In 1994, OSSTF/FEESO, in collaboration with the Ontario Women’s Directorate and the Ministry of Education, initiated an examination of the prevalence and impact of sexual harassment on the students in our schools. The resulting resource, The Joke’s Over: Student to Student Sexual Harassment in Secondary Schools, was widely referenced in the education sector and the broader community. OSSTF/FEESO has continued its ground-breaking work on this issue with the release of a new set of resources:  Still Not Laughing: Challenging Sexual Harassment in Our Schools. The new material contained in Still Not Laughing furthers the discussion and deepens our understandings of how sexual harassment affects our learning communities.

Still Not Laughing – A Resource List is a bilingual annotated bibliography which serves as a reference for a wide range of resources suitable for use by educational workers, including curriculum and program ideas, interactive websites, support services, government documents, audio-visual materials and advocacy opportunities.

Still Not Laughing – A Toolkit for Action is a bilingual resource book which begins with a look at current challenges and legislation related to sexual and gender-based harassment in our schools, both as learning environments and as workplaces. Subsequent sections offer a framework for developing effective strategies aimed at changing attitudes and behaviour, as well as some ideas that can be used as a starting point for action.

Still Not Laughing: Challenging Sexual Harassment in Our Schools, a 2 hour workshop based on these resources, has also been developed to increase participants’ awareness and understanding of sexual harassment and provide them with an opportunity to develop strategies that challenge sexual violence and  harassment in their schools and workplaces. (This workshop is in the process of being translated into French.)