“They should teach harassment prevention in high school.”

“They should teach harassment prevention in high school.” That’s what the manager of a restaurant on the big island said to me after my presentation last week. She said she wished her son and his friends could hear the message of respect.

I agreed with her, and then said, “They really should teach it from pre-K on.” And in fact, they do. What you need to know about harassment you learned in kindergarten. Keep your clothes on. Keep your hands to yourself. Say you’re sorry if you hurt someone. Listen to the teacher–in this context, anyone who tells you how they want to be treated.

If they’re not teaching it in school, then we as parents have to do it ourselves. That’s one of the reasons I say harassment prevention is a family issue. We know in Hawai’i, according to the survey commissioned by Safe Spaces and Workplaces, that almost half of Hawai’i workers (women and men) have been harassed on the job. That means probably half of our family members have been harassed. The more we can talk at home about preventing harassment, the more impact we’ll have in reducing it at work.