Know

Think back to a time when you experienced a situation or challenge that was unfamiliar. Did anyone act to help ease your worry? What helped you or others make good decisions through the situation? How did you keep the main goal or mission in mind? How did you help yourself or others remain calm? Did you learn something from the situation that helped you prevent future challenges or to feel more prepared?

When a sexual behavior incident or challenge occurs in your school, depending on the severity of behavior and the knowledge of those involved, it can feel overwhelming—it might even feel like a crisis. How can you address the immediate needs of students, families, staff, and leadership in ways that are respectful and supportive of all involved? How can you help plan for longer-term support? When challenges arise, it is important to consider the systems and steps needed to address the short- and long-term needs regarding the safety and healthy development of all children and youth in your school. As an administrator, it is equally important that you have systems in place to prevent sexual behavior challenges. Previous lessons in this course provide a strong foundation; this lesson builds on that material, focusing on your role as a school administrator and how you can provide critical leadership to prevent and appropriately respond to sexual behavior challenges.

Supporting School Staff

Set the Tone in Your School: Respond to Diverse Beliefs on Sexual Development

As a school administrator, your knowledge of and level of comfort in discussing sexual development and behavior can have a significant effect on the entire school community. While your school’s counselors, social workers, and school psychologists may be the point personnel for sexual development and behavior in students, it is important that you understand this area of human development, too, so you can fully support the needs of students, teachers, staff, and families.

Because of a lack of information about sexual development and, for some, cultural beliefs about the taboo nature of sexual development, some staff may need more extensive support to build skills relevant to discussing and properly supporting students’ healthy sexual development and behavior. The lack of opportunity to learn about this topic affects educators’ beliefs and how they view their role in supporting healthy sexual development. Consider some of the following comments or concerns you may hear staff make, and then review the guidelines:

Depending on your school community these concerns may be common, but it is important for staff to understand that their primary role includes keeping students safe and supporting learning and development, including sexual development. Review the guidance around acknowledge, relate and take action in Lesson Eight for ways to respond to staff’s comments in ways that support their feelings but also reinforce expectations for their role in delivering high-quality education. As an administrator, you must take action to ensure that appropriate support and instruction takes place within your school. Collaborate with school counselors, social workers, and school psychologists to develop action plans with staff members to build their knowledge in understanding and responding to sexual behaviors.

Assess School-Wide Needs and Promote Preventive Practices

As discussed in Lesson Eight, it is helpful to have a baseline read of your staff’s knowledge and comfort level regarding sexual development and behavior. You can partner with a school counselor, social worker, or school psychologist to assess this by asking staff to complete the My Knowledge and Beliefs self-assessment tool in the Apply section of Lesson One. This is one way to measure the level of understanding around this topic for individuals and school staff as a whole. If you find that most of your school’s staff report limited knowledge about sexual development and behavior or feel uncomfortable with this topic, work with your school’s internal leadershipto plan a school-wide professional development opportunity. Refer to Lesson Eight for more suggestions on supporting school-wide learning on sexual development and behavior. Ensuring that educators have proper training, as well as opportunities, tools, and resources, to understand and discuss sexual behavior is critical for students' safety and healthy development while at school.

Aside from formal professional development, another helpful way to support preventive efforts is to normalize communication about sexual behavior. There is a tendency for educators to discuss students' sexual behavior with each other and with families only when there are concerns. Even when sexual behavior is normative, some staff may feel hesitant to ask questions or talk with their colleagues and with students’ families. Help educators gain confidence by allowing them to practice speaking about this topic with you or another point person in your school. Model how you talk about sexual behaviors and use preventive strategies, and also ask staff to practice what they would say to a colleague or family member.

You will also need to think about the needs of your student body, including their need for information. When staff are not sure how to respond to students' natural curiosities about their bodies, sex, or the life cycle, encourage them to answer questions in developmentally appropriate ways. Inform families when you had or will have such discussions (questions about reproduction, names of body parts, etc.) in your school. Offer families information about typical sexual development and help them prepare for questions that might come up. These strategies, along with others throughout this course, create a school community that is more knowledgeable about sexual development and behavior and also better prepared to prevent sexual behavior challenges.

Key Prevention Strategies

Many of the same practices we use to ensure safe and healthy environments for students also help prevent sexual behavior challenges. When staff members feel uncomfortable supporting sexual development or report they have limited knowledge, you can begin supportive conversations by discussing familiar teaching strategies to highlight what they already know. As you review the key prevention strategies below, think about how each strategy helps prevent sexual behavior challenges in your school. How do you currently help ensure that these practices occur in your school? How might they be adapted or emphasized to prevent sexual behavior challenges? Reflect on these questions as you read.

Active supervision is a key prevention strategy and occurs when staff position themselves so that they are able to observe students’ physical and communicative interactions in ways that encourage expected behavior and conversation. School environments are public spaces and should not have any areas where staff cannot provide active supervision; though, as students become more independent, you will guide staff to gradually allow students more autonomy while considering their abilities and the school layout. A first-grade teacher may allow two students to walk together to the front office to retrieve an item if the office is within line of sight to the classroom. The teacher will have a good sense of how long this should take these students and could look out the classroom door, while still supervising students inside the classroom, if needed. If, however, these first-graders’ classroom was located through an upper elementary hallway and not within line of sight of the office, the teacher may reconsider their decision. You will need to guide staff to think about balancing student autonomy and active supervision.

During times when students are in higher ratio areas, such as the cafeteria and on the playground, you will need to support staff to make sure that they consider the ratio of staff to students along with groups of students’ specific needs. For example, if you are aware that a lot of inappropriate touching occurs in a sixth-grade hallway between classes, support the staff who work in that area of the school to more diligently supervise and engage with students during this time of the day and arrange for additional staff, if needed.

It is equally important for teachers to actively supervise by listening and engaging with students during conversations to guide language and discussion topics. Remember that sexual development is made up of behavior, physical development, and knowledge, and many students acquire sexual knowledge through conversations with peers. School staff should know how to redirect sexually explicit conversation and sexual harassment in ways that guide students to understand why that language or topic is inappropriate for school, or in some instances is illegal, without placing blame or shaming students.

Teach developmentally appropriate rules and set clear expectations to help students understand and follow rules around safe touch, personal boundaries, and appropriate conversation. When staff collaborate with students to develop their boundary-setting skills, they should provide opportunities for students to respectfully share and listen to others’ preferences so students are empowered to do what feels safe for themselves and others. Especially for younger students, educators may need to model language to help communicate their preferences, and the complexity of language and concepts students know will evolve as they grow. Elementary students should know safe and unsafe touch, public versus private, and anti-bullying concepts, and they should begin to understand safe online citizenship. Middle and high school students should be well-versed on these in addition to sexual harassment. Support teachers in knowing how to thoughtfully incorporate these topics in their instruction in ways that create respectful dialogue and support individual preferences among students and staff.

Monitor behavior and policies concerning electronic device use to protect students from sexually explicit media while in school. You should ensure that staff are aware that students should not have access to sexually explicit magazines or books, videos, video games, computer files, websites, songs, or television programs. In addition, closely monitor students while they use electronic devices to avoid inadvertent exposure to explicit media. Safety measures, such as enabling parental controls on devices are a good place to start, but they should not take the place of supervision. Monitoring students’ online interaction is just as important as monitoring their physical interactions.

Continually review your school’s policies on use of school-issued devices and students’ personal cellphone and electronic device use to ensure these policies address the safety and needs of students. Continual review is imperative because new applications develop each day and the features of existing apps are ever-evolving. Make sure that all school staff know these policies and have support from you and other school leaders on how to help students and families follow these policies. In addition, help staff know what to do if they hear children and youth discussing explicit media, even if the media exposure did not take place within school. Such conversations may indicate the student, or students, are at risk of exhibiting or experiencing sexual behavior challenges. When there are patterns of this type of behavior with specific students or the student body, staff should inform you so you may follow-up with families or more urgently review policies and preventive support. For supporting families, refer to the Safe Media & Technology Use for Children, Youth, & Families attachment in the Apply section of Lesson Three.

Establish clear student-staff interaction policies so all members of your school community are well-informed. Teachers and staff are encouraged to have warm and trusting relationships with students; however, there should be clear guidelines on acceptable student-staff interaction. While this course primarily focuses on sexual behavior in students, teachers and staff serve in a multitude of roles—teacher, coach, mentor, among others—and these roles may present situations where boundaries for student-staff relationships are blurred. As an administrator, it is your role to make sure teachers and staff are well-supported in adhering to school policies and know who to turn to or what to do should they encounter an uncertain situation with a student. For example, can staff give or loan personal money to students for any reason? How have you communicated these guidelines? In addition to polices on student-staff interaction during school hours and while on school property, administrators should establish clear guidelines on how teachers and staff interact with students via electronic devices and social media. Can a teacher or coach text students on their personal cellphones regarding practice cancellations or activity updates? For what purposes should staff and students use school-issued email accounts to communicate? While these questions may seem distant from sexual behavior, it is important that teachers and staff are aware that despite good intentions, there are instances where helping a student or being supportive can be interpreted as sexual or romantic in nature to students and others. Clear policies and supportive oversight protect students and staff.

When staff, families, and students are not well-informed about expectations for student-staff interaction, they may be more likely to remain silent or look the other way when policy violations or concerning behavior occurs. All members of the school community should know your school’s procedures if they hear of or observe any sexual or inappropriate behavior between staff and students. Do students know who to tell in your school if they are involved in or hear of a concern? Are your guidelines for student reporting more broad such as, “tell a trusted teachers or staff member” or is there a specific point person, such as the school social worker or counselor? Do the teachers and staff know procedures for reporting inappropriate or sexual behavior between staff and students? Are the procedures different for minors versus when a student is a legal adult? What are your school’s procedures if a family member reports inappropriate behavior between their child and a school staff member? Reflect on these questions and others as you consider your role in developing and implementing comprehensive policies on student-staff interaction.

Responding to Sexual Behavior

Your Specific Role as an Administrator

This course provides all school staff with important information and tools to understand and respond to student’s sexual behavior. Each instance of sexual behavior is different, and it is your responsibility to have an overarching view of the entire situation as it pertains to the needs of students, families, and staff. Expanding on the guidelines from Lesson Two on responding “in the moment,” and “after the fact,” be prepared to step in when you believe there are additional needs to attend to. Use these suggestions to guide your comprehensive support as you and staff respond appropriately to instances of student sexual behavior:

• Help staff members remain calm and collect their thoughts, regardless of the severity of students’ sexual behaviors. Opportunities to discuss case examples offer an opportunity to prepare and practice responses.
• If in the moment, help staff members redirect the behavior and ensure that all students are safe.
• Work with staff members and the students involved to fully understand the incident or behaviors. Use the tools available throughout this course to understand and reflect on what happened. Gather information with open-ended questions. Remember to ask students, families, and staff members individually about the incident (when appropriate) to gain a more complete understanding of the behavior, but make sure that students are not “interviewed” multiple times or forced to share information or give a statement. You, or another school leader, should be present when staff members are speaking with students about sexual behavior incidents.
• Appropriately document the incident and behaviors and brainstorm a short-term support plan or preventive plan, if needed. Use the tools available to help determine the need to engage a counselor, social worker, school psychologist,PUBLIC or other specialist.
• With relevant staff members, lead engagementPUBLIC with a specialists when the behavior appears non-normative, or if you want additional support in determining the severity of the sexual behavior displayed, or help in responding appropriately.
• Take the lead in communicating with families, along with relevant staff members.
• Lead the action planning process for your program’s more immediate response. Work with the relevant staff members to create a short-term support or prevention plan. What additional observations, supervision, and support will you collectively need to better understand the behavior and prevent future challenges? Communicate the plan with all appropriate staff and family members. Provide developmentally-appropriate education and reinforce healthy behaviors.
• Support multi-disciplinary teams soPUBLIC specialists, staff, and families know each other’s roles and responsibilities
• If applicable, work withPUBLIC a specialist on other strategic responses in the program to best support the students involved and their families.
• With the support of the trainer or coach, follow-up with staff to ensure support plans are implemented appropriately, and if needed, additional documentation is complete. Brainstorm adaptations in program support and supervision plans as necessary.
• With the support of your trainer or coach, review prevention plans for the program as a whole to ensure all staff know how to implement appropriate prevention techniques.
• Some serious sexual behavior challenges in children and youth may include behaviors that that are considered illegal sex acts as defined by sex-crime statutes in the state or local area where the behaviors occurred. Work withPUBLIC a specialist for guidance on when law enforcement, Child Protective Services, or other agencies should be involved.

Supporting Teams’ Use of Assessment Tools

After a sexual behavior incident occurs, work with teachers and staff to use assessment tools to determine next steps. As an administrator, it is your role to review these documents and ask follow-up questions. Follow-up questions allow you to guide staff members to determine if a sexual behavior is of concern or normative. Follow-up questions also keep you, as the school administrator, knowledgeable about challenges with regard to specific students and teaching teams. Finally, follow-up questions help you know when an individual staff member or teaching team needs more general support and guidance on sexual development and behavior from a counselor, social worker, or school psychologist. You may find instances where you disagree with how a team interprets students’ sexual behaviors. The questions in tools such as the Sexual Behavior Reflection Tool, help you guide teams’ use of a developmental and comprehensive frame to reflect on sexual behaviors and to assess whether behaviors can easily be prevented with universal strategies.

Take a moment now to review the Sexual Behavior Reflection Tool and think of questions you might pose to staff to deepen your understanding of an incident and also staff’s ability to think about sexual behavior comprehensively.

 

Sexual Behavior Reflection Tool

Is the behavior random or infrequent?

Is the behavior typical for the student’s age and developmental ability?

Is the behavior driven by curiosity, exploration, and playfulness?

If peers are involved, is it mutual and good-humored?

If peers are involved, do they know each other well and are they of a similar age and development (<2 years)?

Is the behavior easily redirected?

Normative Sexual Behavior?

Sexual Development Factors: Case-by-Case Decision Making 

As discussed throughout this course, many factors affect sexual development and behavior. In each unique case or incident, knowledge of these factors is necessary to understand whether or not a student exhibits a sexual behavior challenge and, if so, the severity of that challenge. One must consider:

• Culture and family norms
• Development
• Function of the behavior
• Frequency and participation
• Environment
• Media
• Effect on others
• Redirection

Though you will consider all of these factors, teachers and staff may need the most help from you or other school leaders when analyzing students’ development and function for sexual behaviors. You, along with a counselor, social worker, or school psychologist, will likely need to be part of the process when staff complete the Sexual Behaviors Reflection Tool, Sexual Development Definition and Factors, and other tools. Even when a more seasoned teaching team completes these forms without you, always review this documentation. 

As discussed in Lesson Eight, understanding how development affects the behavior of students is complex, particularly when staff identify strongly as an educator for a specific age group or teach students with disabilities or delays. Also, most families have a more limited knowledge of child and adolescent development, and some may look to you as the school administrator for guidance on how to understand students’ behavior in relation to their developmental abilities. When staff or family members encounter or ask questions about sexual behavior, help them think about student’s individual development, rather than chronological age or grade level, by asking them the following questions:

• What behavior occurred?
• What do we want to happen?
• What can the student do?

Also covered in Lesson Eight, remember that all behavior has meaning or serves some function. Determining the function of students’ sexual behaviors requires careful thought about their cognitive, language, social-emotional, and physical abilities. When discussing incidents of sexual behavior with staff members or families, model careful reflection and recognize that functions may not always be clear. Although some students can tell you the reason they engaged in a behavior, many, especially those in younger elementary grades, will not understand why they engage in these behaviors. In these instances, you will need to help staff members think carefully about students’ environments and development to determine whether the behavior is a reaction to some feature in the classroom or school environment or a more thought-out occurrence. Even when sexual behavior seems carefully crafted (e.g., a school-age child yells out a sexual obscenity to get a laugh from peers), think deeply about why students engage in these behaviors and what they “get” out of doing so (e.g., attention from peers and adults).

Immediate Response and Creating Short-Term Support and Prevention Plans

WhilePUBLIC a specialist will lead teams in developing intervention plans for sexual behavior challenges, you along with a counselor, social worker, or school psychologist will coordinate the immediate response within your school, and there are a few instances in which you will lead the creation of a prevention or short-term support plan. After careful reflection and use of assessment tools, you will find that many of the sexual behaviors observed in your school are normative and developmentally appropriate. This does not mean that staff do not need to provide support to these students or should allow these behaviors to continue to occur. For some normative sexual behavior, you will want to help staff create a simple prevention plan and schedule to reassess the behavior after a period of time. Staff can often prevent or redirect inappropriate but normative behaviors, for example by providing closer active supervision where the behavior tends to occur (e.g., in gyms, lunchrooms, and bathrooms) and by reminding students about public versus private behaviors and topics. Any time a sexual behavior is displayed, even if normative, it is important that staff let school leadership know so that they can also take appropriate follow-up action (e.g., help provide information to families and create prevention plans). If there are still concerns after implementing a prevention plan, consult with PUBLIC a specialist. For more clear-cut sexual behavior challenges, you or a lead staff member will contactPUBLIC a specialist immediately.

For students who have either clearly exhibited a sexual behavior challenge, or if you need further guidance on a sexual behavior, develop a short-term support plan while you wait for PUBLIC a specialist to provide more extensive recommendations. As an administrator, it is important that you prepare to plan with program staff when there is a gap between when the initial incident occurred and whenPUBLIC a specialist can provide consultation or evaluate the student. Depending on the specific behavior and the specialist, this may be hours, days, or even weeks. Regardless of the amount of lag time between referral and evaluation, your school should commit to continued education for all students involved unless there is a high risk of serious and unpreventable harm to others, which is rare. When creating short-term support plans, consider the following: 

Supportive Shadowing

A staff member may shadow, or stay near, a student who has exhibited behavior challenges and needs more support. This is a helpful way to ensure safety for everyone in the school and allows the adult to quickly intervene and model healthy skills. During shadowing, a staff member may sometimes directly interact with the focal student, but the key is that they are nearby, observing, recording relevant notes when appropriate, and are prepared to jump in should the student begin to display challenging behavior. Staff should strive for supportive shadowing to not be obvious to the rest of the students or outsiders, and some students consider the extra attention a special privilege. As an administrator, it is important that you clearly communicate what it means to shadow a student and be explicit that shadowing should not be punitive or exclude students from participating in the curriculum and school activities.

• In teaching teams, you may need to help support a time schedule for shadowing. For example, in a classroom maintained by three staff members (e.g., teacher and two aides), the classroom team may agree to take turns shadowing a student in need of extra supervision support. Darlene agrees to stay near the student throughout the morning until the class transitions to related arts or specials, at which point Jovan takes the lead on being near through lunchtime, followed by Maurice through the end of the school day. Notice that the team has explicitly identified who will shadow at what times—this is a critical step in helping to provide extra supervision for students exhibiting sexual behavior challenges.
  
  For some students, you may need to work with staff to identify a staff member who can adequately shadow a student through transitions or spaces within the school environment– for example, moving from art to the cafeteria. Help staff prepare to shadow in ways that are supportive of the student and their relationships with peers. For example, when a student wants to transition, how could a staff member engage in conversation and transition with them in a way that communicates that the student has strengths and is valued in the school or perhaps engage peers in the transition as well?
• As upper elementary, middle, and high school students typically have more autonomy in the school environment, it is important to discuss and plan how transitions between classes and bathroom visits will work when students need extra support in choosing safe behaviors. In addition, in school activities where students need to change clothing, it will be important to explicitly plan how supervision and support will occur during these times, when sexual behavior challenges can present more of a risk to others.
• It is also crucial that when a substitute is in a classroom where special supervision plans are in place, you as an administrator inform the substitute teacher that a student has a support plan for sexual behavior challenges. You or a counselor, social worker, school psychologist, or other staff member who is familiar with the student and plan may need to be present. Make sure this is feasible by ensuring that there are a few staff members in your school who can step in, in the event that a primary teacher supporting a student with sexual behavior challenges is absent. Only informed adults with appropriate training should have the responsibility of shadowing students or carrying out short-term support and preventive plans.

Educational Placements

Multidisciplinary teams should very thoughtfully consider all possible options when weighing to change a student's educational placement due to sexual behavior challenges. Decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis perPUBLIC your state’s guidelines, and except in cases of the most severe or harmful behaviors, students with sexual behavior challenges should have opportunities to learn and interact with typical peer models. Some students with sexual behavior challenges may need an added staff member in their classroom. In other instances, existing staff will be able to carry out recommended strategies and supervision. While changing a student's educational placement may allow for greater supervision or a lower staff-to-student ratio, this can also limit students’ social learning opportunities and needlessly label or stigmatize them. Periodically reassess student’s educational placements peryour state’s policy or when there is a change, such as an improvement, in a student’s sexual behavior or learning needs.

Support for Families

Supporting Families with Children and Adolescents Who Exhibit Sexual Behavior Challenges

When a sexual behavior challenge occurs, you as the administrator will likely lead the process of sharing what occurred with the appropriate family members and referring families to community resources and FAP for support, if appropriate. Familiarize yourself with local supports available to families. It is critically important that you individually address the families of all students involved, and that you share concrete information about what occurred as quickly as you can. Through your leadership, model and explicitly discuss how you balance transparency with confidentiality; be open and honest with staff members or family members who need to know about in-school sexual behavior of their children. Respect the privacy of individual students and families. Delays in transparency can increase family members’ negative reactions or cause them to question why they were not involved sooner. 

As previewed in Lesson Six and underscored in Lesson Eight, families with students with sexual behavior challenges may have additional life stressors as a result of their child's needs. The importance of early family engagement, particularly when children or adolescents have sexual behavior challenges, cannot be overstated. Administrators can support families by providing evidence-based information and modeling healthy responses to the behaviors. You can also support family members by reviewing assessments and intervention plans, helping to provide referrals for counseling if the behavior persists, and reporting to child protective services or law enforcement agencies (in accordance with state laws) if abuse is suspected.

If you have serious concerns about a student's sexual behavior, you must follow your school’s procedures. For all other issues in connection with a student’s sexual development, it is best to involve families in line with your organization policy. Consider the following when interacting with families about their child’s sexual development and behaviors:

• Make contact as early as possible
• Provide information about professional roles and assessment processes
• Affirm importance of the parental role
• Emphasize that by sharing your concern you are putting the student’s needs first
• Help to process emotional responses
• Listen to the parents’ story
• Be aware that each parent may react differently
• Expect ambivalence, hostility, or distress - try to not take the family’s initial reactions personally
• Avoid confrontation
• Refrain from suggesting specific diagnoses without evaluation from a qualified professional

When family members have not seen their child or adolescent behave in the ways observed at school, it can be hard for them to believe it really happened. Family members sometimes feel embarrassed or upset. Reassurance and guidance about normative sexual behaviors can help with questions and concerns that many parents may have. It is also normal for families to want to defend their child against accusations. Common reactions from families when discussing their student’s sexual behavior challenges include:

It did not happen. My child would not do that. Sexual behavior challenges may only occur in certain environments where some families may not observe their child. If a child or youth denies the behavior, it is still important to keep an open mind about the possibility that the child understands they engaged in a behavior that adults disapprove of.

It's not that big of a deal. People are overreacting. Some families may be very uncomfortable with speaking about sexual behavior in children and youth and respond by brushing it off. They may understand the importance of intervening but don’t feel emotionally able to provide the needed support or reach out for help.

If people find out there will be a record with CPS or the police. Professionals who work with students are required by law to report suspected child abuse to child protective service (CPS) or the police. When students engage in unusual, advanced, or aggressive sexual behavior, it is possible that they have been abused or that there are challenges in the home. A qualified professional can guide you in determining if a report should be made to CPS. However, it is critical to reiterate, as discussed in this course, many children and youth exhibit sexual behavior challenges even when there is no history of abuse or neglect.

My child is or is going to become a sex offender. Due to stigma, many people assume that children with sexual behavior challenges will become sex offenders as adults. It is important for you to give families hope and inform them that children with sexual behavior challenges who receive research-based intervention and have strong family support have a very low likelihood of becoming adult sex offenders. Empower families with this knowledge to help them learn the importance of intervening early and to give them hope.

Family Reactions

Read the scenarios below. Consider the suggested way you might approach and respond to families, and review the specific strategies offered in Lesson Eight for ways program leadership can offer added support to these families. Keep in mind that families may display a range of responses to the information that you share about their child’s sexual behavior. However, once families have had a chance to process the incident, their responses may change.

Notice in these scenarios that the administrator plays a central role in leading communication with families, engaging staff in planning, and coordinating with the appropriate staff, leadership, and outside agencies. While there may be other lead personnel in your school regarding students’ sexual behavior, ensure that you are adequately supporting all tiers of your school community— students, staff, and families.