Harassment in School
School-Wise —
Teaching Relationship Safety
It isn’t new, romantic teacher-student relationships. Nor is bullying and teasing, often about sexual things. Body-image, social status, and mental health can be harmed in that supposedly idyllic setting—school. And teens, younger than ever before, are committing suicide.
These stories are exploited, even romanticized on popular television shows and in the movies. But whenever there’s a power differential, whenever one partner is in a position of authority or can coerce behavior with grades or job performance, the risk of harm and litigation is woven into the relationship, too.
It is not pedophilia when post-pubescent adolescents are targeted by predators. Teens are sought out for the purposes of pornography and sexual exploitation, but the perpetrators in these cases aren’t technically pedophiles. What are they? We talk with kids, parents, faculty and administrators about these things, when no one else, will.
Bullying, exclusion, molestation, social network and game addiction, too, should be addressed where we find the kids—in schools and in camps and community centers. Their people, the adults charged with their welfare, need to be educated, too, so we’ll talk to the PTA, and certainly teachers at in-service programs.
SCHOOL WISE workshops are really about safety, preventing critical events.
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