~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE WASH RAG published by Women Against Sexual Harassment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Available on-line ASAP at http://members.tripod.com/~WASHRAG/index8.html along with earlier issues ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Issue 7, Number 4 October, 1999 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Contents ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Index Law and Order Sex Slavery Media Highlights Sex Abuse in Prison Something Rotten SH in the Schools Unexpected Rewards Interesting Contacts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST: Women in New Mexico fight back Law and Order focuses on sex crimes Philippine women being exploited in sex trade Jessie Ventura stricken by Foot-In-Mouth Disease Media full of the sexual harassment issue Children are exposed to sexual harassment at an early age Rewards of publishing a newsletter ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Shocking Reports of Sexual Harassment at Kirkland Air Force Base ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ruby Starr, a former employee of Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, says that she was working very hard at her secretary job, ready for a promotion, and almost ready to graduate with her Bachelor of Science Degree when she had to involuntarily retire due to sexual harassment by an Air Force Major. She says she was well-liked and supported by many people before the Major was brought aboard. He was assigned as her supervisor. At the same time, a new secretary came in. Both of them just happened to be going through a divorce. A number of times she heard the other secretary and the Major discussing X-rated movies and other things. She noticed that he had the foulest mouth she had ever heard. The Major would sit on Ruby's desk with his legs open and would invite her to have sex with him in the same manner he was with the other secretary. When she refused, he punished her in a number of ways. When she complained to Air Force EEO, she was told that she could not complain because she was considered part of the EEO office as collateral duty EEO counselor. The Personnel Officer refused to investigate and Ruby was assigned to an empty room without furniture. One morning she was in the office when the new secretary arrived. She was ready to leave the room for her routine when the Major walked in. He started talking about X-rated movies with the other secretary. He turned to Ruby as he blocked the door to the office with his body. He told her that she needed to tell him what her favorite triple X movie was and what part she liked best, the men or the women. Ruby forced herself out of the room, having to push his body aside to leave. That was the beginning of the end for her. She heard the Major and the other secretary having sex in the office and saw him leave her home on occasion. The other secretary got promoted, while Ruby became so ill that she has been unable to work since 1992. She says that she just had major surgery and doesn't know if she will ever be able to work again. During this time, Ruby was somehow able to finish her Bachelor's degree in Vocational Education and also finish her Master's degree in Counseling. One trend Ruby says that she has been seeing which she thinks needs to be researched, is whether the person who harasses on the job also abuses his sexual partner. She would also like to know whether the person who has been harassed is a survivor of previous sexual abuse. She says that her childhood memories came out during a horrible scene of reprisal on the job. Ruby tells us that another Air Force employee was subjected to the ultimate form of reprisal at Kirtland Air Force Base. Theresa Maxine Trujillo-Lucero was punished for disclosing Family Housing Policies to an Army Lt Colonel who then filed a congressional complaint identifying Maxine as the source of the information. Immediately, she was denied flex time to accommodate her asthma, diabetes, bone cancer treatment, depression; and was put in shoebox-sized work cubicle lacking ergonomic accommodations. Maxine was prescribed medical hospitalization in October 1997 for exacerbation of her illnesses because of inhuman treatment by Air Force management, but she was denied approved leave, put on absent-without-leave status and threatened to be fired. Her doctors sent detailed medical information to the military commander, and staff Air Force physicians, but they refused to approve her medical leave; they also refused to provide ergonomic accommodations recommended by her doctors. Maxine died on December 2, 1998, at the age of 49, after the US Senator who received the congressional complaint from the Army officer, and the Air Force Chief of Staff, refused to intervene because Maxine had initiated a discrimination and whistleblower complaint. Maxine was very ill from the supervisory harassment, demotion from her 19-year job as a Dental Hygienist, assignment as secretary, and denial of medical accommodations. Maxine had complained of sexual harassment by an Air Force officer before she was demoted to secretary. During her last months on this earth, she as subjected to inhuman abuse and denied medical accommodations, as certified by doctor, who said that she died from the inhuman abuse. Many Hispanic Organizations, including MANA, IMAGE, LULAC, American GI Forum, and LIBERTAD, have petitioned President Clinton to order a criminal investigation by Attorney General Reno. Anyone wanting to support the Presidential Petition, should write to Maxine's father, the Reverend Alex Trujillo, at 9719 Arvilla Av. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87111, or call (505) 298-1405 Max Hernandez My personal thanks to Ruby and Max for letting me publish this narrative. I personally would like to ask why these women all had such bad health problems, which are very similar to those I describe in When Medicine Failed. I am totally convinced that many harassers are using biological and chemical agents and even radiation to harass employees who they want to get rid of. In the military, this is known as ABC warfare. If the employee is unable to leave the site of the harassment, chances are, as in Maxine’s case, the individual will die. Anyway you cut it, that is murder or, in my case, attempted murder. Needless to say, WASH supports the work of Ruby Starr and Max Hernandez, and encourages interested individuals to participate in the petition. Janet Leih ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jessie, the Windbag, Ventura Opens Pandora’s Box ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Recently, Jessie Ventura made a number of statements in a Playboy interview. The one that got my dander up was the one which was to the effect that the Tailhook pilots put their lives on the line every day, and if they occasionally pat a woman’s buttocks or pinch her breast, it is “no big deal.” Really. I realize that it is no big deal to the Tailhook pilots, but it obviously is to the women who are assaulted. Being an ex-sailor myself, I feel that I can make a definitive statement on this matter. To start with, the Tailhook pilots are probably the greatest pilots in the world, bar none. When they go in to land on a carrier, films made of the approach show a carrier deck that looks no larger than a postage stamp. I am truly in awe of their ability. But I also know that the competition for spots in the Navy’s pilot training programs is not just competitive, it is fierce. I believe that for every position available, there are a hundred or so applicants. Not only that, but the pilots are the Navy’s darlings, treated like celebrities and spoiled. When they finish their tour of duty, they go on to be courted by the airlines for jobs paying into six figures annually. Does this sound like someone we should feel sorry for? I think not. I have been vainly trying for several weeks to track down the death and injury rates for Tailhook pilots or even Naval pilots. The closest that I have come is a Boston Globe article which states that military aviation fatalities were 116 in 1996 and 76 in 1997, and 68 in 1994. Senator Tim Johnson had informed me that this year, there have been 10 fatalities of Naval pilots, but I don’t know if they all flew off carriers, or how big the population that figures is taken from. I am still looking for exact figures of how many Tailhook pilots per 100 are injured or die in any given year from a job related accident related to flying. I want to compare these figures to the rate of death and injury per 100 women in relationships from domestic violence. I suspect that the rate of death and injury for those women would make an interesting comparison to the death and injury rates of the Taihook pilots. I want figures prior to 1999, that have not been effected by my interest in them. Not that I would expect the Navy to fudge on information or anything. If anybody can point me in the right direction for the exact figures, e-mail me at ta_shi(bleep)dtgnet.com. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Law and Order — Special Victims Unit ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Law and Order, an NBC series about detectives working with prosecutors to get convictions of perpetrators of violent crimes, has started a second segment on Monday nights about sexual crimes. This has included rapes, sexual harassment, and this last Monday, two women getting revenge for sexual crimes committed against them by a Serbian soldier in Bosnia, now illegally working as a cab driver in New York City. They stabbed him 50 or 100 times, then cut off his penis. What is especially interesting about this series is that it doesn’t just deal with the crimes and the process of finding evidence to convict the guilty, it also deals with the personal involvement of the detectives and the prosecutors. In one case, a detective looking for a man who has murdered a teen aged prostitute had a teenaged daughter becoming difficult to keep tabs on, in this one, the woman detective was herself a rape victim, and at first is horrified by the crime, then, when she finds out why it was committed, becomes protective of the women, and they end up being prosecuted for a lesser crime even though the evidence is there to charge them with the crime with greater penalties. Her partner, and even the prosecutor, look the other way and agree to the lesser prosecution. This is a bellweather kind of change from the past. Normally, women’s problems are joked about and/or ignored. Whether this is right or wrong is hard to say, but it does add to the interest in viewing the series that the officer’s personal lives are projected more intimately into the prosecution of the offenses than we have seen previously. The victims are usually women. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sex Slavery in the Philippines ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On August 17, I watched a Fox Files program on Fox that addressed the sex tours originating in this country that target Philippine women. Young girls are the primary targets, and if a girl is a virgin, she brings a higher price. Young girls are sold by their mothers to service American men. Especially offensive is the practice of selling young girls to be imported into this country as brides of American men. Having no future in the Philippines, these young girls often have no idea how miserable their lives will be in this country, where they don’t speak the language or have any support system. Tom Daschle, one of South Dakota’s representatives in the Senate, provided me with the information about legislation which is intended to halt the trafficking in Women and Children. The bill is S.600 in the Senate and H. R. 1238 in the House of Representatives. Please contact your representatives in the Congress and ask them to support these bills. One cannot help but feel compassion for the destitute women and girls that it is intended to protect. I hope that in the future, something will be done to stop the sex tours that spawned this reprehensible practice. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Media Highlights ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of the highlights of my last trip to Rochester was watching a program on the A&E network titled “Stalking the Stalkers.” It is about the special unit set up within the Los Angeles Police Department to deal with celebrity stalkers. They have taken a hard line against them and have a good record of apprehending and convicting them. Hopefully, police departments across the country will be able to learn from their experiences and set up similar units to deal with the stalkers victimizing former wives, lovers and girlfriends and even arbitrary women the stalkers have run into. On June 17, Morning Edition on South Dakota Public Radio had a story about a woman in a Deadwood Casino who has filed Sexual Harassment charges against the Casino Owner. She says the owner did not renew her license after she refused his advances. The state gambling board has renewed her license. What a blast! A woman boxer defeats a male boxer. I am not sure of the exact name of either, as I was unable to find any information about the bout in the media, and only scribbled down a few names, Margaret McGreggor and Lloyd Chow, and I am not sure that they are spelled right. I took the time to search on the New York Times index, but was astounded that although they had an article before the fight took place, they had none afterwards. Well, aren’t we being touchy, though. You can rest assured that had the male boxer won, we would have been bombarded with stories about it for months. I later heard about a fight between a male and female kick boxer in which the woman won, but wasn’t in a position to even write down the names. Maybe we should all go out and learn boxing and kick boxing. It would serve justice if every time a woman was brutalized by a man, she got up and beat the crap out of him. According to a New York Times article on September 8, The U. S. and Ford settled a harassment case. The settlement is said to be the largest in the EEOC history. The settlement requires that within 3 years, 30% of the management positions at the plants in Chicago and Chicago Heights be held by women. Women at the two plants complained of a hostile work environment, obscene graffiti, verbal and physical harassment and retaliation against women who complained dating from 1996. A $7.5 million fund will settle complaints by up to 900 women, and in addition, Ford will furnish an additional $10 million to train employees nationwide on how to prevent job discrimination and harassment. According to the article, this settlement is the second against auto makers, since a $34 million suit against Mitsubish was settled last year. Carnival Cruise Line is the target of charges that crew members have been accused of sexually assaulting passengers and co-workers. There have been 62 incidents during the past five years. There are charges that the industry is covering up crime on cruise ships. Because ships on the high seas are not under American Law, and most cruise ships are not of American registry, it is difficult to tell how accurate figures are. In one case, an employee accused of rape by a fellow employee was escorted to the airport and flown back to Italy before he could be interviewed by law enforcement. On October 29, Oprah Winfrey had a program about sexual harassment in the schools. Her expert, Charol Shakeshaft, is on the faculty of Hofstra University on Long Island, (Hempstead) NY. Her email is: CharolShakeshaft(bleep)aol.com. Girls as young as eight were being harassed.. One of the features was a camp for teenaged girls and boys. At one point, the girls gave boys the same treatment they had received for a period of time. Some of the boys were so traumatized that they burst into tears. It seemed to have been a life-changing experience for them. According to an August 11 article in the New York Times, the Tailhook organization is courting Navy brass again. It apparently is trying to get a better image by organizing events for the wives of members and by holding the convention in a more modest resort, Reno rather than Las Vegas. An October 28th New York Times article discusses the EEOC’s extension of anti-discrimination rights to illegal immigrants. The chairwoman of the EEOC, Ida Castro, said that without these assurances, employers would hire illegal aliens with the intention of discriminating against them. Others feel that it hampers attempts to prevent employers from hiring illegal aliens. However, John Hiatt of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. said that the guidelines were welcome, and that the availability of illegal aliens lowers wages, benefits and conditions of documented workers. I have an e-mail which was written by Nina Bernstein that I am not sure where I got, but it accusses the New York City administration of Giuliani of ignoring the harassment of women working for their public assistance. In particular, one welfare mother was pressed for sex by her supervisor, and when she refused to give it, was retaliated against. This problem has surfaced since the city has required that the women can only receive assistance if they work off their benefits in city jobs where they receive the equivalent of minimum wage. Another woman, Maria Gonzales,whose case is still pending, said that she had complained to two levels of management to no avail. She said that her boss in Human Resources Administration “grabbed her genitals, demanded sex, stole her timecard, and threatened her life when she refused his advances.” You know, some of these bozos sound like they belong more in a circus than in an office. On the international scene, a Japanese television star became the center of a furor when it was found out that she had been divorced two years earlier and had concealed it from her audience. Apparently, in Japan, this is considered some kind of a mortal sin. A female legislator, Yoriko Madoka, says that it is common to ask questions of a woman that one would never ask of a man, and that the Japanese are still operating in an environment of sexual harassment where a woman’s marital status is freely inquired about. Our representative in Washington, Anne of Tiptoe, writes that she was forced to leave her job because of harassment from coworkers and employer. She was getting lewd remarks and e-mail from them. This was apparently sparked by malicious slander started by her ex-husband. She wrote them telling them she resented the way she was being treated, then later on quit when the harassment became severe. A woman who respects herself will not stay in an abusive environment. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sexual Abuse in the Prison System ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On September 13, the PBS Morning News carried a segment on Public vs. Privately run Prisons. Guards at Travis County, Texas were accused of sexually assaulting an inmate. In another Texas jail, a female inmate wrote to a judge complaining that she had been sexually assaulted by a guard. The judge had the inmate brought before him. By then, she had been beaten by other guards who wanted to silence her. All the inmates from that prison were then moved to other facilities. On September 10, Geraldo Rivera had a program on the sexual exploitation of women in prisons. This problem is being investigated by international human rights groups like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the United Nations. Especially, shakedowns were used as an excuse to molest women. Some of the women go along with the harassment because the guards can make life easy for them. Justice Department investigators showed every woman had complaints. The Justice Department is suing Michigan for not protecting female inmates from sexual harassment. One woman was chained to a bed for three years and sued the guard responsible and the state of Michigan after she got out. She won. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Something Is Rotten, And Not In The State Of Denmark! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A few weeks ago, I went to the New York Times web site to search their index on Sexual Harassment. I was startled that although I had been getting their world and national e-mail headline editions, I had hardly seen any of them mentioned. So I printed this off, and having found out that Augustana College in Sioux Falls takes the New York Times, I went in thinking I would browse and see if I wanted to get copies of any of them to use in the newsletter. I wasn't too surprised when the first article I tried to find didn't seem to be in the paper even though I searched through it three times. When the second one was not, either, I began to be suspicious. When the third one was not, I started to get mad. I went to the librarian and asked her about it. She got on her computer, found the section and page for the article, and we went together to the stacks to look at the paper, and of course, that section was not in the paper at all. I have noticed that items about sexual harassment are almost always in the last section of the papers I notice them in. I did not take this too seriously at the time, just thought that was because the editors didn't think it was an important issue. But it seems at least possible that there is a more sinister intent in putting these items at the end of the paper. Should the last section get "lost," nobody would notice it. If any section before the last section got lost, everyone would. Someone someplace is getting away with censorship. Whether it is the super conservative college library or the super conservative newspaper doesn't seem to matter much to me. Since I called this to the attention of the New York Times and have gotten no response from them, I have to be super suspicious. This appears to me to be censorship, plain and simple. Please, if you have the opportunity to check the New York Times index for articles on Sexual Harassment (if you are able to search, be sure and put it into quotes) and find that section missing at your library that subscribes to the New York Times, or any other newspaper, for that matter, I hope that you will call it to the attention of the library and the newspaper. I believe that if it is brought to the attention of the editors, the practice will stop. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sexual Harassment in the Schools ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ August 12, 48 Hours had a program about students being molested by teachers, counselors, etc. Law and Order on October 25 had a program on their “Special Victims Unit” segment about a college co-ed at a Catholic School who is raped and murdered. The Unit uncovers the school’s practice of using cheer leaders to keep basketball players happy by providing sex. If a cheerleader refused, she lost her position. This practice was common because the school would lose a lot of money if the best basketball players left the school. Because a girl is murdered, the Unit has to find the killer among this atmosphere of fear and retaliation. They finally pinpoint a teacher who has been in trouble repeatedly for sex offenses. He claimed the girl had died as the result of a fall, but he had been stalking her. The detective in charge has a teenaged daughter going through puberty, and his fears for her are very touching. Watching these programs, and from other material I have seen, I realized that most girls don’t know how to deal with sexual harassment when they experience it. I found a brochure which is published by ETR Associates, and am providing copies to a local high school for the counselor to give to the girls in this school. I would like to see every high school aged girl in the country have a copy of this. To review a copy of it, go to www.etr.org and request a copy on the order blank for brochure 026-2G, titled “Sexual Harassment.” If this experiment seems to have had a positive effect, I hope to start a project to furnish this brochure to any school in South Dakota which requests it. Will you help in your state? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unexpected Rewards ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Publishing the newsletter as I do, I don’t expect to get great rewards. Having watched the wonderful Ken Burns documentary about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony on PBS during the past few days, I really don’t think I deserve any. What they did was so extraordinary as to leave me wholly humbled. But I find rewards in unusual places, in the contacts with other women interested in the issue, and in finding web sites I did not know existed that support the cause of eliminating sexual harassment. I am rewarded just knowing that other women are aware of the problems, and that they are trying to do something about it. There is nothing more depressing than knowing that women accept the status quo and allow themselves to be degraded by men whose only interest in them is in extracting sex from them. How exciting to know that no matter how offensive the treatment Ruby Starr received from her employers, no matter how humiliated she was, she refused to give up. If we remain solid in our cause, we will triumph in the end, I know we will. If you just consider what Anthony and Stanton, along with the many who supported them, did in just fifty years, you know that we cannot lose. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Interesting contacts: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DAWN — Domestic Abuse Women’s Net anne(bleep)willapabay.org http://www.willapabay.org/~anne/dawn.html Miles Foundation — Tracks domestic abuse in the military Milesfd(bleep)yahoo.com http://www.militarycity.com for the article “The War At Home” SESAME, Inc. (Survivors of Educator Sexual Abuse & Misconduct Emerge) SESAME believes the power imbalance between a teacher and a student of any age creates a climate that can facilitate sexually exploitative behavior by the teacher, behavior that is psychologically equivalent to incest. sesame-w(bleep)taconic.net http://members.tripod.com/~sesame3/index.html Women Against Sexual Harassment (WASH) Regional Directors ta_shi(bleep)dtgnet.com http://members.tripod.com/~WASHRAG/page31.html WE’RE ON THE WEB http://members.tripod.com/~WASHRAG/page31.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 ta-shi(bleep)dtgnet.com E-mail comments can be sent to ta_shi(bleep)dtgnet.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 ta_shi(bleep)dtgnet.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ copyright 1999 Tesseract Publications, P. O. Box 164 Canton, SD 57013-0164 (605) 987-5070.