Sexual harassment of Miami-Dade County Public School students by school personnel

David Anthony Gupta, Florida International University

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to assess the type and extent of sexual harassment of Miami-Dade County Public School (M-DCPS) students by school employees. In addition, the school system's existing procedures for handling such harassment were investigated, including students' awareness of and willingness to follow such procedures. Over 500 seniors from fourteen high schools around the county completed surveys which asked them to indicate whether or not they had received training on the topic of sexual harassment, whether or not they were aware of their school's policy on sexual harassment, whether or not they would feel comfortable reporting an incident of sexual harassment, whether or not they had experienced various forms of sexual harassment, and if they had been harassed, whether or not they reported the incident to a school official. Results indicated that sexual harassment of M-DCPS students by school employees is widespread, and the procedures that are currently in place to deal with this harassment are ineffective. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of the sample population indicated that a school employee had sexually harassed them; however, only four percent (4%) reported the incident to a school official. Responses indicated that this discrepancy exists because few students have received any training, few are aware of their schools' policies, and few are comfortable with the existing reporting procedures.

Subject Area

School administration|Educational sociology|Criminology

Recommended Citation

Gupta, David Anthony, "Sexual harassment of Miami-Dade County Public School students by school personnel" (1998). ProQuest ETD Collection for FIU. AAI9903429.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/dissertations/AAI9903429

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