Joy Behar has opened up about the harrowing sexual harassment she faced while working as a teacher in Long Island – detailing a shocking moment with her boss that left her ‘revulsed’.
The 81-year-old comedian, who recently joked on The View that she wants to get it on with a lady when she’s 90, used to teach English at Lindenhurst Senior High School on Long Island from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, and it was here that she endured a spate of sexual harassment.
Writing about the incident, Joy referenced the #MeToo movement but claimed: ‘Back in 1969, we didn’t have hashtags. If you were getting harassed by your boss, you had to get creative.’
The first person article, which was published on Air Mail in February, begins with an incident which occurred in the classroom when a department head came to observe one of Joy’s lessons and told her afterwards: ‘You were so good, I could’ve f**ked you on the blackboard.’
Speaking about how it made her feel, Joy – who was 27-years-old at the time -explained: ‘I was torn. On the one hand, I was revulsed. On the other hand, I was a self-supporting, single woman with no trust fund waiting for me, and the chairman of the English department liked my lesson. My mind raced.
Joy Behar has opened up about the time a senior male colleague left her feeling ‘revulsed’ after touching her inappropriately
The 81-year-old, pictured here in March, wrote about her experience in an article published on Air Mail
‘I thought of reporting him, but I knew that would go nowhere. The principal was only interested in catching students smoking dope in the bathrooms. And I really needed this job, so I made up my mind to try and take it as a compliment.’
Joy recalled how a colleague of hers named Krystie was also being sexually harassed by a different male teacher, who kept commenting on ‘how big her boobs were.’
The two women, along with another teacher from Germany named Bridget, set about discussing ways in which they could get revenge on the two men for their inappropriate behavior.
Things reached breaking point when the department head propositioned Joy after coming to ‘observe’ another one of her lessons and suggested they go out for a drink together after work.
Joy lied and told him she was ‘involved with someone’ but she said this spurred him on even more, and when she tried to excuse herself and leave the room, the man in question put his hands on her and told her: ‘Look at the woody you made me get,’ referring to his erection.
On the exact same day, Krystie was subject to something similar as the other male teacher came into her classroom and lifted up her blouse – which left her ‘hyperventilating.’
Joy described Bridget’s reaction and said the history teacher ‘went into action’ as she led the way to the man’s classroom.
‘Bridget marched up to him, pulled out a tape measure, and said, “Excuse me. Could I measure your pr*ck?”‘ Joy wrote, before revealing how they tied his hands behind his back and pulled his pants down.
Joy, pictured in 1992, used to work as an English teacher at a school in Long Island where she was sexually harassed by a colleague
‘You’d better not tell anyone about this, or next time, your d*ck won’t be so lucky,’ Joy recalled Bridget saying to him, before they untied him and left the classroom.
And when it came to dealing with her own situation, Joy decided to invite the department head to another one of her classes and this time she turned the tables on him via her lesson.
During a lesson about grammar, Joy decided to use the analogy of the ‘grammatically correct way to get a bully to leave you alone,’ and asked him what he would do in the situation.
When her students started suggesting a that bully in a ‘superior position’ should be reported to their seniors, or perhaps the police, Joy recalled the man ‘got up and started to inch his way toward the exit,’ as she sarcastically suggested that he should ‘come back next week.’
DailyMail.com has contacted the school for comment.
According to Air Mail, the story was taken from the first chapter of Joy’s upcoming memoir, which will be published by Regalo Press.
The upcoming non-fiction book was first announced back in November 2023 and will see Joy share stories on various subjects, including relatives, hair, erections, bullies and romance.
While the memoir is not slated for release until sometime in late 2024 or early 2025, Joy’s fans can expect the television personality to ‘take aim at everyone and everything, including herself.’