~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE WASH RAG published by Women Against Sexual Harassment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Available on-line ASAP at http://www.washrag.org/ or http://members.tripod.com/~WASHRAG/ along with earlier issues ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Subscribe to e-mail version of this newsletter by going to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WomenAgainstSexualHarassmentNationaland and joining the group. Recent issues are posted here immediately when completed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Issue 10, Number 1 March, 2002 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Contents Cazenovia College Scandal in Chittenango, NY Sexual Harassment Nightmare, My Story !! From Anne of Tiptoe Violence against older women Harassment of Passengers Bullying in School National Stories Regional Stories War On Terrorism ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cazenovia College Scandal in Chittenango, NY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am writing this correspondence out of fear for the safety of female students, and out of rage at the Cazenovia College administration, particularly the President, for allowing this lack of safety and morality to continue unabated for the extent of this president's administration. Nearly two weeks ago, on February 13, an anonymous e-mail was sent to the majority of students at Cazenovia College. It was an extremely well written memorandum, riddled throughout with legal terminology, and loaded with information that virtually no student (except, perhaps, a victim) could possibly be privy to. It alleged that the president allowed the chief financial officer to remain at Cazenovia College by reversing the decision of an ethics board. The e-mail alleges that 19 counts of sexual harassment were ignored. Despite the subsequent concern of the entire student body, a student body that consists of nearly 11 females to every male, the president made no plans to address the student body. The president, Dr. Mark John Tierno, instead opted to send a barrage of e-mails, the last of which was a letter comparing the anonymous e-mail to Nazi Propaganda, developed by Adolph Hitler to persuade Germans to support him in his ruthless persecution of the Jews. This statement acted as the preverbal last straw. On Tuesday, February 19th, during my radio talk show that goes from 10:00pm until 12:00am we were bombarded by telephone calls from students voicing their concerns. As a direct result from the enormous call volume I, and my guests, stayed on until 3:45 am. During this show a walk-out was planned. Later that day, at 2:30 pm hundreds of students walked out and demanded answers. Dr. Tierno still refused to come answer our questions, preferring to meet in the gymnasium where the press could not enter. We eventually traveled to the gym and proceeded to ask him questions. He answered almost nothing. During one of his frequent ramblings he did say that quote, "Some forms of sexual harassment can be non-threatening." After this remark the crowd became understandably incensed, and gave up on the forum. The forum was only conducted because of student protests. He later denied making this statement in a press conference in which students were not allowed to attend. However, I provided the press with a copy of the tape that was made and Channel 5 aired the tape on Thursday, February 21st. As of yet no progress has been made. Students feel as if they have been neglected, and placed in harms way. To date, the president has refused to deny that this has happened. No disciplinary action has been taken. I hope that your influence may help to restore the feeling of safety for the women and men of this campus, and help assuage the feelings of rage at this administration. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, an entire college thanks you. Sincerely, William Rush 655-8249 I am writing to you, and your organization to possibly help our college, and the students that attend this college. You may have heard of the sexual harassment scandal going on at Cazenovia College, located in Cazenovia New York. As a senior about to graduate from this college, I have endured four years of this college mistreating it's students, and this has now gone far beyond my threshold for patience. This college stands behind it's reputation, which is now a joke in my eyes. The faculty and the students are almost embarrassed to say that they go to school here. While this entire situation may not seem like it is all that upsetting to those on the outside looking in, but trying to deal with this situation as a student is more than upsetting. You may view me as being overzealous, but there are many more students who feel the same way I do. As most people who have lived in Central New York know, this college was formerly an all girls school, and made the transition to a coed institution several years ago. The reputation of being an all girls school has preceded the school since it made the transition, and can be seen by a female to male ratio of 11 to 1. With a rate this high, one would think that the safety and the security of the college's female student body and it's female faculty and staff would be a great issue to the college, but it seems as though it is not. The president of this college is now the focus of this scandal. To give you all the information that I have I am including all of the e-mails that have been forwarded to every student on this campus. The first e-mail that was sent is an accusation by an anonymous person to the entire student body and faculty of the college, accusing the CFO of the college of 19 counts of sexual harassment that were reported to the college and having a result of an ethics board proposing a sentence for the CFO and the president of the college responding with his decision which was drastically less harsh. While the e-mail and the person who wrote it will probably never be confirmed, it certainly raises questions. The second e-mail that is attached to this e-mail is the president's response to the anonymous e-mail. As a history buff I do understand what he was trying to say in his analogy, but it was still obviously not well thought out and was taken in a very negative manner by the entire student body. This all happened at the beginning of last week on Monday. Since then, there has been a student demonstration and a "question and answer forum" with the president and the student body that was held in the gymnasium where the press that was eagerly waiting outside was not allowed in to view the event. During this forum, the president was asked a barrage of questions by the student body and responded almost 90% of the time with fake, very ambiguous, non-detailed and vague answers. Most memorable was the president's response in which he said "not all forms of sexual harassment are threatening", while the press could not record the president. Stating this, students that brought in their own video equipment and recording devices did. This statement was then broadcast thanks to a student on the evening news Tuesday night after a press conference took place that same afternoon. During the press conference, the president was asked by the press if he in fact made this statement, to which he replied "no". The press and the students of this college have tangled this president in his own web of lies. Every member of the Cazenovia College Community is not happy with this situation. We are receiving no answers and no information, except for responses that are too vague or encrypted for anyone to understand. I am asking your organization for their help to untangle this mess. If you have any questions feel free to contact me or William Rush whom you will see received a carbon copy of this e-mail, his e-mail is : wrush(bleep)cazcollege.edu. You may also contact the president of this college directly by email, it is: tierno(bleep)cazcollege.edu. If you would also like a copy of the student made videotape of the "question and answer forum" it can be made for you. Thank you for taking the time to read this and consider helping us. Douglas Seamans Jr, Chittenango, NY 13037 DSeamans(bleep)CAZCOLLEGE.EDU In a speech before the president’s office, Doug Seamans demanded the resignation of the President Tierno as well as Vice President Jackler. Tom Murphy, in a Post-Standard article, said “The students, whose number hovered around 8 to 10, stacked Dell computer boxes next to the door of the business office, adding "We are no longer proud to say that we go to school at Cazenovia College, a place where sexual harassment, lying, cover-ups and bad management are OK." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sexual Harassment Nightmare, My Story !! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I hope you don’t all mind me telling you about my situation, its just I need advice from as many people as possible about what I'm going through. Basically, here are the sequence of events over the past 3 years. 1) 3 years ago I got physically attacked in the workplace by someone in charge in my department, I never laid a finger on her and she said this to people in charge. 2) I complained and got threatened with the sack by my manager and the human resources manager if I was to take it any further (basically because they were good friends of the person who attacked me). When I said I was going to get solicitor or police involved they said I couldn't have anyone with a legal capacity to help me, and I had to accept a “sorry” from the person who attacked me. 3) I was then subjected to 2 years of daily bullying, sexual harassment, sexual assaults, violent behavior by 3 different managers in my department. Lots of incidences took place (which I wrote down everyday) but I never felt I could say anything to anyone or Human Resources because of fear I would get sacked because that is what they said before when I reported a violent incident. 4) A co-worker told my union about incidences that had happened to me because she was concerned for my safety. Both myself and my union rep told the Director of Human Resources. HR Director asked me to go back to work with that manager after I told him what had happened to me over the past 2 years. 5) I carried on working with these managers until I went off sick for fear of what they would do to me next because they were very violent people. 6) There was a big company investigation, and the 3 managers who did this to me got sacked (sorry 2 managers got sacked and the main manager resigned). They got sacked because it was proved all the incidences I had documented over 2 years proved to be correct because my witnesses came forward, also other members of staff came forward to say the same sexual harassment had happened to them. 7) Police investigation started, big statement taken off me, witnesses interviewed and that’s where that situation lies at the moment. 8) I got told I couldn't go and work back in the department where all the incidences had taken place, even though the people who did this to me got sacked. 9) Had nervous breakdown and was off work for 3 months. 10) Went back to another job in the company but after 4 months of being in the job that I felt safe in, the Director of Human Resources had booted me out of my very important job and told me I am to have a job filing all day. 11) I am now currently off work sick because I don’t want to file all day as a full time job and I want feel safe working somewhere else after all the stuff that happened to me in my old job. I have a solicitor on my case and I have been to the citizens advice place, but my solicitors are the same solicitors that my company use (and I feel they are working hand in pocket with one another). I have been to other solicitors but they won’t do anything for me, they all want stacks of cash up front. I have spoken to the CID who are investigating what happened to me in my place of work and they have said that if any details of this get out (ie company name, names of managers or my name) then this would be such a scandal and probably headline news because it was my bosses, the managers who did this to me. I guess its because I work for the NHS and they are not everyone’s favorite company at the moment. I feel it is not my fault this abuse was given to me, its not my fault I have had my secretarial job taken away from me, its not my fault I psychologically can’t work with men because of what happened, but all the company has done is offer me one job to file all day and that’s it. Any advice from any one who has been through anything like this would be gratefully appreciated. I am still working for the hospital and am currently off on sick leave due to "nervous disability", whatever that means. I went back to work for a short time in a different department but all I found was I was walking round in a complete daze, I felt the walls were caving in on me, I was crying at my desk in front of staff all the time, I was a physical wreck and found myself in the ladies toilets recovering from panic attacks all day (which took up to 2 hours sometimes). The reason I was like that was because I was in an unfamiliar environment with staff I didn't know. Also I suffered panic attacks every 2 hours, which didn't help, but I had been having these constant panic attacks daily since I worked in the old department and because of the way I was treated really badly by management on a daily basis. No one in the new department understood what I was going through and looked at me like I was a total freak. The problem being when I have these panic attacks, all the blood drains out of my face, neck and chest and I go white, then the blood rushes back to my head, but only goes to certain round patches on my face, neck and chest. It then looks like I have these very, very bad burns on my face, neck and chest. People in the past just stared at me in amazement and ask what the hell is wrong with me, I was once called Mrs Blobby because of the round patches on my face, they ask if I'm on the change of life (only 24 years of age), they ask if I'm having a heart attack, they ask me if I have an allergy and they ask is it a medical condition and I should get it checked out by a doctor. It causes so much embarrassment in my life, it is stopping me doing so many things and its all because of the treatment I received in my previous job by management. If I meet someone I don't know I get panic attacks, if a man comes near me or talks to me either in work or out of work I get panic attacks, I can't be in enclosed spaces and I have to be in rooms with windows that are open and not just walls or I have panic attacks. Also when I have these panic attacks not only does the above happen to me, I can't breathe, I start to hyperventilate, I choke, I start shaking from head to toe, my legs go like jelly I can't stand and fall over, on about 30% of the times I've had panic attacks I've also wet myself, my heartbeat races, I go very, very hot, then when the attack is over after an hour or so I go very ice cold and get the biggest pounding headache ever and feel very dizzy and very sick. That is why I feel I can’t got back to work and be in a unfamiliar environment with people who I don’t know and who don’t know about my condition. No-one in my Trust (Hospital) has ever said “sorry” to me for the way I was treated, they just seem to think that because they got sacked about 7 months ago I should be getting on with my life now, but I can’t even leave the house without taking drastic amounts of diamazpan. I sometimes even scare myself because when I have meetings with solicitors or my employers I find the only way I can get through the meetings is by taking about 8 x 5mg of diamazepan. As I said before, this is now a police investigation, I managed to put in a form to the employment tribunal within the 3 month time limit (only because someone told my mother, no one from my unions). I also have the solicitor working on the case and he is doing a civil claim I believe. I JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO NEXT. Do I leave my employment in the hospital because I feel I won’t be able to go back because of my panic attacks and severe depression, also I feel that because the director of human resources is trying to make me take the job on to file all day then I may just have to leave. ANY ADVICE FROM ANYONE THAT’S GONE THROUGH THIS WOULD BE GRATEFULLY APPRECIATED. jennyjones1977(bleep)yahoo.co.uk Check out issue 9.3 W.A.S.H. Rag “Health Warning“, Issue 7.4, “Shocking Reports of Sexual Abuse at Kirkland AFB”, Issue 9.4, “Ruby Starr Continues to Pursue Case ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Remarks on the College Sex Scandal ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The e-mails I received from William Rush and Douglas Seamans Jr, warmed the cockles of my heart. It also confirmed my belief that it is men, not women, that will end sexual harassment. When one sees men disgusted by the activities of sexual harassers, I feel there is a hope that it will become such an embarrassment that it will be stopped by their intervention. Subsequent newspaper articles in the Post-Standard forwarded to me state that Jay L. Jackler, a recent board appointee, has been accused of sexual harassment, and this has cast doubt on Jackler's future in Manlius village government, where he recently was appointed trustee. Another says Cazenovia College vice president Jackler sent a sexually explicit e-mail to a colleague, violating sexual harassment policy. According to the article, "The defendant also made remarks to the claimant insinuating the existence of a sexual relationship with a vendor to secure better pricing and service." "This was found to be offensive." You think? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From Anne of tiptoe (Washington State) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Women's Rights Ignored by Latin American Courts by Margarita Martinez quoted from a study coordinated by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, even though all the provinces in Argentina have included laws against family violence and the criminal code was reformed in regard to sexual crimes, violence often goes unpunished, the report said. One of the remaining legal inequities in Argentina is, for example, that if a rapist marries the woman he attacked, he is not liable for prosecution. The report cited a well-known case reflecting conservative attitudes in Mexico where a young woman who was raped and impregnated was pressured by the courts not to have an abortion, though abortion is legal in such cases and she had sought one. The baby was born. Anne also forwarded an e-mail from Joan Brewer, a whistle blower who was black balled in the computer industry, regarding the abuse of individuals who have suffered mental problems by the agencies who are supposed to help them. “There is a real problem with drug abuse in these buildings. It's not on the part of the tenants, but on the agencies who house them. . . I couldn't figure out why perfectly normal folks with minor adjustment disorders should be on so many drugs. They are especially doing this to women. The stories are not nice.” joanbrewer(bleep)attbi.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Study on Violence Against Older Women ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ hello there. I am a worker at the centre against sexual assault in Melbourne, Australia. I am currently doing research into international services that do work with older women around issues of domestic violence. if you know of any such services in your local, or any appropriate web sites, could you please let me know. I can be contacted either at likeablebully(bleep)yahoo.com or casa(bleep)cryptic.rch.unimelb.edu.au thanking you in anticipation, Ada Conroy We have been unable to come up with any specific studies, except that the U. S. Justice Department study on intimate abuse may be in some cases listed by age, and the address for the 1996 study is http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/vi.htm. We understand that there was another study done in 2001, we haven’t had opportunity to look for it, but if anyone does, we would be glad to get the URL for our web site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Humanitas Reports Sexual Assaults of Airline Passengers And Crewmembers ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The estimated number of sexual assaults and adverse events related to opposite gender searching for January is reportedly over 500 complaints to location staff. No hotline number was available for victims and the Department of Transportation and the FAA were unsure of how to deal with the complaints. Eventually it was decided the victims should go straight home and log on to a website and make a complaint there. Flight crew who were sexually assaulted were eventually given an email address (via their professional body) by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The horse had already left the stable at that point. [This is related to events of 9/11] By Tom Zoellner, The Arizona Republic Feb. 07, 2002 12:00:00 One wonders how much humanitas reporting of various sexual assaults in the US has to do with the sex scandals involving the sexual abuse of children by priests. Personally, I find both abhorrent and don’t care how we find out about them. Perhaps there is a little bit of “the end justifies the means” in me, too. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I Need Help For My Daughter ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We have a situation at my daughter's school, involving her and I need help to make these faculty adults leave her alone! They make her life hell, and she is extremely uncomfortable about them looking at her, commenting on her clothes, which are the same styles her classmates wear. Her one female teacher actually told my daughter that she wished she had breasts as nice as my daughter. That infuriated me--to have my daughter subjected to that. I am taking the stand, that just because she is more developed, she shouldn't be made to feel ashamed of her body or what she wears. Her focus on school work is suffering, because she feels the teachers are against her. I see it, she is being singled out for this constant barrage. I've talked to the principal at the school and he set up a meeting with myself, my husband and my daughter's teachers. I basically told them to leave her alone, I brought up filing a law suit, I told them don't comment on her clothes, don't harass my daughter who is already stressed enough over this. If they have a problem they need to come to me. Well, that meeting was three weeks ago, and oddly, not one phone call have I had from any teacher or the principal. And my daughter is still dressing the same way her classmates are. So this goes to show me she was being targeted. Harassed. I don't know what kind of harassment to call my daughter's case. I've looked up sexual harassment in the dictionary and it refers to "employee". What about between student and faculty? Short of suing, I'm not sure what I can do. She is only 13 years old. Please advise. “adesmoore" We referred her to the Sesame Survivors of Educator Sexual Abuse & Misconduct Emerge) web site at sesame-w(bleep)taconic.net, http://members.tripod.com/~sesame3/index.html, and also called her attention to a new program that the AAUW is developing, “Hostile Hallways: Bullying, Teasing and Sexual Harassment in School”, for which a person can get information at helpline(bleep)aauw.org or 800-326AAUW. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ National Stories ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On November 25, 2001, KTIV in Sioux City ran a story about a manager at the Hamilton Inn in Sioux City who was found guilty of sexually harassing an employee by using sexually explicit language. The big story has been the amount of sexual abuse by some catholic priests. The church has been accused of covering up the abuse by transferring the priests, and is expected to compensate victims. Another widely carried story is about the Air Force pilot Martha McSally who was forced to wear an abaya in order to leave her base in Saudi Arabia. She had started complaining when she was stationed in Kuwait in 1995. She repeatedly objected that women working for the American Embassy had no such restrictions, but the Air Force persisted because they felt they had to “blend in.” The restriction was finally lifted, but she still could not drive a car, had to be accompanied by a male at all times when off the base, and had to ride in the back seat. JAG did a story on this in which the officer had heroically landed the plane after taking enemy fire in Afghanistan delivering food to starving refugees, and the Saudi police took offence that she wasn’t wearing an abaya!!! A January 24th story on the ABC news was about a Kentucky Judge who punished a woman who had returned to an abusive husband. She had issued protection orders against the husband. Two interesting stories were about Native American situations. According to a March 5 story in the Argus Leader, the Indian Health Service hired Dr. Thomas Michaelis who had been imprisoned in 1991 for trying to molest four teenage girls. The IHS has a policy against hiring sex offenders. In another article on December 19, 2001, the Sweetgrass Road Indian Women’s Drum group of Winnipeg, Canada suit against the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN for not letting them participate in a powwow there was discussed. The women wanted to show that powwow drumming was not just for men anymore. On the encouraging side, Cops has been showing more domestic abuse stories. An AMW segment on December 1 was about an escaped criminal who had sent anthrax scare letters to abortion clinics. On February 15, John Stossel did a special report on bullying in schools. There had been a study on bullying in Canada that was very revealing. They were developing methods to stop bullying in the earliest grades. It seems to me that there is little difference between bullying and harassment. It seems to me that a high student/teacher ratio might contribute to the problem. Also, the fact that high schools and even lower schools contribute to the problem by encouraging elite groups — cheerleaders, Homecoming King, Queen and court, the overemphasis on sports and the organized worship of sports figures must all contribute to the problem. On January 2, KELO news had a story about spouse abuse locally. They described the abuse women experience. On December 30, 2001, Fox had a PSA by men against domestic violence during the X Files encouraging men to intervene if they know a man abusing a partner. On January 3, KMEG in Sioux City had a PSA right before 60 Minutes suggesting parents need to teach children to be non-violent and not abuse women. On November 27, 2001, The West Wing had an interesting episode which discussed women’s issues extensively, especially about whether a treaty which opposes forced prostitution should be ratified. The president’s wife objected to the word “forced” being included. On December 27, 2001, There was a program about domestic violence on PBS. Congress funded a domestic violence hotline in 1996, 1-800-799-7233, 1-800-942-0333 in Iowa. They gave the dismal statistic of only 2 of 7 women and 2 of 10 children needing shelter from an abusive situation can get it. They said that 1/3 of the women in the US will experience abuse in their lifetime. According to Nebraska Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Coalition, the U. S. House has approved funding for a Violence Against Women office at the Justice Department in the DOJ’s Appropriations Authorization Act. Womensenews reports that 50% of municipal offices in France are held by women. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Regional Stories ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A story was first reported in the local media about a Wane, NE flower shop owner, Roger Van, charged with holding a Texas man captive in his basement for a period of time. It was a bondage relationship. A January story on KSFY was about Anthony Luce of Aberdeen being tried for raping a 6 year old girl last July, another was about Charles Churnitek, a Chamberlain businessman being tried for sexually abusing two juveniles related to him. The Argus Leader had a story about a Harris, Iowa man charged with incest going to trial. A widely reported story in December of 2001 was about the Moody County, South Dakota sheriff who made demeaning comments and kept Playboy magazines in his office being sued by dispatcher Carrie Meyer. The Argus Leader carried a story on February 14 about Larissa Luther, formerly a White Bear Lake High School student, suing an ex-hockey coach, Stephen Hurt. He is accused of kissed her on school grounds and that they engaged in sexual intercourse on four occasions when she was 15. On March 5, they reported on a Sioux Falls Man, Brandon Lee Hermann being charged with kidnapping an elementary school student and raping her in December. An additional item was about a 23 year old Sioux Falls man, Waylon Michael Foolbull, being arrested for the assault of his former girlfriend, who suffered severe injuries. A former inmate at the Mitchellville prison in Iowa was awarded $45,000 after charging she was raped by former guard Robert Link while she was incarcerated. His conviction was upheld by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, and a separate $60,000 judgement against him was also approved. On February 15, KCAU in Sioux City had a story about Jason Vanackern, a teacher at a Catholic school in Norfolk who had been convicted of having sex with a female student having his conviction upheld. Various local media carried a story in February about a South Sioux City football coach, Randy Olson, being accused of sexually abusing a 17 year old girl. The abuse occurred in Sioux County, Iowa , where they both live. He now teaches Industrial Arts in South Sioux City. There was an interesting case in Sioux Falls which was widely reported in the media, on Super Bowl Sunday, a Sioux Falls man invited a 17 year old minor to his home for the purpose of having sex. He had offered her $1,000.00, but then told her that did not have that much money. The girl apparently brought her boyfriend and another man back and took some collectible Japanese swords as collateral (apparently this is illegal in Sioux Falls) until he paid them. The police were called and they were able to get most of the swords back when the men tried to pawn one of them. The girl was charged with prostitution and marijuana possession, the men who took the swords were charged with robbery and burglary. But the “John” was not charged with anything, not soliciting a prostitute, not with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, nothing. Police recovered several messages sent between the girl and the victim discussing prices to prove the prostitution charges! We tried to contact the girl to get her side of the story, which was obviously not being told, but neither the police nor the Juvenile Detention Center would put us into contact with her. I imagine the “John” was some local business, political, religious or professional leader being protected from public scrutiny by the police. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WAR ON TERRORISM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is truly encouraging that our government has taken on the task of ridding the world of terrorism, especially in some of the countries in which women have no rights and are property of men, at times sold and bargained for. Osama bin Laden’s father, according to a report on TV, had three wives that he kept all of his life, the fourth kept changing, he had something like 18 different wives total. What happened to these ex-wives was not discussed, but I imagine he offered them to other men for favors or money. It is really reprehensible that we are bargaining with countries that have such customs. It really irritated me to see Barbara Walters wearing Arabic dress when she was interviewing the fathers of the 9/11 terrorists (the mothers of course were not interviewed nor even seen). Do we force our mode of dress on Arabs visiting or living in the United States? Of course not. Not only that, but our government has somehow forgotten that we have domestic terrorists enough to go around. We have just gotten through locating the Una-bomber and putting him in jail for the rest of his life, and executing one of the masterminds of the Oklahoma City bombing. Eric Rudolf, accused of bombing abortion clinics and murdering doctors who perform abortions is still being sought and is obviously being protected by some of the organizations like Right To Life, Birthright, and The Army of God that encourage the harassment and stalking of clients and staff of abortion clinics and bombing of abortion clinics. This kind of patriotic blindness can only serve to encourage those organizations, known to support the president and vote for him. We regret this shortcoming by our chief executive, and encourage him to “get real” and recognize the terrorist nature of the anti-choice organizations. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Interesting Sites Both AAUW and NOW have legal defense funds that have taken sexual harassment cases. Their web sites are at: http://www.now.org/ or http://www.aauw.org/ AAUW has started a task force to address the problem of bullying in the schools. Contact them at helpline(bleep)aauw.org The Global Fund for Women is looking for donations to help women in foreign countries who have worthwhile projects but need funding. They are at 1375 Sutter St. Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94109, http://www.Globalfundforwomen.org Check out http://www.qnetwork.com/t100$Women that listed www.washrag.org as number 26 of the top 100 sites for women in February. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WE’RE ON THE WEB http://www.washrag.org/ and at http://members.tripod.com/~WASHRAG/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This on-line version of THE WASHRAG is being sent to you free. A print version can be obtained by subscribing. In the US, send $10.00 to Women Against Sexual Harassment, P. O. Box 164, Canton, SD 57013-0164. Outside the US, send $20.00 to join. For a sample issue, send a #10 sized SASE. For a Publisher98 print module, e-mail washragezine(bleep)yahoo.com E-mail comments can be sent to washragezine(bleep)yahoo.com. If you know of anyone you think might be interested, just send us their e-mail address and we will put them on our e-mail mailing list. If you do not wish to receive further copies of this newsletter, indicate your preference to washragezine(bleep)yahoo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ copyright 2002 Tesseract Publications, P. O. Box 164 Canton, SD 57013-0164 (605) 987-5070.