Photo Credit: AnnaStills
In just a matter of weeks, students across the United States will be headed back to school. For students in music classes or programs like band or orchestra, they are gearing up for an exciting season of learning and honing their talents. Music spaces in school can be a valuable escape, channel for artistic expression, and personal enrichment. However, sometimes perpetrators use these spaces to sexually harm students. It is the collective role of all adults in the community to ensure that music classrooms are safe and respectful to all who enter them. In this week’s blog, we’ll be examining how sexual harm occurs in these programs and changes we recommend academic institutions implement to mitigate this harm.
Unlike the average schoolteacher, music teachers/instructors have increased access to their students. From after school practices and rehearsals to traveling for concerts and competitions, these staff members spend a great deal of time with these students outside of regular school hours. This includes one-on-one instruction, which further limits chances of intervention or bystanders from witnessing boundary-breaking words or physical touch. Harmful behaviors are often normalized throughout music departments, with students either not recognizing that a teacher’s “strict” behavior is abusive, perceiving their instructor as an untouchable “genius” to not be questioned, or maintaining silence in fear of academic repercussions or jeopardizing scholarship opportunities. All these things are indicators of textbook abuse. Some musicians have even directly drawn the parallel between toxic music teachers and abusive romantic partners.
What can be even more frustrating is that some schools do not process reports in a trauma-informed way, do not take claims seriously, and allow for the cycle of abuse to continue. At RALIANCE, while we believe that institutions can perpetuate harm, they can also be a part of the solution. Below are some of our recommendations to prevent sexual, physical, verbal, and emotional abuse in music programs:
Increase Transparency in Teacher-Student Interactions
One way to provide safeguards to students is by increasing transparency in teacher-student interactions. Physically, we recommend limiting or eliminating prolonged one-on-one interactions, with doors open, glass windows, or security cameras. Reinforce to students that virtual communication with their teacher must be limited to school-monitored communication systems like email. For more private sessions, mandate a parent, aide, or other trusted adult also be present. All of the above create barriers for perpetration, which can prevent harm from occurring in the first place.
Integrate Right to Be and Love is Respect Trainings in Student Curriculum
As referenced above, abusive teacher dynamics can be similar to an abusive relationship. Integrating relevant trainings into a student’s curriculum may help them identify red flags and seek help if they experience or witness a dangerous situation. Former RALIANCE grantee Right to Be provides excellent bystander training to empower young people to safely intervene if they witness one of their peers in a harmful situation. Love is Respect provides powerful curriculum for teens about dating, which can help them more quickly identify what is unsafe. Combined, these trainings empower teens to ensure that the spaces they inhabit are safe for them.
In addition to recognizing toxic dynamics between teachers and students, it can also help prevent students from being harmed or harming one another. With the increased, unique proximity music students have with one another, these trainings can do a great deal in advancing protections within these dynamics as well.
Provide 3rd Party Mechanisms to Report and Seek Help and Explain Confidentiality Limits
One common barrier to reporting is when there are limited options to do so. If a student is abused by their instructor, and their instructor is beloved by the staff and their classmates, they may feel they have nowhere to go. They might believe that they won’t be believed or that they will face academic or social repercussions for coming forward. This can be mitigated by providing students with several options for reporting and seeking help. In-school, they should have contact information for the Title IX Coordinator and/or guidance counselor. It should be expressed to these students that, if they disclose to people in these or similar roles, confidentiality and privilege does not extend to minors in all states. This is because those positions are mandated reporters, and all mandated reporters need to act in the best interest of the minor. We also recommend re-examining processes and procedures laid out for mandated reporters to ensure that they respond to their mandated reporter duty in a trauma-informed way. In the event that students are cautious about going through school-official channels, there should also be confidential hotlines provided to young people seeking help like the Love is Respect Hotline for teens.
Students can also be provided with an anonymous helpline and contact information for their local rape crisis center (which can be located using RALIANCE’s Rape Crisis Center Directory). Mandated reporting laws vary by jurisdiction and may impact services for minors at local rape crisis centers, but if a survivor is over 18 years old outside of a k-12 environment, their report to the rape crisis center will be kept confidential. Expanding reporting options and assistive resources empowers survivors to seek out safety and help sooner, which benefits everyone.
Consult the RALIANCE Roadmap
RALIANCE began its journey addressing the issue of sexual abuse in sports head on. Music and sports programs share a lot of similarities in both time commitment, stakes, and power dynamics. This is why we feel that the materials we’ve created for preventing sexual abuse in the sports world can also be applicable for this issue. To start, consult the RALIANCE Roadmap to learn about the ways we envision institutional and community change to make students safer. Then, continue to look through our Sport + Prevention Center site to draw inspiration from how the sport world has/can change their approach to preventing sexual violence.
Would you like more specific guidance relating to your school/institution? RALIANCE would be proud to partner with you, conduct a policy review, or just begin preliminary conversations to discuss how your procedures and practices can be amended to make students safer.
As the school year approaches, now is the perfect time to begin these conversations. We hope to see schools, communities, and parent of music students come together this fall to prove that it is possible to make music settings respectful, equitable, and safe for all.
RALIANCE is a trusted adviser for organizations committed to building cultures that are safe, equitable, and respectful. RALIANCE offers unparalleled expertise in serving survivors of sexual harassment, misconduct, and abuse which drives our mission to help organizations across sectors create inclusive environments for all. For more information, please visit www.RALIANCE.org.
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