Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | Trial

Foley scandal spotlights sexual harassment of teens.

Article Excerpt
Investigations by the FBI and the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct into sexually charged e-mail messages from former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) to young congressional pages have trained the spotlight on an area of growing concern among employment lawyers: sexual harassment of teen workers.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reports that between 2001 and 2005, it filed an increasing number of lawsuits--up to 30 a year--on behalf of teenage employees. Of the 108 such suits it filed during those years, about 80 percent concerned sexual harassment, said Lisa Schnall, an attorney adviser to EEOC Chair Naomi Earp.

Sexual harassment appears to be a common experience among teens in the workplace. In a 2001 survey by the American Association of University Women, 83 percent of girls and 79 percent of boys who responded said they had been sexually harassed. More than 25 percent said the harassment occurred often.

Research by Susan Fineran, a professor of social work at the University of Southern Maine, echoes those findings. In a 2002 study of more than 300 high school students working part-time, Fineran found that 35 percent had experienced sexual harassment. Sixty-three percent of those workers were girls.

And a 2005 study by Fineran of several hundred high school girls showed that almost 47 percent of those who worked reported being sexually harassed on the job. For many teen victims, said Fineran, sexual harassment includes assault, attempted rape, and stalking.

Exactly what all these numbers mean is...