On Friday, Feb. 20 at 8:30pm (check local listings), PBS's "NOW" collaborates with the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University to bring you an unprecedented broadcast investigation of teen sexual harassment in the workplace.

This investigative piece is building upon a report that E.J. Graff wrote in 2007:

In 2003, nearly 3 million high school students worked full or part-time, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Add in summer jobs, and take in teens' entire high school careers, and "the percentage of teens who work at some point during their high school years surpasses 80 percent."7 Most teenagers work in low-wage restaurant, retail, or service jobs, where they're likely to be overseen by transient supervisors or managers who are themselves poorly trained, low-skilled, and poorly paid. Their bosses too often ignore sexually tinged behavior, dismissing it as harmless flirtation.

In debates about raising the minimum wage, teen workers are often thrown out as the reason not to raise it. Why should we pay teens $10 an hour to flip hamburgers? Now Washington state wants to lower their wages as a way entice managers to hire them instead of the recently laid-off bankers. Ironically today's teen may be more in a position to be adding to the family income than earning "fun money."

As Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune pointed out, we are in an economy that has killed our Starbucks dream. That also means that teens are also in a very tight job market. As stated in the "NOW" preview video, teen workers are a dime a dozen. Add that to the tight job market and we have fertile ground for worker abuse.

The young woman in the video was scared to tell her parents what was happening to her for fear they would make her quit her job. I understand that. I was harassed at work and school throughout my teen years. It always felt like it was my fault. Obviously looking back, I know it wasn't and it wasn't that young woman's either. Hopefully parents will view this program and instead of blaming their daughters or trying to save them, they will instead stand up next to their daughters and fight for their dignity at work. I also hope the young women out there watch this and know that they have every right to tell the office jokester to shut the heck up.