ABSTRACT
In 1978, the Project on the Status and Education of Women of the Association of American Colleges referred to sexual harassment as a “hidden issue.” This term was coined earlier1 to highlight the silence that surrounded sexual harassment; i.e., victims were afraid to come forth with complaints for fear of retaliation, and campus administrators didn’t investigate complaints brought to their attention. A similar lack of attention to sexual harassment has also occurred in elementary, middle, and high school. For example, The American Association of University Women (AAUW) Educational Foundation’s “The AAUW Report: How Schools Shortchange Girls” (1992) labeled sexual harassment as part of the “evaded curriculum” (along with body image, eating disorders, early sexuality, drugs and alcohol, and personal safety) to connote the silence that exists around this topic by administrators and teachers.
