Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

“No one should make you feel uncomfortable”

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Farragut West Metro Station Anti-Harassment PSA

My fellow commuters looked at me like I was crazy when I stopped to snap a photo of this sign at the Farragut West Metro station in Washington, DC. But that’s because, as readers of the blog know, with Collective Action for Safe Spaces, I helped get this anti-harassment campaign going and I had not yet seen the PSA in real life. I can’t stop grinning! #SocialChange

If you’re in DC and experience or witness sexual harassment on the transit system, you can report it! One of the easiest ways is via this form: http://wmata.com/harassment.cfm

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Thanks, WMATA for the new campaign against sexual harassment on the Metro!

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This afternoon outside the Gallery Place/Chinatown metro station entrance in Washington, DC, wearing teal “M” pins for Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) staff (including the General Manager and several transit police officers) joined volunteers from Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS), the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, and the DC Rape Crisis Center. We all handed out brand new fliers to passersby as part of the official launch of WMATA’s anti-sexual harassment campaign (the flier was the image on the right).

There were about ten of us who passed out the fliers for an hour to regular commuters and tourists alike. Some women eagerly grabbed the fliers when they heard about the campaign. Many men took fliers too and one man told me it was a disgrace that harassment happened. I overhead one young woman who’d picked up a flier from someone else but was passing by me say to her friend, “Oh my gosh! Finally someone is doing something about this. I deal with this all the time.” And of course, many people refused fliers before we could even tell them what it was about, but thankfully, no one was rude or harassed us.

Every major local tv station was there. While most stations only interviewed the General Manager, Fox 5 interviewed CASS board member Ben Merrion and me for their news clip.

I have to say, I am floored. I tracked the launches of the anti-sexual harassment campaigns in Boston, New York City and Chicago on my blog, and WMATA’s efforts stand out for their fast pace and thoroughness.

It was fewer than six weeks ago that six members of the public and board members of CASS testified before the DC City Council about sexual harassment on the DC-area transit system. We were nervous and felt we had to be on the defensive and explain why this issue matters, especially after we heard some of the soundbites WMATA gave the media which made it sound like they didn’t care about the issue. We didn’t have much hope that anything would come out of our testimonies, not even when WMATA said they would do something immediately. We feared that was just lip service. But then they invited us to a meeting at their offices two weeks later.

On March 7, three CASS board members met with WMATA and they gave us an overview of their campaign plans and we were blown away how responsive they were, how comprehensive their plans were, and how it had only been two weeks since we’d given testimony!

In March they quietly released a new webpage and email address (harassment@wmata.com) where people can report sexual harassment – including, for the first time, verbal harassment. The fliers we handed out today inform people about the new ways to report harassment. Additionally, a PSA ad campaign will roll out soon and WMATA is finalizing a new training video for their employees. To make the issue more accessible, the training video includes the harassment stories of several members of the public who agreed to be filmed during The REAL Metro Forum, held during International Anti-Street Harassment Week.

The WMATA task force for this issue has been great to work with, especially the project lead Caroline Lukas. They’ve treated the issue with the gravity it deserves and have asked for input throughout the process. They have obviously made the issue a top priority if they were able to launch their campaign so soon after we brought the issue to their attention. It’s also refreshing to hear them acknowledge that it will take time to get the word out and then even more time to track the effectiveness of the campaign. Caroline has assured us WMATA is in this for the long haul.

If you’re in the DC-area or know anyone who is, spread the word about the new campaign and encourage them to report anything they experience or see. Help WMATA track the problem so that they can then more effectively address it. Social change doesn’t happen overnight, but it certainly has a chance of happening faster with the help of a major institution like WMATA. Thanks, WMATA.

WMATA Media Relations Manager Caroline Lukas hands out fliers

Holly Kearl with WMATA staff, including the General Manager

Handing out fliers

Teal pin
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Big News – WMATA will Address Sexual Harassment

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L to R: Holly Kearl, Chai Shenoy, Council Member Muriel Bowser, Ben Merrion

Exactly two weeks after several people in Washington, DC, gave public testimony about sexual harassment on the DC transit system and offered recommendations, WMATA has swiftly taken steps to make our recommendations happen!

Chai Shenoy, co-founder of Collective Action for Safe Spaces/Holla Back DC!, CASS board member Ben Merrion, and I learned about these initiatives yesterday. First we met with Ward 4 City Councilmember Muriel Bowser and two hours later, we met with about 10 staff at WMATA.

When we went into the meeting with WMATA, we had low expectations. In the days leading up to the hearing, WMATA said statements like, “one person’s harassment is another person’s flirting” and had given the impression that they thought sexual offenses weren’t a big deal. We were pleasantly surprised by what they had to say.

Chai wrote about what happened at the meetings on the CASS blog:

On the eve of International Women’s Day (ahem, yesterday), we met with Council Member Bowser and WMATA in two separate meetings. It was a day of follow-up meetings. We were interested to know if CM Bowser had heard back from WMATA. We were also curious as to what, if anything, WMATA was planning on doing to address our concerns about public sexual harassment and assault on the transit system.

CM Bowser expressed her commitment to push WMATA to do something, at minimum the public service awareness campaign and trainings. We talked to her about our concerns about the gap in law where in DC police (not true in MD/VA) have to see someone committing a misdemeanor to arrest them. This affects individuals who report indecent exposure, public masturbation, etc. Unless the cops see it, nothing can happen. Even if the person took a picture of the perpetrator in action. It’s essentially a free pass to perpetrators: Come to DC! Yikes. CM Bowser wants to address this issue and is figuring out ways to do so.

After that meeting, we had a lunch break. Thank goodness for the great weather yesterday that kept us company.

As we walked over the WMATA headquarters for our 2P meeting, we kept wondering outloud what WMATA would share with us. We were escorted to a conference room where some Senior level WMATA officials were sitting including Lynn Bowersox (Director of Communications), Dan Stessel (Chief Spokesperson), Regina Sullivan (Director of Government Relations), Michael Taborn (Chief of Transit Police), and others.

After an hour and half, we walked away with WMATA pledging to do a public service awareness campaign, launching as soon as April, technology upgrades to include a webportal for individuals to submit their experiences with harassment and assault, a newly dedicated email address on this issue (where people can upload pics/video), new trainings to ALL staff, and quarterly data reports on harassment and sex crimes.

Yeah, you read that correctly.

A PSA.

Data collection on harassment and sex crimes.

A dedicated email address and webportal (and specialized hashtag and possibly other techie things).

More & better trainings.

YEAH. yeah. yeAH!

You did it. Your tenacity to share stories of harassment and assault everywhere, including those that happen on the metro, is creating a culture of change in the nation’s 2nd largest transit system. That is big, really boombastic B.I.G.

Of course, our work isn’t done (this is not a Mission Accomplished moment). They have to launch it. It has to succeed. But, instead of being critical, let’s pause and celebrate this first step.

Have a glass of wine, bubbly water, beer or two in celebration of this on International Women’s Day.

In solidarity,

Chai, your humble servant.

P.S. Feel moved and want to get involved? Shoot us an email at info at collectiveactiondc.org.

You can also donate to CASS. Right now, our work is unpaid, volunteer driven. We took time off from work to attend the meetings and testify at the hearing, but we could do so much more with funds to hire at least one staff person to work on these issues full time.

This is HUGE news.

I am really proud of our city. Many people do not take these issues seriously so I applaud WMATA and also Councilmember Bowser (she’s up for re-election – vote for her if you can!) and her staff for listening to our testimonies, taking our concerns seriously, and then immediately taking action. They plan to include CASS and Stop Street Harassment in the whole process so we can have input on messaging and implementation, which of course is key. Come to a forum with Metro on March 22, 5:30 p.m. at AAUW, 1111 Sixteenth St, NW, Washington, DC, and share your thoughts with them, too.

WMATA is now on target to be the nation’s leader for addressing sexual harassment on the transit system and they hope to be a model for transit systems across the country.

And, as Chai mentions, WMATA’s decision to address this issue is in great part because of all of the people who shared their harassment stories at the hearing and on the CASS blog over the last three years and also thanks to the two dozen people who wrote to WMATA after the hearing to share their stories. Having media coverage highlighting our concerns from the Washington Post, ABC news, and WAMA didn’t hurt either.

Stay tuned for more updates on our progress. And please be in touch if you want to see something happen in your city. We’re happy to chat and offer advice.

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