Addressing LGBTQ+ students’ experiences of sexual harassment in schools: reconceptualizing understandings, policies, and interventions

Since the early 1990s, sexual harassment of students in secondary schools has been identified as a serious problem impacting the schooling experiences of girls, in particular. However, in more recent times there has been diminishing attention on sexual harassment incidents and concerns experienced by students, with an increased focus on bullying. Still, recent Australian research on student-to-student sexual harassment in schools indicates that this behavior continues to be prevalent in high schools. However, like most research on sexual harassment in schools, this study did not discuss gender and sexuality diversity as important variables, nor how transphobia, homophobia, and biphobia (and other intersecting social categories of power, for example racism and ablism) contribute to the prevalence and experiences of student-to-student sexual harassment. There has been a dearth of research examining the experiences of LGBTQ+ students in schools despite some early research indicating these students experience higher levels of sexual harassment in school settings than their cisgender heterosexual peers. This reflects research findings in other contexts beyond schooling. For example, broad population surveys in university and workplace contexts show that sexual harassment is prevalent for LGBTQ+ people, especially lesbians, bisexual women, nonbinary and transgender people; and also indicate disproportionately higher levels of sexual harassment for LGBTQ+ people in these contexts than for cisgender heterosexual populations.