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K-12 ADULT SEXUAL MISCONDUCT PREVENTION

OTHER TRAINING CONSIDERATIONS

Providing Parent Awareness Training

As part of their prevention efforts, schools can make parents aware of district policies and procedures on safeguarding children and consider engaging them as partners by including them in adult sexual misconduct (ASM) awareness training (U.S. Government Accountability Office [GAO], 2014). Additionally, this will help to build trust as parents and guardians learn about the many efforts the school takes to protect their child.

Training for parents may address the following:

Patterns of ASM behavior, including how they manifest in social media interactions and electronic exchanges
The district’s ASM policies and procedures, including the following:
- The steps for reporting incidents
- How complaints will be heard and investigated
- The role of the Title IX coordinator
- How parents will be notified of outcomes
Specific examples of the school’s efforts to monitor interactions between adults and students
Age-appropriate talking points for discussing inappropriate adult behavior, privacy, personal boundaries, and online safety with their children
Age-appropriate tips parents can share when teaching children about refusing and reporting inappropriate adult behavior
A mechanism for parents to ask questions after the training
Tips for online safety, such as those provided in Keeping Kids Safer on the Internet: Tips for Parents and Guardians

Administering a survey immediately after the training can help gauge its impact and inform the content and format of future trainings. Periodic reminders of the school’s commitment to protecting students, even brief ones (e.g., tweets), can help reinforce the trust, as well as remind parents to be vigilant as they discuss safety with their children.

Tailoring Training to Students

When the training given is age-appropriate and relevant, students can play a critical role in ASM prevention by observing the appropriate boundaries they are taught, by reporting inappropriate behavior, and by reinforcing ASM awareness in their peers (GAO, 2014). Important components of the training will be a working definition of ASM, including criminal repercussions, using an age-appropriate version of the district’s ASM policy. Additional components can include the following:

A working definition of ASM, including criminal repercussions
An age-appropriate version of the district’s ASM policy
Clear information about how and to whom ASM reports should be made
Common patterns of behavior of ASM perpetrators, including forms of grooming that may appear in social media and electronic exchanges
Meaningful examples that will help students understand the gravity of ASM. These examples might describe the consequences of an educator who engaged in a sexual or romantic relationship with a student, or who shared drugs, alcohol, or sexually explicit material.
Respectful discussion about students who may be especially vulnerable to ASM perpetrators and what their peers can do to support them
Thoughtful conversation about appropriate and inappropriate adult behaviors that fall into “gray areas” (behavior that is questionable, but not criminal). The training should provide
- a description of as many of these behaviors as possible;
- real-life examples (these can come from national and local media incident accounts);
- an opportunity for students to identify these inappropriate behaviors in scenarios specific to the school setting;
- a range of realistic scenarios that call on students to determine the appropriate actions, such as refusing inappropriate behavior, reporting suspicious incidents, or ensuring that a peer does not keep a secret about ASM; and
- incentives for students to create their own information campaigns in the school, the community, or online.
Tips for online safety, such as those in “Internet Safety Education for Teens: Getting It Right” from the Crimes Against Children Research Center and the Kids Online Safety site
Details about safeguards to protect students from retaliation when reporting incidents
Discussion of the harms of false allegations and the punishment for making intentionally false reports or allegations

The student training should be as interactive as possible and be refreshed each year or as often as possible to include new scenarios, media accounts, and examples of inappropriate and illegal behavior. Students should be allowed to provide feedback on the training content, format, and approach. A survey can capture these opinions and provide information about whether the training had the intended impact.

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