Findings from A. Giladi's Research

Sexual harassment among children in a first grade class in an Israeli school in Jerusalem

During one of the playtimes, when most of the children were playing in their gender groups, three boys conspicuously wandered about, bored, idle, conferring secretly and making noise. After about eight minutes the three approached a girl who was holding between her legs a Chinese jumprope (over which a group of girls were jumping). The girl noticed the threatening presence of the boys and warned them to go away from her, lest she call the teacher in charge. One of the three boys approached her, drew up close to her body, and planted a kiss on her cheek (I used the word “planted” because the kiss was not wanted and was forced on the girl). The girl blushed all over, and stood there pained and embarrassed. Her friends, who witnessed the event, stopped their game and went up to her. The girl, meanwhile, sat down on the ground and clutched her cheek in her hands. Her friends suggested to her to go to the teacher in charge and complain about the harassing boy, but she remained in her place and did not respond. Two of the girls called out to the teacher that “Amir gave Inbar a kiss.” The teacher in charge, who was busy talking with another child, did not hear their cries. I looked for Amir and did not find him in the playground; probably he had gone into the corridor of the school.

After three minutes the girls decided to change their place of play, and they took Inbar’s hand and went to the new place. I approached this new place of play so as to observe Inbar’s behavior after the deed, and suddenly I heard a shout “Enough, enough already!” and a crying voice sounded throughout the playground. It seemed that Amir had attacked Inbar again. Inbar stopped her play, mustered up her courage, went by herself to the teacher in charge, and told her what had happened. The teacher responded that “He [Amir] definitely wants to be your boyfriend, so maybe give him your telephone number?”