It’s a joke. He’s just playing. She’s being funny. He’s flirting. She wants the attention.
Time and again we hear these misguided perceptions of sexual harassment that occurs between adolescents and teens — a broad category of behavior that includes unwanted touching and groping, sharing lewd images and spreading sexually charged rumors about classmates.
While the behavior doesn’t always lead to more extreme forms of sexual violence, it can overlap with bullying and be so subtle that adults may not even detect it. And many youth and adults may believe these acts are a normal part of enduring the adolescent and teenage years.
But sexual harassment happens every day among Georgia youth. It takes many forms, has clearly defined perpetrators and victims, and needs to be addressed at an early age to prevent it and other forms of sexual violence.
Peer-to-peer sexual harassment is not unique to Georgia. Nationally, nearly half of seventh- through 12th-grade students experienced some form of sexual harassment electronically or in-person during the 2010–11 school year.
The same study found perpetrators often thought they were being funny. Their actions, however, affected their victims’ study habits, fueled their reluctance to attend school and even drove feelings of physical illness.
Gov. Nathan Deal has signed a proclamation designating April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Georgia. Rape crisis centers, advocates and survivors are providing opportunities to collaborate with state and local partners to highlight sexual violence as a major public health, human rights and social justice issue.
Last year, for instance, sexual violence victimized nearly 14,000 children and adults in Georgia, according to the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. With one in six Georgia girls and women between the ages of 15 and 44 having been forced to have sex against their will at least once in their lifetime, this month serves as a crucial moment in elevating awareness and understanding about sexual assault — and the more subtle behaviors that can lead to it.
It’s also an opportunity to understand perpetrators, so communities can prevent sexual assault. Seventy-two percent of sexual assault assailants in Georgia, for example, knew their victims as acquaintances, family members, spouses, boyfriends or friends. Most offenders arrested for forcible rape were between the ages of 17 and 39.
Communities can play a role in teaching adolescents and teens about the parameters of behavior that occur within healthy relationships and correcting offensive behavior early.
The messages to our youth can be simple: Stop touching and groping others. Stop gossiping about sexual acts. Stop spreading rumors about someone’s perceived sexual orientation. Stop sending lewd messages to others.
It’s not funny, and the behavior is not tolerated in our school, in our household or in our community.
Jennifer Bivins is CEO of the Georgia Network to End Sexual Assault.
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