SEXUAL HARASSMENT SESS ITS DEFINITION EXPANDED

America's new sensitivity ~exacts a price, sometimes a huge one. On the subject of sexual harassment, where societal meaning has broadened into transparency, Americans have never been on more unstable ground. The result is a nation of nervous wrecks and a problem whose substance is being inad~vertently protected by overwrought good intentions. Some perspective must be brought back to the discussion.

Understand this: Sexual harassment, the real thing, is intolerable behavior, demoralizing for its victims and harmful to society generally. But also recognize that broadening the definition of sexual harassment doesn't help in combating this offensive conduct, it hurts. If you take the benign comment or indiscreet glance and label them as sexual harassment, you demean the claims of genuinely suffering individuals who are being fondled in the workplace by boorish superiors.

A recent Associated Press story revealed that with the number of sexual harassment claims increasing, some teachers are fearful of working closely with students because their intentions might be misconstrued. One Tennessee middle school teacher said, "Hug, pats on the back we do it, but in hindsight you wonder, `Should I have?' You don't know what's coming. That's the scary part." The problem goes beyond tentative behavior by teachers and uncomfortable classrooms. In the most extreme case, one Virginia teacher, who made an unwise yet mostly insipid remark to a student of the opposite sex, committed suicide in the aftermath of his job termination.

Earlier this summer, a survey released by the American Association of University Women indicated that 80 percent of teen-agers responding said they had been subjected to sexual harassment by students or teachers. That is an alarming statistic, but consider it for a moment. Readers of this should reflect on their own high school experience and reflect on their own definition of what sexual harassment entails. From this context of personal experience, does anyone believe that four out of every five classmates were victimized? The number is preposterous, and it is arrived at only by stretching the definition to its utmost.

Columnist Thomas Sowell points out: "Sexual harassment now includes situations where not a living soul said a word to anybody or was even in the presence of the `victim.' Graffiti now constitutes sexual harassment. So does a look that you read sexual meaning into."

Thus, watch what you think.

Sexual harassment stands to become the scarlet letter(s) of our age. Where does one go to regain a reputation once labeled (though never proven) as a sexual harasser? How does Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas ever shake the allegations made against him in his confirmation hearings? The charge sticks, whether deserved or not, and throwing it around loosely (which is promoted by bloated definitions) can be ruinous.