Effects of Sexual Harassment in Education

In their 2006 report, "Drawing the Line" the AAUW found physical and emotional effects from sexual harassment on female students:
    68% of female students felt very or somewhat upset by sexual harassment they experienced;
    6% were not at all upset.
    57% of female students who have been sexually harassed reported feeling self-conscious or embarrassed
    55% of female students who have been sexually harassed reported feeling angry.
    32% female students who have been sexually harassed reported feeling afraid or scared.

The AAUW also found that sexual harassment effects academics and achievement:
    "Students experience a wide range of effects from sexual harassment that impact their academics including: have trouble sleeping, loss of appetite, decreased participation in class, avoid a study group, think about changing schools, change schools, avoid the library, change major, not gone to a professor/ teaching assistant’s office hours. Students may experience multiple effects or just one. The wide range of experiences lowers the percentage of students who experience any particular effect."

    16% of female students who have been sexually harassed found it hard to study or pay attention in class.
    9% of female students dropped a course or skipped a class in response to sexual harassment.
    27% of female students stay away from particular buildings or places on campus as a result of sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment by teachers
After her experience as a student with Harold Bloom, Naomi Wolf wrote, "I was spiraling downward; I had gotten a C-, a D, and an F, and was put on academic probation. My confidence shaken, I failed in my effort to win the Rhodes Scholarship at the end of the term....Once you have been sexually encroached upon by a professor, your faith in your work corrodes. If the administration knew and did nothing—because the teacher was valuable to them—they had made a conscious calculation about his and our respective futures: It was okay to do nothing because I—and other young women who could be expected to remain silent—would never be worth what someone like Bloom was worth." Of the effects she now struggles with so many years later, she writes, "Keeping bad secrets hurts. Is a one-time sexual encroachment...a major secret or a minor one? Minor, when it comes to a practical effect on my life; I have obviously survived. This is the argument often made against accusers in sexual-harassment cases: Look, no big deal, you’re fine. My career was fine; my soul was not fine"

The gender double standard
Some sources have discussed a double standard regarding the conduct of female versus male teachers. In an interview about the rise of sexual abuse by female teachers, Dr. Jeff Brown, a psychologist who treats female sex offenders stated, "There is definitely a double standard.....The impact they have is significant on their victims and sometimes we don’t regard the impact in a similar way as we do men." Moreover, female teachers who sexually harass or abuse students are consistently given significantly lighter punishments or reprimands than males who engage in exactly the same behaviors. Some are never exposed at all.

The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, a British educators' union, said that teachers who have sex with pupils over the age of consent should not be placed on the sex offenders register and that prosecution for statutory rape "is a real anomaly in the law that we are concerned about." This has led to outrage from child protection and parental rights groups.

It has been argued that the effects of pupil-teacher sexual harassment vary depending on the gender of the student and the harasser. In some states in the U.S., sexual relations between a woman and an underage male did not even constitute statutory rape until the 1970s. Many assert that most boys would be happy to have a teacher show sexual interest in them. Others say that this is short-sighted, and the seriousness of the long-term effects far outweigh any immediate gratification. Experts say sexually victimized boys experience difficulties later in developing age-appropriate relationships and gravitate toward pornography and one-night stands. They are also more likely as adults to suffer depression, anxiety and drug addiction.