Sexual harassment in schools

For San Diego's North County Times

The week after Herman Cain launched his "nein, nein, nein" campaign denying sexual harassment allegations, Penn State fired its legendary football coach as a result of a grand jury report alleging that his former assistant coach engaged in a decade of sexual assaults on young boys.

What didn't make the news was a report by the American Association of University Women, "Crossing the Line: Sexual Harassment at School," of findings from a nationwide survey of 2,000 students in grades 7 to 12.

Schoolyard taunting may not be as newsworthy as workplace harassment and child predators, but the same code of silence hides the pain of isolation and self-doubt that's led to teen suicides after sexual harassment at school.

According to the AAUW report, nearly half of students surveyed experienced some form of sexual harassment in one year. Although 87 percent said it had a negative effect on them, only 9 percent reported it to a teacher or counselor. Just 12 percent felt their school did a good job of addressing the problem.

Students suggested online resources could help schools reduce sexual harassment, so I was disappointed to find many local schools don't have links to codes of conduct on their website homepages.

Carlsbad High School's can be found by a link to a student handbook that is available only on the district's website. To find Oceanside High School's sexual harassment policy, you have to hunt through a lengthy list of board policies, accessible only from a link on the district's website. Not exactly a student- or parent-friendly process.

The helpfulness of information about how to recognize and respond to sexually harassing behavior also varies in quality by school.

Escondido's Classical Academies charter school defines sexual harassment in its list of unacceptable behaviors, but does not include how to report it and what the punishment will be for violators. The school defines bullying as "repeated physical, verbal and/or emotional harassment," tells how it should be reported, and describes the punishment for it.

Sexual harassment is a kind of bullying, but it is not necessarily a repeated behavior, nor do harassers choose victims the same way bullies do. Students may be reluctant to come forward with reports of sexual harassment if it isn't as threatening to them as other kinds of bullying.

Poway High School and Escondido High School have exemplary policies, easily accessible from their home pages.

Poway's is exceptionally comprehensive and clear. Escondido's lists freedom from harassment as a student right, describes the difference between flirting and harassment, and concludes with the best advice of all, "Sexual harassment is based upon the impact on the victim. It is not based on the intentions of the perpetrator."

Irresponsibility, not spending, is the problem

For San Diego's North County Times

http://tinyurl.com/3ulxosl

In a recent speech on school reform, LA schools superintendent John Deasy attacked the assumption in America that anybody can teach. Describing teaching as "remarkably complex, deeply nuanced, highly technical skilled work," he declared it to be "rocket science to have a third-grader master the skill of decoding print into cognitive and coherent meaning." He could have also pointed out that rocket science skills are acquired, not inherited, dispelling the myth that teachers are born, not made.

It's no wonder teachers are underpaid for the important work they do. Why would we pay them more if their work is so easy, requiring little or no training, and there's an endless supply of those who love to work with kids?

Who do we value more than teachers, based on what they're paid, besides rocket scientists? According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, the average salary of California elementary school teachers is $63,000.

Here's a small sample of occupations commanding pay ranging from an average of $70,000 to $111,000, but requiring no more education and training than teachers: computer hardware engineers and programmers, landscape architects, civil engineers, dental hygienists, chiropractors, personal finance advisers, registered nurses, police officers, firefighters, insurance sales agents and undertakers.

Personnel costs represent about 85 percent of most school district budgets, so when schools face cuts, it usually involves teacher layoffs, reductions in pay and benefits, or both. The Carlsbad Unified School District faces a potential $11 million shortfall in next year's budget. Ruling out increasing class sizes, since they were raised last year, the district has invited the public to weigh in on what should be cut by responding to a survey on the district's website.

It's more of a setup than a survey, though, an invitation to comment anonymously on a list of cuts school officials have already prioritized. Leading the list is, you guessed it, employee compensation reductions, just one step higher on the chopping block than slashing special education expenses.

The median household income of nearly 1 in 4 Carlsbad households exceeds $100,000. Will the wealthiest city in North County, boasting of a $50 million-plus general fund reserve and flush enough to give yearly million dollar bailouts to its failing golf course, be willing to help bail out its underfunded public schools? I'm not holding my breath.

The most predictable applause line these days in speeches by conservative politicians is, "We don't have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem." But when it comes to investing in our children's future by those who have the means to do it, I'd say, we don't have a spending problem, we have an irresponsibility problem.