A Study Shows That Sexual Harassment Is Common In Middle Schoolers

A recent suicide of a teenager named Brandy Vela from Texas City, was a potent reminder of the typically tragic consequences of bullying. By the statement of Vela's parents, the teenager fatally shot herself last Nov. 29, following months of bullying and harassment perpetrated by text messages and social media. 

Sexual harassment is a form of prevalent victimization that majority of the antibullying programs ignore and lecturers and school officials typically fails to acknowledge, stated by the bullying and youth violence expert Dorothy L. Espelage. She recently led a five-year study that examined links between bullying and sexual harassment among schoolchildren in Illinois, according to Phys.org.

Nearly half or 43 percent of middle school students surveyed for the study and reported that they had been victims of verbal sexual harassment like sexual comments, jokes or gestures throughout the previous year. The study followed 1,300 Illinois youths from their middle school to high school, examining the dangerous factors related to bullying and sexual harassment and the characteristics of the perpetrators according to Illinois News Bureau.

Verbal harassment is a lot common than physical sexual harassment or sex offense. 21 percent of students reported they have been touched, grabbed or pinched in a very sexual approach, and 18 percent stated that their peers had brushed up against them in a very suggestive manner.

Students added that they were being forced to kiss the perpetrators, having their private areas touched without their consent and being "pantsed" -- having their pants or shorts jerked down by somebody else publically.

A couple of students from four middle schools completed the surveys, and a few of the youths and their lecturers were both interviewed by the researchers. Dorothy L. Espelage who conducted the research is a faculty at the University of Illinois. She is also a professor at the University of Florida.