School’s out, and teens eager to trade their pens and notebooks for work gloves, serving trays and paychecks will enthusiastically enter the world of summer jobs. Parents are supportive. The teens learn a work ethic and make money for back-to-school clothes, gas for the car or college. But the results of research conducted by a University of Southern Maine associate professor show teens are at risk of more than a sunburn or sore feet in their summer jobs.

Dr. Susan Fineran’s two surveys, conducted in 1999 and 2003, found that more than a third of teens – and more than half of girls – were sexually harassed in their summer or after-school jobs. And much to Dr. Fineran’s surprise, public schools seem unwilling to take on the task of educating teens about the risks of sexual harassment on the job and their rights under the law to be free of it.

Dr. Fineran, who teaches in USM’s School of Social Work, has researched peer-to-peer sexual harassment in schools and decided to extend her inquiries into the world of teen jobs. Her 1999 survey of 700 students ages 14-17 at a school in a suburban New England she won’t name revealed some shocking statistics.

Of the 330 teens who worked, 183 – 35 percent – reported they had been harassed. “I was appalled,” Dr. Fineran said. The survey form asked 30 detailed questions about groping, touching, suggestive language, threats and coercion, so the teens weren’t asked to judge what was sexual harassment. Those interpreting the results made that determination based on the law.

Sixty percent said co-workers were perpetrators, 20 percent said supervisors were guilty and 20 percent said vendors or customers were the culprits.

The results prompted a second survey at an all-girls school. Of the 500 girls participating, 53 percent reported harassment at work.

A lot of the harassment is coming from fellow teens, perhaps a carry-over from the school environment where such behavior occurs during unsupervised times in the school day. If teens become used to such behavior at school or work, sexual harassment will continue to be prevalent, Dr. Fineran believes.

She has offered to visit schools to conduct training or to work with focus groups, but to date has gotten a cold shoulder, a response she finds perplexing. The state Department of Labor has agreed to survey teens applying for work permits on the issue, so more Maine data may be forthcoming.

Dr. Fineran suggests teaching teens about sexual harassment laws be included in a required class, such as social studies, perhaps in a unit on the labor movement.

Schools should reconsider her invitation.