Sex Harassment Law Applies to Students : Schools: Officials hope to create more awareness. They can now discipline those who act offensively toward classmates.

Elementary and high school students across California will soon be learning about a new law dealing with an old subject: sexual harassment.

The twist is that the law directly affects students and how they treat each other in the classroom.

The legislation that took effect Jan. 1 gives school officials the authority to suspend or expel a student in grades four through 12 for sexually harassing a classmate.

The law is welcomed by some students who say they have long put up with offensive remarks, gestures and advances from classmates because there was no recourse available to them.

“I think it’s great,” said Jamie Martin, 17, a senior at William Taft High School in Woodland Hills. Martin said girls at her school are routinely harassed, verbally and physically.

“If you’re walking in the hallway and it’s really crowded, some guys will grab you,” she said. “It’s happened to me. It’s really gross.”

Most girls do not report such incidents because they are relatively common, students said. But Martin’s classmate Erin Kracow did.

“This guy came up to me and grabbed my crotch,” said Kracow, 18. “I pushed him off, and he started saying stuff, like: ‘Oh, you bitch.’ ”

She said the incident happened in full view of others, including some of the boy’s friends.

“I was scared because I thought they were going to get back at me,” she said.

Kracow and her parents complained to school officials and the boy was eventually transferred to another school.

Despite such incidents, some students say the law will not change behavior because teen-agers do not think of sexual harassment the same way adults do.

“If a guy says: ‘Hey, nice butt,’ that’s sexual harassment,” said Cecilia Meyer, a senior at Ventura High. “But some girls need that kind of reassurance.”

Teaching about inappropriate behavior to elementary students, who may unwittingly be the biggest offenders of the law, would seem to pose its own set of challenges.

But discipline problems at the grade-school level will probably not be handled differently than they are now, even with the law, school officials said.

“Elementary schools have always dealt” with sexual harassment, said Assistant Supt. Susan Parks of the Simi Valley Unified School District. “We just didn’t call it that.

“There’s a lot of teasing of little boys and girls that goes on at this age,” Parks said. “It’s more boorish behavior.”

Teachers and parents will just have to work harder at educating children about taking more responsibility for their actions, she said.

“They may not understand” what sexual harassment is, Parks said. “But they do understand what it is to hurt someone’s feelings, and that boys and girls are different.”

Other school officials said they hope that the law will create more awareness among all students that certain types of behavior are not just annoying, but can be emotionally harmful to the targets of abusive behavior, particularly during the teen-age years.

“It can hurt their self-esteem, the ability to protect themselves in a situation,” said Phyllis Miller, who teaches a course on marriage and family at Buena High School in Ventura. “Each person has a different limit.”

Miller said she has begun talking to students about the law. “If we don’t respect each other, this can lead to other abuses.”

State Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) said he was inspired to write the legislation after watching Anita Hill testify during 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Just as it is elsewhere in society, sexual harassment is a problem in schools, said Hart, chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

Besides, Hart said, students should be taught at an early age why such behavior is unacceptable.

The law is “not so much to suspend or expel students but to impress upon them that they maybe need to have a different attitude about these things,” Hart said. “If we can teach them what is inappropriate behavior as kids, it will make it a lot easier for them to avoid this problem before they reach adult status.”

But some students and school officials who support the law said they are skeptical about its effectiveness because it does not clearly define sexual harassment.

“It’s kind of nebulous so you end up being judge and jury,” said Principal Mary Tostado of Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. “And teen-agers are always playing games with each other. What somebody thinks is serious, somebody else may think is a joke.”

As written, the law defines sexual harassment as an act that is severe enough “to have a negative impact upon an individual’s academic performance or create an intimidating educational environment.”

Hart said he believes that the law is clear and that school officials will not have any problems differentiating between playful flirting and offensive behavior.

“School principals are professionals,” Hart said. “They know when the line has been crossed.”

Still, some school districts are taking steps to come up with their own definition of sexual harassment.

Last month, the Moorpark Unified School District in Ventura County approved its own policy that lists the types of student behavior that are punishable by the district. They include:

* Verbal harassment: Offensive comments, jokes or slurs, graphic verbal comments about an individual’s body and graphic or verbal comments of a sexual nature.

* Visual harassment: Offensive posters, cards, cartoons, graffiti, drawings, objects or gestures.

* Physical harassment: Unwelcome or offensive touching or impeding or blocking of movement.

As a catchall, the policy also defines harassment as unwelcome sexual advances, requests or demands for sexual favors with other oral or physical conduct of a sexual nature.

Moorpark school board President Tom Baldwin said he initiated the policy because he wanted to ensure that when this type of behavior occurs it does not go unpunished. He said he also shared Hart’s philosophy that students need to be taught at an early age what is inappropriate behavior.

“We have this attitude in society that boys will be boys,” Baldwin said. “But the times are changing. And girls no longer have to accept this as part of the growing-up process.”

Saleem Aaron, 17, a senior at Moorpark High, said the state law and the district’s definition of harassment are open to interpretations. For this reason, he said, there is the potential for abuse.

“I don’t want this to be a weapon,” he said. “You know, like someone saying: ‘If you don’t want to go out with me, I’m going to charge you with sexual harassment.’ ”

Classmate Karen Richter, 17, is also concerned about frivolous complaints.

“Someone can get in a fight with their boyfriend and use it,” she said. “It’s just going to end up being one student’s word against another.”

Principal Jeanne Hon of Hollywood High School said she has no problem with the law, but added that it is not needed--at least at her school.

“This is Hollywood,” she said. “This is not some country town somewhere. These kids are street-wise. . . . If a guy abuses a girl here, he will probably get his head knocked off.

“Most girls can handle themselves,” Hon said. “If not, they’ve got boyfriends, brothers and fathers.”

Hon also said there are regulations that allow schools to suspend or transfer problem students to another campus.

“We have all the safeguards in place already,” she said.

Nonetheless, teachers and administrators are advised to take every step necessary to educate themselves about the law because they will be liable for enforcing it, said Mary Jo McGrath, an education attorney based in Santa Barbara.

“That’s going to be the clarion that gets people’s attention, when people realize that they can be held personally responsible,” McGrath said. “And liability may extend beyond what is protected by a school’s insurance.”

Although it remains to be seen how effective the law will be in stemming sexual harassment in the classroom, there are those who regard it as a victory for women in general.

“It’s a new age,” said Gloria Allred, a Los Angeles attorney and former high school teacher. “We’ve spoken out, we’ve expressed our anger and now we’ve translated that into law. It shows that we are taking this problem seriously.”