Readers know by now that the status of a workplace sexual harasser is irrelevant to hold the employer liable for a hostile workplace – it is the existence of the hostile work place that is significant, whether caused by a supervisor or co-worker, or a customer or delivery person.  This is illustrated by a new lawsuit filed in California.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that sexual harassment of teachers by students is rampant at a local all-boys Catholic school in San Mateo, with students competing “to get up-skirt videos of their female instructors.”  One teacher has just filed suit against the school and the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Francisco, contending that school administrators “failed to protect her over two years of humiliation that also involved sexually explicit tweets, graffiti and an online image reproduced by a number of athletes at the school.”

Although six students  were expelled, six students were suspended, and six students “most culpable for producing and distributing the images” were referred by the police to the San Mateo County Juvenile Probation Department, and the school “held a student assembly outlining the legal ramifications of inappropriate texting and Internet activity and partnered with San Mateo police to continue training in online behaviors,” the teacher said that was insufficient and that she was forced to go on leave out of concern for her safety.

She said that “I’m hoping for the administration to recognize the seriousness of the issue and I’m hoping the school makes some real change to make [the school] a better place and to allow these boys to be in a culture that respects one another.”

She claimed that sexually explicit and violent graffiti was found on the boy’s bathroom wall targeting her, and that there were also sexually explicit tweets targeting her, yet the school did nothing.  “I was hoping the students would be held accountable.  To not get any resolution spoke volumes about how the kids could get away with anything.”

The paper reported that “One student who took up-skirt photos, with the help of classmates who would distract the teachers, told police that it was a long-standing practice on campus.”

Her attorney said that “Even though they are a private all-boys school, even though they are run by the Archdiocese of San Francisco, they are like any other employer and have an obligation to protect their employees from sexual harassment.  Once it happens they have a legal obligation to investigate to understand the full scope and then to fix it.”