I walked into school and a group of boys started making tit jokes and whistling at me. They were so bad at whistling one of them brought an actual whistle. It made me feel uncomfortable. Fortunately, at that moment the bell rang.

Late that day a boy in my form class, while he was walking past me and touched the side of my breast. I reported it to my teacher but she said it must have been an accident. I wasn’t surprised. My school never takes this stuff seriously.

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

Make anti-street harassment lessons compulsory as part of PSHE/Sex ed.

– E

Location: Schoolyard

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See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea

My high school is located in the upper downtown area of Indianapolis, Indiana. When I was a sophomore I was walking down the city street from my school to a coffee shop about five blocks away to wait for my father to come pick me up. It was the middle of July and hot outside, so the streets weren’t too busy. As I waited at a stop light to cross the street, a man started to approach me walking fast. As he got up next to me he shoved a tube filled with liquid to my face asking ʺHey beautiful, do you know a man that smells like this?ʺ Terrified that it was laced with drugs or something I held my breath and stepped away. I told him as politely as I could muster, ʺNo, I’m sorry I do not.ʺ

He said, ʺYou didn’t even smell it.ʺ And shoved it to my face again.

This time I began to walk quickly across the street as my light changed, where he then began to follow me, and started to become angry. I asked him to leave me alone, and then I was confronted with angry yells like, ʺSpoiled mother f****** racist princessʺ ʺRun home to daddy b****.ʺ

I spotted police cars parked by a CVS and quickly made my way in there, where he finally walked away. I waited in there for about 30 minutes, then ran the rest of my way to the coffee shop. Later when I told a trusted older cousin about the incident, she told me things like that wouldn’t happen to me if I didn’t wear the clothes I wear. I was 15, In a baggy t-shirt and cut off shorts, in 90 degree weather. I’m 18 now, and this event still haunts me, along with others.

#StopStreetHarassment

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

If you see it, say something. If the actual attack isn’t horrifying enough, its being surrounded by people who didn’t say a thing.

– Melissa

Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea

On Friday, February 20th, a man started verbally harassing me in the Prospect Park Q train station, asking if he could get inside my coat with me. I abruptly walked down to the platform to be around more people. When the train arrived, I got on and noticed he’d sat down across from me. Three stations later, I got off at my stop and he got up and did the same. Hoping to leave with the crowd, I left the train station and walked across the street and down one block.

I looked behind me and saw he was following me from across the street. I walked back towards the train station to ask the attendant to call the police. The man cut me off at the corner and I yelled, “What the f*** do you think you’re doing?!” He responded “Nothing I’m just trying to go home with you.” I threatened to call the cops if he kept following me, and he backed away and walked down the block.

An older woman saw what happened and was nice enough to accompany me home. When I called the precinct to file a report, the attendant told me that nothing had actually happened, then proceeded to hang up on me, laughing. It was 2 a.m. I called 311 to see if there were any resources, and was given the same treatment by two different people after being put on hold for 10 minutes.

– Alice

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea

I was walking from Brixton Market to Brixton Road on a busy Friday at 8 p.m. I didn’t feel at risk because there were a lot of people around and I was walking along a well-lit street with shops.

As I was walking through the scaffolding which is currently lining part of Coldharbour Lane (which has the bad effect of cutting the path off from the rest of the street and giving it an alleyway-like effect) I noticed a man coming towards me. As I say, I had no suspicion or fear as, fortunately, I am accustomed to walking past men without adverse consequences. However as we walked past each other this squat man in his forties or fifties stuck his hand out and gave my ass a good squeeze. Unlike me, he had noticed that for a few seconds we were the only people in the street, and had taken advantage of the fact. I was so shocked and scared by his action and by how vulnerable I suddenly felt that I carried on walking (towards the main road) and only shouted some insults back at him.

A big group of people came round the corner straight after, and I considered telling them, because the man was still just walking casually along the road ahead. But I was afraid that they might laugh or refuse to do anything, and so add further to my humiliation.

I think it could be helpful to have posters in the street, encouraging people to take action against this kind of event – perhaps saying something like ‘GROPING AND VERBAL HARASSMENT ARE A CRIME AND ARE PUNISHABLE BY A FINE OF £— OR JAIL. PLEASE REPORT THIS CRIME TO THE POLICE AND HELP US CATCH THE CRIMINALS WHO DO THIS.’ If I had been sure that this is universally considered to be unacceptable and illegal, then I would have said something and perhaps they could have helped me to punish, shame or take the man to the police. Instead, I was afraid of being ignored or laughed at.

It is absolutely disgusting that some people feel like they can walk around taking whatever they want. Someone whose morals are so low as to enable them to touch a woman and take advantage of her vulnerability are surely not above rape. They should be dealt with as seriously as criminals, to clearly put out the message that ANY TYPE of unwanted sexual act is absolutely unacceptable.

– Anonymous

Location: Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London, United Kingdom

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for more idea