Boundary Violations: Harassment, Exploitation, and Abuse

Abstract

Violence in the school environment may take several forms. Bullying, exploitation, sexual harassment, and sexual boundary violations have become the focus of exploitation and abuse experts as a serious concern (Olarte, 1991; Veltkamp & Miller, 1994; Miller & Veltkamp, 1989; Crisci, 1999). The spectrum of sexual boundary violations range from tainted jokes, unwanted sexual advances, and inappropriate educator–child relationships to sexual harassment. During the last decade, many organizations have endorsed rules of ethical conduct that prohibit sexual contact between professionals and clients and advised members on the importance of setting sexual boundaries (American School Boards; American Psychiatric Association, 1995; American Psychoanalytic Association, 1993; American Psychological Association, 1995; National Association of Social Workers, Inc., 1990; Jordan & Walker, 1995). Major efforts have also been made to clarify and prohibit sexual contact in the workplace but those have only begun to read the educational setting. There is a dearth of research on sexual harassment or contact in either setting. The purpose of this chapter is to elucidate the specific spectrum of sexual boundary violations that professionals must be aware of in the course of providing schoolbased services. It offers the reader an understanding of the triggers for potential sexual boundary violations, a perpetrator profile and victim profile, the exploitation of the victim in the school setting and the “Trauma Accommodation Syndrome,” and a legal case which has signatures for school-based professionals. Clinician Gabbard (1991) suggested that violations of sexual boundaries between educators and students can occur when the perpetrator confuses his or her own need to be loved with the needs of the victim. The perpetrator fantasizes that love in and of itself may cure his or her psychopathology. The tendency for incestuous sexual experiences—based, perhaps, on the perpetrator’s past—to be reenacted in the perpetrator–victim dyad, and the close link between incest and the desire to be helpful and parental, reflects the immaturity and psychopathology of the perpetrator. Perpetrators often act out their anger and frustration through the sexual exploitation of others. Olarte (1991) identified characteristics of perpetrators who violate