Sexual Harassment In The Media

Sexual Harassment in High School and its Portrayal in the Media

The way the media portrays social issues either within or outside of a community depends upon who the intended audience is and the experience the writer(s) may have. In my high school, there were one too many cases of teachers sexually harassing students. In one case, a teacher that was “father-like”, yearned for more than just a familial relationship with his students. In my junior year of high school when I read in the SacBee that my freshman math teacher had a sexual relationship with two female minors that attended my school, I was shocked, just as everyone else in my community was. The way he was mentioned in the SacBee article and every source of media in my community, as

Allison Fetter-Harrott’s article, “Staff-to-Student Sexual Harassment” published by the District Administration discusses that the reasons as to why some schools try to sweep their issues with sexual harassment under the rug is because it “leads to numerous unwanted consequences for the schools on many levels”, leading to parents and students losing confidence in their school. The article starts off by recognizing that while the legal aspects of staff-to-student sexual harassment take a back seat to emotional considerations, the legal framework provides school administrators with a helpful basis for drafting policies, etc (Fetter-Harrott 1). I believe that with the writer taking a stance of knowing that it could sound somewhat insensitive to not talk much about the victims and how they are affected, they are showing that the issue is unacceptable, but what schools need to focus on as well are the things that come with the issue. Just as a middle school teacher would tell their students to write an essay with an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion, this article practically emulates that. The writer might have taken this approach because her intended audience was more for school districts, being a formal audience rather than the

Jason Koebler has been writing for over 10 years and has years of experience working on the topic of schools for U.S. News and World Report and it is clear to see that this topic is important to him. The author addresses sexual harassment more head on and reached out to his intended audience of students, teachers, and administrators by using numbers to show how this problem is occurring across the country and including young adult voices. The article explains that not only are students subject to being sexually harassed physically, but digitally as well, either through social media, text messaging, or email (Koebler 1). I pulled this specific quote from the text because I once had one of my social media accounts hacked and pictures of women’s private parts were displayed on my page as if the hacker wanted people to think they were of me. I feel that this type of sexual harassment is often left out of the conversation because it does not happen to everyone, but I appreciated that Koebler recognized it as something that has been happening to adolescents. In relation to the prior article, Koebler’s article seems to imitate the same default five paragraph feel. However, he includes viewpoints of students ranging from bullying and embarrassment to the effects a victim faces, which makes the audience feel more engaged and able to find