Volume 27, Number 6
November/December 2011

Stopping Sexual Harassment in Middle School

New study points to successful strategies

by Colleen Gillard

 

Building-wide campaigns including posters like this one reduced dating violence as much as 50 percent.

The news that nearly half of students in grades 7-12 have experienced sexual harassment drew headlines around the nation last month, based on an online survey of nearly 2,000 students released by the American Association of University Women.

Now a separate study has shown that building-wide posters, student-drawn maps of campus sexual harassment “danger zones,” and student-created “personal boundary agreements” can go a long way to reducing peer-to-peer sexual harassment and dating violence—at little expense.