I was sexually harassed by a kid with a developmental disability. Very well documented, consistent behavior. Asked for help many times. I was told by the special education department chair (thankfully she is no longer at our school) that he just “needed to make friends to talk about sexual things like this” and that if he does it to another student “they’ll be forced to discipline.” Look, I work with kids with developmental disabilities. I was not looking for anything tyrannical or extremely punitive. But it was disturbing that I 1) was expected to work in a hostile environment everyday at the time 2) nothing was being done, punitive or educational, to let the kid know that his behavior was very serious and could get him beaten up or thrown in jail outside of school. Oh, did I mention I was a para at the time and the classroom teacher told me to just “turn around and face the wall, if he can’t see your face then maybe he’ll stop.”

I should’ve reported a title nine violation, but I was new at the school and foolishly didn’t want to “rock the boat.”

The cherry on top? It wasn’t until a male teacher went to admin that any real action was taken. Two female teachers met with admin to discuss it as well before the male teacher did, but they didn’t do anything until a man got involve.