4125.20 | Definition of Harassment

  1. Harassment is defined as “a course of conduct directed at a specific person that causes substantial emotional distress in such a person and serves no legitimate purpose. [U.S. Code Title 18 Subsection 1514 (c) (1) (A-B)]
  2. Sexual harassment is a form of misconduct that includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, sexually motivated physical conduct or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:
    1. Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment or participation in the educational process;
    2. Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as a basis for employment or educational decisions affecting the individuals, or
    3. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or education, or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work or learning environment.
  3. Examples of harassment include, but are not limited to, the following:
    1. Conduct which annoys, threatens, intimidates, alarms, or puts a person in fear of their safety. Harassment is unwanted, unwelcomed and uninvited behavior that demeans, threatens or offends the victim and results in a hostile environment for the victim. Harassing behavior may include, but is not limited to, epithets, derogatory comments or slurs and lewd propositions, assault, impeding or blocking movement and visual insults, such as derogatory jokes, posters or cartoons, and/or unwelcome behavior or communications directed at an individual because of his or her gender, race, color, creed, and/or sexual orientation.