Legal aspects of sexual harassment : implications for educational administrators

Sexual harassment has become a prominent issue in American politics and American life. Victims of sexual harassment are also showing an increased willingness to take their cases to court. In addition, educational institutions and their students now realize that sexual harassment also occurs at school and can be subject to legal action. In this study, these issues were framed in a legal context and researched through federal and state legislative statutes and court cases in an effort to clarify the elements surrounding sexual harassment and to provide guidelines for school administrators. Key questions raised during this study include how the judicial process defines sexual harassment; how history and the current literature have addressed sexual harassment; what the analysis of federal and state statutes, as researched through court cases, reveals regarding sexual harassment; what discernable patterns and trends can be gleaned from analysis of judicial decisions in sexual harassment cases; and what legal guidelines can be established to aid school administrators and board members in administrative decisions and policy making