Sexual harassment is more than just the cat calling and the snide comments. It’s the unwanted sexual moves, the inappropriate touching. Most commonly it is workplace harassment but it can happen anytime in any scenario. Studies have shown that “ 54% (272) had experienced some form of workplace sexual harassment.27% of the 272 respondents experienced harassment by their colleague, while 17% were harassed by their superior.”  

In school, many students have experienced some form of sexual harassment. In a study in 2010-11, “Forty-eight percent of surveyed middle and high school students said they were sexually harassed at least once, typically by their peers” along with this “Forty-four percent of students were harassed in person, while 30 percent of students said they were harassed digitally, either through Facebook, text messaging, or E-mail.” Most of these cases were female students. There are too many cases of sexual harassment that go unnoticed because the victim is either too scared of the offender, or was intimidated into promising not to tell because of the past relationship of the two. Because of cases like these, the offender doesn’t cease his interactions, leaving the victim powerless against the offender.

Sometimes the harassment goes unseen because it’s not obvious. In many cases of high school harassment, it’s in scenarios that can be hidden. For example, it can be inappropriate touching on the bus, degrading comments and gestures, etc .All of which can be discrete. Many gestures such as just touching high in the thigh region, moving a skirt, trying to get under any item of clothing, to just whispering a crude comment to the victim. In many cases, sexual harassment can become attempted rape or even rape in the second. “In data from 2005-2010, most rape or sexual assault victims (78%) knew the offender.” This shows, in a little more detail that even though you may think you know someone, they can still end up being someone you don’t really know.

Sexual harassment is more than a guy (or girl) who thinks what he is (or she is) doing is okay. It is the matter of creating a world for the person on the other side of the action, the joke, the games, to become afraid. These actions result in a lifetime of fear of it happening again, and having an even worse result. Although there are laws in place to stop these actions, there are still ways to get around them. How many victims will it take to make a difference?