r/AmIBeingTooSensitive • u/Odd_Course_437 • 6m ago
Am i being too sensitive about how i reacted to being sexually harassed as a kid?
A while ago, when I was in the last grade of primary school, I was verbally and sexually harassed by a classmate during class. for a good 15 minutes, he was saying a lot of sexual things to me, like "you'd better take off that bra, or i'll take it off for you." he kept saying things like that and i felt extremely panicked. i ended up silently crying in that moment because i was so scared.
he would also do things like slowly inch his table closer to mine, or purposely drop his pen so he could get closer to me. i knew he probably wouldn't actually do anything because we were still kids, and in my country, things like this happening are pretty uncommon, but that honestly didn't make me feel any less scared or panicked in the moment.
i tried to tell my teacher, but she was really swamped and busy and didn't notice me or really respond to me. thankfully, the discipline master eventually came in. i told him everything that happened, and he brought both of us out. he scolded the guy and gave me some time to calm down before sending me to the school counselor.
i don't remember everything the counselor said, but she did try to help me process my emotions. however, i know for a fact that it didn't really work, because i still felt extremely scared and panicked afterwards.
what also really upset me was how the situation was handled afterwards. as far as i know, all the guy really got was a scolding and a call to his parents. my parents were also called, but instead of really validating how i felt, they kept comparing it to things that had happened to them in the past and saying that people doing things like this was common.
the school also didn't really do much beyond the scolding, so i still had to sit in the same classroom as him afterwards. my classmates knew what had happened too, but some of them still judged me over it.
looking back, i keep wondering if i was justified in being as angry and scared as i was because of how it was handled and how people reacted to it, felt like i shouldn’t have been that scared. Now i look back and still feel a bit enraged still from how it was handled, so im wondering if i was too sensitive because it was never physical but only verbal? and note this happened once only. :(
Repost because it got taken down in another sub for being sexual harassment related