New SSD Sexual Harrassment Policy

Q: The Scottsdale School District (In my not so progressive City of Phoenix)is considering a new sexual harrassment policy to apply to all their students. Included with the 'common sence' policies such as 'bad touch', 'unwanted advances', and 'threats', they have also included the following: No Teasing No Touching No Comments that could be construed sexual in nature No Joking the could be construed sexual in nature No written materials that could be construed sexual in nature. Is there a way to set a 'reasonable' policy?

A: We lived for a while in a school district that had a similar, although much wordier, version of what your are discussing with one difference: Harrassment was construed as a REPEATED offense. Repeated teasing of a sexual nature, repeated innuendos, repeated unwanted touching. This allowed for feedback. Person A did something. Person B filed a complaint, Person A was warned that Person B felt harrassed. If nothing more happened, then the situation was dropped. If Person A continued the behavior or something similar, penalties were pursued. The assumption was that Person A had to have the opportunity to learn that their behavior was offensive. They weren't expected to automatically know that what they were doing was considered sexual harrassment. However,

once they were informed that their behavior was construed as offensive, they were expected to modify the behavior. Makes sense to me. School is a place to learn behavior as well as information. It was more than that. Yes, obtaining a job shouldn't be based entirely on sex and I say "entirely" because I think a guy suing for a job at Hooters is a joke. A woman suing for a job she can't physically do is a joke. Sexual harassement WITHIN the work place is the main problem today. No one, man or woman, should be subjected to sexual comments, actions, etc on the job. THAT is what sexual harassement issues should be about. Our schools need to deal with the issue as well