speak up if anything happens to you or you witness such a case because speaking up makes changes, which will make you and your fellow students feel safe around campus.

Conclusion

Sexual harassment is far from being harmless, joking around, or flirting, and it can cause long-lasting effects on the victims. Most of them feel upset, embarrassed, afraid, angry, self-conscious, etc. Some even start avoiding their classes and coursework to avoid the incident from happening again, resulting in students getting a bad GPA grade and not graduating at all. Meaning that it is out of huge importance that students feel safe around their college and campuses.