by Vicky Florian ’14

During the 2010-11 school year, 48 percent of students in grades 7 through 12 experienced a form of sexual harassment, according to a national survey released by the American Association of University Women.

Sexual harassment can be defined as the making of unwanted sexual advances or obscene remarks, but it applies to a wide variety of actions, from a hateful comment on Facebook to an unwanted and provocative text message.

According to the survey, which was reported in the Washington Post, girls were more likely and more frequently sexually harassed than boys. During the school year, 56 percent of the girls and 40 percent of the boys said they had experienced at least one incident of sexual harassment. Girls were also more likely to admit to being negatively affected by the harassment.

Of the 48 percent, 87 percent reported the harassment caused a negative emotional toll. Some students said the sexual harassment caused them to have trouble sleeping, do worse in school or even not want to go to school at all.

Only nine percent reported the incident to an adult at school, 27 percent reported it to a family member, and 23 percent of the students told a friend. Half of the students who were reportedly harassed during the school year did nothing about it.

The students were asked to give ideas on how they would reduce the amount of sexual harassment in their school. More than half recommended an anonymous way to report harassment as well as enforcing policies and the punishment of harassers.