I’m not sure that bullying, hazing, and/or sexual harassment are any more prevalent today among young people than they were in years past. In fact, I suspect those threats may be less common than they once were. I do know, however, that the stigma attached to them particularly at the high school and middle school levels has increased significantly in recent years.
Obviously, there are many problems associated with these three treats, but one of my biggest concerns is how I see children educated, or not educated, about the threats. Far too many children only learn these things are wrong after they have committed them or been a victim of them.
Students and their families are doing a better job with bullying. It is really a buzzword throughout schools and education. Schools, media, and parents have done pretty well recently, I think, in making students aware of what bullying is and how to curb it. Hazing and sexual harassment are different though.
In the latter’s case, few talk to little kids about sexual harassment. Sure, we talk about good touch and bad touch, but how many parents talk about acceptable comments and inappropriate comments? Also as children develop their sexuality, what might have been “keep your hands to yourself” in elementary school may well escalate into “okay, you just pretty much groped that person” once some sexuality has developed. It can be hard for a tween or young teenager to see the line that should not be crossed as well as an adult can, particularly when that line might not have existed as little children. Thus, adults have a responsibility to talk about that line before a young person crosses it.
The same is true for hazing. I’ve heard hazing juxtaposed to bullying as bullying is what you do to someone you don’t like, you haze people you like. Thus, teens may fail to see that imposing their will on a consenting friend is wrong in anyway. Hazing is, in fact, wrong and increased legislation is being passed to deal with hazing in the wake of recent cases in the national news. Here again, teens may fail to realize that what they are doing is wrong if an adult never defined hazing for them or had a discussion about it.
There are a number places where parents can find resources to feed their discussions about these threats with their children. Stophazing.org, equalrights.org, and stopbullying.gov are great places to start. As young people reach puberty, conversations about bullying, hazing, and sexual harassment need to happen at home and a lot of schools could probably do a better job of shedding light on these subjects as well. The repercussions of not having these discussions can easily lead to criminal acts committed by the child for something they never fully grasped was wrong. That can have a devastating impact on a child’s future and it can all be easily prevented with a good old fashioned talk.
