For Teachers and Coaches of Teenagers
Sexual harassment can be defined as any deliberate or repeated behaviour or action that is unwelcome, hostile, offensive, or degrading to the recipient.As a teacher or coach, you are in a position to be an ally for teens – a source of support, information, and resources.
Educate yourself. Be a safe person for teens to talk with about these issues. Incorporate dating violence education into your programs. Your active involvement in reaching and teaching teens is a critical first step to ending the violence.
Students Need Adults to…
• Listen
• Model openness, trust, cooperation and respect
• Encourage and support the above traits in students
• Make information easily available
• Respect the intelligence of everyone at all times
• Value students’ fears and problems as genuine
• Talk from the heart
They also need adults to…..
• Affirm students’ feelings even if you don’t understand or approve of them
• Provide options and encourage students to come up with their own choices
• Avoid criticism—adult to teen, teen to adult, and teen to teen
• Allow students to change at their own speed
• Avoid judging, lecturing, attitudes of disrespect, or the attitude that a teen is always wrong or at fault
• Acknowledge that students (and adults) are doing the best they can given the information they possess and the thinking they have been allowed to do
• Be prepared with resources if students request or need them, but hold back from rescuing them
Make a Difference
Start with your school and youth organisations:
- Put into place programs that teach Teens how to recognise and deal with domestic violence, dating violence and sexual assault.
Be Proactive and get involved:
- Create a poster campaign in your school about healthy relationships.
- Create a public service announcement for your community
- Participate in your local domestic violence/sexual assault programs awareness activities.
Speak out and be an active bystander
- Step up if you see a student or adult treating other students in a disrespectful manner.
- Speak out against inappropriate jokes.
Important Tools
When helping students who may be experiencing violence, you may find these basic tools to be very useful:
For Teens and Young Adult Women
Dating violence, like domestic violence, is a pattern of controlling, and abusive behaviours of one person over another within a romantic relationship. It can include verbal, emotional, physical, sexual, and financial abuse. Dating violence can occur in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. It knows no boundaries and crosses all lines of race, socio-economic status, etc.
Dating Violence CAN happen to ANYONE.
If you are a teen or young adult who has experienced dating or sexual abuse, get help immediately. Phone and get advice or counseling about it. Lifeline offers a telephone counseling service on 1800 737 732.
Those who work for Lifeline can advise you what can be done about the situation. You may need help from the police and other such officers. Please do not hesitate to call if you feel you need help.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, you can ring the Domestic Violence Line for help on 1800 656 463