Context of Sexual Harassment among Junior and Senior High School Students

Sexual harassment is an issue that happens ubiquitously in schools committed verbally or physically with anyone as victim regardless of gender. With the occurrence of such crime, this study assessed the students’ perception on sexual harassment, physical, verbal or mixed, the legal methodologies and policy employed by the concerned schools in implementing the different programs and instructions, and the characterization of the nature of work and the working conditions of different participating institutions. This study utilized descriptive-quantitative research design using a purposive sampling technique. Data were analyzed using frequency and percentage, and average weighted mean. Results disclosed that students unanimously agree on sexual harassment in various forms but apparently not aware verbal and non-verbal acts. The results further showed that students rarely get educational information about sexual harassment from their parents and institutions but noted the importance of faculty, administration, and student cooperation to prevent it. Hence, there are students who experienced incidents of sexual harassment in school premises but majority of them did not report it due to fear and culture of victim blaming. Similarly, the majority of the respondents confirm there are no programs, regulations, and instrumentalities to prevent sexual harassment in their school. With the alarming results, the study developed a training module to be implemented as an extension project to capacitate students and help institutions draft a mechanism in handling such cases.


Introduction
Sexual harassment is an issue happening covertly in many academic institutions due to silence of the victim (Karami et al., 2020).Research uncovers that sexual harassment is ubiquitous in education system (Rolfe & Schroeder, 2020) that occurs frequently in college campuses and becomes a great concern of everyone (Wolffet al., 2017).Sexual harassment is described a set of behavior that can either be verbal, non-verbal, or physical (Apriliana, 2018) wherein victims may encounter physical form such as being touched, grabbed, or forced to do something sexual (Hill & Silva, 2005) or verbal form (Bendixen et al., 2018).
According to the federal law, sexual harassment can also be a form of discrimination (Miller & Mondschein, 2017).
The study of Karami et al. (2020) revealed that five percent of the topics reviewed in text mining involves sexual coercion (a benefit is offered in exchange for sexual favors), more than 50% were assigned to the unwanted sexual attention theme and fourteen percent in the gender harassment theme, in which insulting, sexist, or degrading comments or behavior was directed towards women.According to Smith et al. (2018), nearly 52.2 million women in the United States experienced contact sexual harassment and an estimated 25.5 million women has been recorded for consummated and attempted rape while 19.2 million women has experienced sexual coercion like being forced by someone using their authority.Sexual harassment keeps on happening despite existence of various policies in place to prevent it (Phillips et al., 2019).
In the school setting, Baronia (2020) suggests a collective effort on both the institutions, parents and other group and school regulations to prevent abuses among children in schools.The study of Alexander (2020) conducted in Batangas, a province in the Philippines, clearly showed that school heads and teachers have different context on the duties and responsibilities of the school managers in the implementation of policies related to child protection.In addition, incidents of sexual violence can be prevented with strong family relationship and spiritual well-being.
With various incidence of sexual harassment in schools, this study assessed the students' overall understanding of sexual harassment, their real and actual knowledge on sexual harassment.Specifically, it assessed the students' perceptions of sexual harassment whether physical, verbal, or mixed, legal methodologies and policy employed by the concerned units and schools in implementing the different programs and instructions and the

Characterization of Sexual Harassment
According to López et al. (2020), factors such as sexual orientation, ethnic origin and disability were the strongest predictor of sexual harassment victimization.However, Magaji et al. (2019) revealed that whatever gender of the students, they have common perspective about acts that constitute sexual harassment.While women's perception on sexual harassment is broader, Pellegrini (2002) argues that school and peer factors contribute to sexual harassment suggesting teenagers to be more aggressive, less focus during their adolescence, which contributes to perpetrate this act.In the study of Phillips et al. (2019), the common offenders of sexual harassment were male and offended party are female.In addition, Khan and Shathi (2018) found that students are the common victims of sexual harassment and it greatly instill fear among them.

Impact of Sexual Harassment
Victims of sexual harassment are vulnerable to negative health and psychological effects such as depression, hostility and use of alcohol (Wolff et al., 2017).In a research conducted by Budden et al. (2017), they surveyed student nurses under clinical placement and found that offenders who commit harassment can be anyone among the student's peer, patient, or supervisors.The study also noted the negative effect of being victimized by harassment such depression and anxiety, which adversely impacted their performance.In addition, Hand and Sanches (2000) identified consequences of sexual harassment among students, emphasizing that girls experience more harmful harassment rather than boys.It was also highlighted that girls are vulnerable victims of physical sexual harassment and that other forms of harassment worsen the gender differences.Furthermore, it activates sexist and heterosexist stereotypes, and destroys the relationship of the students to his/her teacher and adversely affect school and academic performance of the students (Gruber & Fineran, 2016).

Legal Methodologies and Policies
According to Thapalia et al. (2019), one of the frequent places where sexual harassment happened is in school.It was a common problem encountered in Kathmandu, Nepal but students have a limited comprehension on this issue.It was suggested to address the problem through intensified knowledge of the people about various acts of harassment and correct the society's victim blaming culture.Meanwhile, the study conducted by Ponmalar (2017) in Malaysia showed that the essential and major driving factor for a victim to report sexual harassment is self-efficacy while organizational environment such as the actions taken by the authorities also contributes whether the victim will report an act of sexual harassment or not.However, the study of Binder et al. (2018) conducted in medical schools showed that sexual harassment still persists despite existing laws and most of women victims do not report their experience to school authorities.While the law reduced the harassing behavior among students and increase the legal obligations among institutions, there are still existing odds in reporting incidents of sexual harassment like retaliation from the offender.When teachers are more committed to the prevention measures, students report less perpetration of sexual harassment and gender equality as well as lesser incidents of homophobic name calling (Rinehart & Espelage, 2016).Henceforth, to better understand the responses of young people about sexual harassment, it is very important to know their perspective about this act (Li & Craig, 2020).
In the United States, the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 includes the protection of individual against sexual harassment (Edgar, 2020).Thus, in 2017 the U.S. Department of Education crafted the interim guidance which gives way to determine procedures in investigating sexual harassment particularly for women students of color (Cantalupo, 2019).Subsequently, the efforts to address sexual harassment should collectively come from the school administration and capability building of the educators and staff and the school itself should create an environment that advocates gender equity and zero tolerance with sexual harassment in all levels (Rinehart & Espelage, 2016).The effectiveness on implementation of policies on sexual harassment can only be achieved if the school authorities and staff are knowledgeable about the policies (Miller & Mondschein, 2017).
According to Apriliana (2018), the strategy to prevent sexual harassment involves the active participation of counsellor in providing services to the students (victim) and developing good relationship with them.Jenner et al. (2020) suggest two prevention methods against sexual harassment: the individual and the institutional.The individual includes personal safety measures against the peer and superiors while institutional strategies comprise policies and procedures as well as formal training of the employee.Similarly, Sales and Krause (2017) note that prevention of sexual violence centered on students are essential, however In the Philippines, Gabriel (2017) notes that efforts to increase the consciousness of the students must be strengthened to ascertain their safety.Hence, laws do not fully prevent sexual harassment instead, there must be an institutional standard laid down by both private and public schools.The study of Mateo-Babiano et al. (2020) conducted in Manila Philippines revealed that forty-three percent of respondents were sexually harassed, but 85% of those students who reported having been victimized did not report the incident.

Methodology
The study utilized descriptive research for it aims to gather people's perception, opinion, attitude, and beliefs about current issues.Hence, the description is summarized by reporting number or percentage of each response (Lodico et al., 2006).
The study specifically involved selected students from junior and senior high level (both boys and girls) in the provinces of Laguna, Quezon and Batangas and in the City of Maynila with a total number of 116 respondents.Hence, purposive sampling technique was used in selecting the samples.Moreover, only schools that offers senior and junior high school were chosen as the situs of the study.
Survey questionnaire was the main data gathering instrument in the study.It was structured based on the various literature, theories, informal interviews, and laws on sexual harassment to substantiate the contents of the questionnaire.The instrument was divided into three parts: part 1 comprises of the demographic profile; part 2 covers the student's knowledge and present idea on sexual harassment, sources of knowledge and notion, experiences on the nature of function and assigned works or activities and the perceived incidences as per their personal circumstances; and part 3 focuses on draft of instrument for the school.The survey questionnaire was structured as 4-point Likert scale.The survey instrument was validated and checked by a psychometrician to ensure appropriateness of each question.In addition, informal interviews about the respondents' views and opinions on the subject matter were employed.
Before the conduct of the study, the researchers sought the approval of the institution's board of regents to administer the survey.After the permission has been granted, respondents were asked to sign the informed consent form with the indulgence of their parents or guardians before answering the survey instrument since the topic is sensitive and some of them are minors.In getting the direct feedback among students, simple questions that pertain to understanding the idea of sexual harassment is emphasized in the instrument.
The survey instrument was administered thru Google forms sent via email and various chatting apps since the study was conducted during the pandemic to ensure safety of the respondents.To triangulate the result, a key informant interview (KII) was conducted to one of the Department of Education (DepEd) superintendent to outline actual programs and mechanism present in the schools.Throughout the duration of the study, researchers strictly observed data privacy and confidentiality.The data were treated with various statistical tools such as frequency and percentage and average weighted mean.

Findings and Discussion
Table 1 shows the students' knowledge and ideas on sexual harassment.Some respondents only take sexual remarks and gestures as a mere joke and do not take it seriously because they are not aware that it is punishable by law.3.22).It implies that students commonly learn facts about sexual harassment in various commercial and social media platforms while they never had learnings about sexual harassment at home with their parents even though home is the first environment of the students where they get educated.Furthermore, results infer that institutions rarely conduct information educational campaign to intensify the knowledge of the students.Since the students rarely get information about sexual harassment, it is expected that they would be victimized due to their ignorance and lack of awareness.Table 3 depicts that the respondents collectively agree that all the indicators were very important to prevent the occurrence of sexual harassment wherein both the students and The following tables presents the results on perceived incidence and personal circumstances on sexual harassment.It could be gleaned on table 4 that there were 4% and 2% of the respondents who admitted the occurrence of incidences of sexual harassment based on different requests or demand by their supervisor/teacher/coach such as perform sexual acts in exchange for higher grades and secure job in workplace, respectively.The results infer that there were students who are not knowledgeable that sexual harassment begins with some simple requests and demand by a supervisor/teacher/coach which will put them on a later danger of being victimized by sexual harassment.It shows that there are sexual advances done by a supervisor/teacher/coach but it was not reported due to fear of students and lack of understanding and knowledge on the different laws that protect them against sexual harassment.Furthermore, the students were also hindered to report the incident due to the victim blaming attitude of the authority in-charge to where the incident was reported.Table 6 shows the respondents with some incidents of sexual harassment that they personally experienced such as "The subject of rumors in relation to your sexual orientation or behavior" and "The subject of sexual remarks or dirty jokes" both garnering 9%.The statements "Reprimanded by your mentor or supervisor with no apparent reason" and "Evaluated only upon performing sexual acts with your mentor/teacher/ supervisor/ coach/ principal" obtain 4% and 3%, respectively.It implies that acts of sexual harassment are evident in different junior and senior high school level regardless of being in a public or private institution.Moreover, only 13% of the respondents confirmed that they reported the incident to the proper authority.According to one of the respondents, the incident was reported to the teacher but student was reprimanded by the teacher for reporting the incident so late.With this incident, the student felt embarrassed and did not pursue the complaint.In addition, some of the respondents admitted they have a classmate who reported the incident but shamed by the teacher in-charge upon knowing the incident.Other respondents affirmed that they are not aware of the any other similar case because it is not being disclosed to the public.
Based on the results in table 7 on the presence of draft of instrument, programs and regulation in the school pertaining to prevention and handling of sexual harassment cases, the respondents confirm no presence of grievance committee or help desk in case of a complaint.
The schools only utilize the guidance office as the main unit to handle sexual harassment Moreover, on the statement "any reported incidence whether related or non-related to sexual harassment for the last three years," there were 9% who admitted reported incidence of related and non-related sexual harassment.However, it also shows only 9% of the respondents verifying a complaint against supervisor or students in the school premise.
This result can be confirmed by one of the response of the respondents stating that:

Conclusion
Various schools under the supervision and control of DepEd were all considered as second home of the students.School is a place where students spend most of their time for learning and these institutions of learning are also vulnerable place for a student to be victimized by sexual harassment.The learning institutions are mandated to ensure the safety and security of the students while in schools, which can be achieved by complying with the laws and creating programs and activities that would empower the awareness of the students and the faculty about sexual harassment.
The results of the study showed that students' awareness about various acts that constitute sexual harassment is quite weak.They are just familiar on the physical form of sexual harassment rather than verbal and non-verbal.Similarly, parents do not educate their children and share little knowledge about sexual harassment, which supposedly could increase their awareness at home.The results further showed that the most common sexual harassment committed are malicious touching, unwanted comments on appearance, and stalking while fear and victim blaming attitude hinder the victims on reporting incidents of sexual harassment.The students agree that being punctual and act with diligence reduce chances of being a victim of sexual harassment.Moreover, institutions of learning lack efforts in combating and reducing incidents of sexual harassment inside their premises and their faculty members and administrators lack sufficient knowledge in handling sexual harassment cases.There is institutional inadequacy to initiate more programs and activities to empower students, faculty, and administrators to ensure safe spaces within the school premises.Hence, creation of a unit to hear complaints on sexual harassment is significantly needed.Given the alarming results, there must be an effort for both government and private institutions to address such problem and increase the knowledge and awareness of their stakeholders on sexual harassment.
nature of work and the working conditions of different participating institutions.
and staff is also significant in the success of strategies employed by the campus.
should take part to ensure the safety of the students while they are in the school premise (overall x̄ = 3.69).It could be observed that the respondents gave the highest assessment on the statement "Going to school on time" with a mean score (x̄ = 3.91).It implies that being punctual in coming to school could reduce the chance of the students to be victimized by sexual harassment as it extinguishes the opportunity of the perpetrator to take advantage of such situation.However, the respondents regarded the statement "Sexual harassment topics are included on the curriculum" as the least among the thirteen indicators (x̄ = 3.25).The result implies that students must maintain utmost decency and punctuality among themselves to deprive chance to the probable perpetrator to see opportunity on taking advantage of students.Meanwhile, school administrators should intensify the programs in empowering both students and faculty regarding sexual harassment orientation and its pertinent laws.

Table 1
Students' knowledge and present ideas on sexual harassmentResults show the students' knowledge and present ideas on sexual harassment with unanimous agreement that sexual harassment could be in various form either physical or verbal means.The respondents strongly agree that sexual harassment occurs whenever a supervisor/teacher/coach touches, rubs, or pinches parts of your body (overall mean x̄= 3.29) regarded with the highest mean.On the other hand, the students regarded the statement "SH happens when a teacher/co-student in your school area makes jokes or comments about your physical appearance" as the least among the seven indicators (x̄ =2.90).Since there are varied ways on the means of committing sexual harassment and the students were apparently not knowledgeable about the other forms of this act, it implies that students are more aware of the physical form of sexual harassment rather than verbal and non-verbal forms.This is primarily because the most common violations reported are physical sexual harassment.

Table 2
Students' sources of knowledge and notion on Sexual harassment share stories about sexual harassment" as the lowest mean among the five indicators (overall x̄ = 1.72) described as never.Henceforth, the respondents gave the highest mean on the statement "I hear news about sexual harassment through TV, internet or radio" (overall x̄ =

Table 3
Students' perception on prevention of sexual harassment

Table 4
Students' personal circumstances relative to question on demands or requests

Table 5
Students' personal circumstances relative to different physical or verbal acts

Table 6
Students' personal circumstances relative to incident of sexual harassment

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in other words "I'm asking for it."Because of that I'm afraid to speak up if this situation happen again.The teacher already talked to my classmate and my classmate apologized to me.But I hope that teachers will understand how hard for a student like me to speak up and we never ever wanted something like that to happen to us.We're not asking for it so please don't say that to a student because no one knows what they've been through." even though I was uncomfortable and anxious saying it.The teacher asked me questions and one of them is "why didn't you told me sooner?"I explained and the teacher said that since I didn't told her/him sooner it's like I'm "letting it to happen"