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New Metro Ads Highlight How YOU can STOP Harassment

April 9, 2019 By HKearl

In the Washington, DC-area, we’ve been partnering with WMATA and Collective Action for Safe Spaces since 2012 to address sexual harassment on the transit system. Our latest ads are out today and we’ll be doing flyering during the evening rush hour at five metro stations (I’ll be at Foggy Bottom)!

Via the press release:

“Metro today announced the launch of a new public awareness campaign to STOP harassment. The new ads will begin running in stations tomorrow in conjunction with Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Stop Street Harassment Week. The ads, developed in partnership with Stop Street Harassment and Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS), empowers riders to report and intervene if they witness or experience an incident of harassment. The campaign features the message “You can help STOP harassment” with four simple strategies that spell out STOP – Sidetrack, Tell, Observe and Postpone.

“Harassment of any kind is unacceptable in the Metro system,” said Metro Transit Police Chief Ron Pavlik. “It’s important for riders to have the tools to know how to report harassment and how they can help if they see it happening.”

The latest campaign is part of an ongoing effort that began in 2012 to raise awareness and combat sexual harassment in the Metro system. In a report last year, Understanding Sexual Harassment on Public Transportation, Metro found that familiarity with the campaign increased the likelihood of reporting incidents of harassment.

“Everyone can help make our transit system a more welcoming place by taking action when they witness sexual harassment. We hope this new PSA campaign can empower riders to know what to say and do in those situations,” said Holly Kearl, founder of Stop Street Harassment.

“We’re pleased to continue our partnership with WMATA to prevent and raise awareness about public gendered harassment and assault on public transportation. Whether you’re waiting at a station, riding a bus, or walking in your Metro station, public transportation should be safe for everyone,” said Collective Action for Safe Spaces Interim Executive Director Alicia Sanchez Gill. “We are glad to see resources being put towards community-based solutions to creating safety, building a DC where everyone can and should feel responsible for making our communities safer.”

Metro has developed a variety of tools to provide a safe, convenient way to report incidents of harassment. Customers may text Metro Transit Police at MyMTPD or call 202-962-2121, tell a Metro employee or go to wmata.com/harassment.“

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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, SSH programs, street harassment Tagged With: metro, transit, WMATA

New Survey: Harassment on Transit in Washington, DC

April 12, 2016 By HKearl

WMATAsurveyToday for International Anti-Street Harassment Week, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) and Stop Street Harassment released the results of the first-ever survey on the Metro system. This is the biggest study of its kind for any transit system in the United States.

In the 1,000 person-regionally representative survey conducted in January 2016 by Shugoll Research, 21 percent of riders in the Washington, DC area had experienced some form of sexual harassment, with verbal harassment being the most common form. Women were three times more likely than men to experience sexual harassment.

In positive news, 41 percent of the riders were familiar with the latest anti-harassment campaign and those who were familiar with it were twice as likely to report their experiences of harassment. Based on the findings, WMATA, CASS and SSH are currently working on a new awareness campaign that will be released in a few weeks.

IMG_6562Today, during evening rush hour, we’ll be handing out materials about harassment and how to report it at five Metro stations.

Metro Center
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Tenleytown-AU
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Shaw–Howard U
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Takoma
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Clarendon 
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

WMATA, CASS and SSH have collaborated for four years on an anti-harassment campaign that has included station-wide awareness posters, an online reporting form, the training of employees, and outreach days at Metro stations. All of these efforts set the tone that sexual harassment is unacceptable and is taken seriously.

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Filed Under: anti-street harassment week, SSH programs, street harassment Tagged With: metro, public transportation, survey, transit, WMATA

USA: Harassment should not be an Intrinsic Part of Using Public Transportation

January 25, 2016 By Correspondent

Kathleen Moyer, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, SSH Blog Correspondent

Los Angeles Metro Ad“Why don’t we get off the bus right here and go get something to eat?” said the man sitting next to me, who had been harassing me since he got on the bus.

“No,” I responded immediately for what must have been the fifth consecutive time. When I looked out the grimy bus window at the surrounding area, I noticed there were no restaurants in clear sight and doubtfully wondered whether he really wanted me to get off the bus so he could take me somewhere to eat. Before he got off at his stop, he asked for my number. When I wouldn’t give it to him, he gave me his instead, leaning over me to make sure I was saving it in my phone. I guess he wanted to be sure that I had it, just in case I changed my mind and decided that his incessant remarks about my appearance were actually charming.

This was the first time that I experienced harassment on public transportation. Seeing as I live in a large city and don’t yet drive, I rely on public transportation often. Unfortunately, since that first incident, I’ve learned that harassment on public transportation is something that’s simply expected, especially if you’re a woman. Recently, I asked other frequent public transportation users I know about their experiences with harassment.

“The conversation started out normal, but then he started asking me uncomfortable questions,” one woman began. “He said that he had a wife that he didn’t live with anymore and some grown children, and asked if I’d like to come with him to a hotel for sexual interaction…I told him no thank you and how he should be loyal to his wife, but he kept insisting and told me he’d even pay me for my time, because in Russia, that’s what he used to do. He then put his hand on my thigh, and then I stood up and moved to another seat on the bus to get away from him.”

Another woman I spoke to shared an experience in which she was harassed by a clearly intoxicated man who should not have been on the bus in the first place. “I was on the bus leaving work…I started eating a hoagie and this drunk guy in the row next to me started moaning and making obscene gestures at me. Then he moved to the seat next to me and said ‘Do you want to play?’ and reached out to grab me. Before he could, I yelled ‘Get away from me!’ and luckily that was enough to make him run out of the bus before anything else could happen.”

Fortunately, this woman, as well as another woman I spoke to, was able to scare off her harasser. I assume that the harassers ran away in these instances because they were taken by surprise. After all, we’re taught to simply ignore harassers on buses and trains, because sadly, that’s usually the safest and easiest response. I believe that harassers know this and try to take advantage of it. That’s why they sometimes act in such a cowardly manner when their victims respond in a way that deviates from what they’ve come to expect. However, victims of harassment shouldn’t be solely responsible for addressing the issue.

Thankfully, some transit authorities have taken action to fight harassment, with Boston’s transit authority leading the way in 2008 and Chicago in 2009.

* Since 2012, Stop Street Harassment and Collective Action for Safes Spaces have worked on a campaign with the Washington, DC area transit authority that includes PSAs, an online reporting portal, and training for frontline employees.

* In 2014, the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority created a webpage through which victims of harassment would be able to anonymously report incidents and submit photo evidence.

* Transport for London launched a campaign called “Report it to stop it” in April of last year. As the name suggests, the goal of the campaign was to encourage more people to report instances of harassment.

* A similar campaign called “Speak Up” was developed in Los Angeles, in October of last year.

* Also last fall, the French government launched a campaign in which public transportation lines were plastered with posters printed with sexual remarks typical of those frequently heard on public transport lines. The bottom of the posters say, “A woman’s life should not look like this.”

While these efforts are promising, the problem seems to still remain unaddressed in most areas, allowing harassment to continue to be seen as an intrinsic part of using public transportation. Perhaps public transportation companies know that most people who use their services do so because it’s their only method of transportation; the fact that these companies won’t lose customers could be a factor in them not prioritizing the issue. Perhaps local governments are not aware of how prevalent the problem is. No matter what is preventing the problem from being addressed, it must change immediately. No one should feel threatened anytime they travel via bus or train and unwanted sexual behavior should not be a normal part of someone’s daily commute.

As the posters in France say, a woman’s life should not look like this. No one’s life should look like this.

Kathleen is a full-time graduate student studying professional and business communication. She plans initiatives to increase awareness of sexual assault, domestic violence, and other related issues through her university’s anti-sexual violence group, Explorers Against Sexual Violence.

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Filed Under: correspondents, public harassment, Resources Tagged With: Boston, London, los angeles, metro, paris, philadelphia, public transportation, Washington DC

DC: Testify about harassment on public transportation!

February 2, 2012 By HKearl

This is cross-posted from Collective Action for Safe Spaces blog…I serve on their board and I’m excited to be working on this initiative!

Sexual comments, leering, groping and public masturbation: sexual harassment happens a lot on public transportation in Washington, DC. Collective Action for Safe Spaces/Holla Back DC! has been tracking and speaking out on this issue for three years. Now we’re doing something more – testifying. And we need your help.

We need people to testify with us about the issue of sexual harassment on public transportation during the late afternoon of Wednesday, Feb. 22, for a public performance oversight hearing of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) held by the Council of the District of Columbia.

We are looking for people:

1) Willing to share a story or stories about sexual harassment on metro trains and buses,
2) Who can talk about sexual harassment they’ve witnessed,
3) Who can be part of the audience to help fill the room.

Testimonies are only 3 minutes long (about a page and a half). If you want to learn more about writing and presenting compelling testimony or want feedback on a draft, we will hold an optional training on Saturday, Feb. 18, 1-3 p.m. at the Southeast Library (across the from Eastern Market metro station). Susie Cambria will lead the training.

If you’re interested in providing testimony or helping to fill the room, please contact info@collectiveactiondc.org by February 17.

If we have enough people testifying, possible outcomes could be:
*Council Member Muriel Bowser (who is overseeing the hearing and is from Ward 4) will be aware of the issue and could even propose legislation to help prevent sexual harassment on Metro.
* Council Member Bowser could question the Director of Metro to find out why our concerns have not been addressed.
* The Director of Metro could be more likely to address our concerns and take actions we recommend such as providing training for employees.
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Filed Under: street harassment Tagged With: DC, metro, public hearing, WMATA

Leg stroking Metro harasser

May 1, 2010 By Contributor

Before I moved to Washington, DC, I was there visiting family. I got on the Metro at the Shady Grove Station. The car was empty except for me and then another man got on the car with me. I did not think anything of it, but he decided to sit right next to me and I thought that was odd considering it was a completely empty car.

He began to talking to me and I made polite conversation. Then he began stroking my bare leg (it was summer and I had on a skirt) and becoming more assertive in his intentions, asking where I was staying and if I was dating anyone. I remember thinking in that moment, that I should hit him, but I became scared, thinking that if I do not disable this person then he is going to harm me and we are trapped on this subway car together and there is nowhere or no one else to run to.

Thankfully, after passing through several stops on the red line going back toward DC more people got on and eventually he got off at a stop. I was left sitting there thankful for the additional people and thankful he did not ride all the way to my stop. To this day I question any person that is too chatty on Metro unless I know that they are a tourist.

– anonymous

Location: Washington, DC

Share your street harassment story today and help raise awareness about the problem. Include your location and it will be added to the Street Harassment Map.

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Filed Under: Stories, street harassment Tagged With: metro, Stories, street harassment

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