~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE WASH RAG published by Women Against Sexual Harassment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Available on-line ASAP at http://www.washrag.org/ along with earlier issues ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Issue 8, Number 4 November, 2000 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Contents ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Harassment of the Handicapped Updates on Previous Articles Malfeasance by EEOC Maxine Trujillo Revisited The Westfall Act In The Media Good News How the System Works ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HARASSMENT OF THE HANDICAPPED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have always felt that one of the aims of a sexual harasser is to handicap his victim to make it easier for him to control her. Some of the ways that he does this is to pay her less money so she has no resources, alienate friends and family so she has no support, and injure her or damage her health so she does not have the strength or will to fight back. There may be more, but these are the tactics I have observed and experienced. In this case, the harasser was in his element, he had someone who was already handicapped. Pamela Davis, the author, is visually impaired. At the time, she was also a single parent, had no job, had no connections and was dependent on the money she got from the harasser’s agency. In 1994, I was a student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. I was a graduate student doing an internship at Lion's World Services for the Blind. For reasons not necessarily significant to this statement, I had been threatened by a student at Lion's World and had therefore refused to work with her. Bill Hagood came down to investigate this incident, and I found myself alone with him in a room off of a conference room at Lion’s World. During the conversation, he put his hands on my knees and told me that I was an attractive woman. I asked him to remove his hands, at which point he moved them further up my legs and told me to make it easy on myself. I told him I was not interested. He removed his hands, and warned me that if I ever told anyone about this incident he would kick me out of the program, make me pay back all the money they had spent on me , and see to it that I never worked in rehab anywhere. At the time, I had three children to support, and up until recently I felt that I was still subject to retaliation by him. It should be mentioned, however, that my former therapist, Kimberly Gilsdorf, mentioned this to Sally Howard in 1999. Insofar as I’m aware, the incident was never even investigated. I affirm the above to be true, and would be willing to take a lie detector test to support this statement. Pamela J. Davis From Ruby Starr, also handicapped and a victim of sexual harassment, I received these statistics, found on a government site: Chartbook on Women and Disability in the United States, Section 3: How many women with a work disability are living in poverty? Women are more likely to be living in poverty than men, and people with a work disability are much more likely to be living below the poverty level than those with no work disability. Based on CPS estimates from 1992, women with a work disability, aged 16 to 64 years, have higher poverty rates (33.8%) than men with a work disability (24.2%). Women with severe work disability (a condition that prevents them from working) have the highest poverty rates of all. 40.5% of women with a severe work disability are living in poverty, compared to 31.2% of men with a severe work disability. Further research is needed to better understand and address these striking disparities. One-third of women with a work disability live in poverty; rates are even higher for those with a severe work disability. Harassers use the threat of forcing women into this situation to extract sex from them. It is hard to blame women who comply. An item I received from Nancy Thornton, addresses the inequality of Equal Protection under the constitution, and finds that the right to appeal is meaningless unless the defendant had the assistance of counsel. Cases cited: Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963); Griffin v. Illinois, 351 S. S. 12 (1956);Douglas v. California,372 U.S 353 (1963); Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371 (1971); United States v. Kras, 409 U.S. 434 (1973) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Updates on previous articles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ News from Humanitas indicates that they are still monitoring the sexual abuse of female prisoners in the US. They claim that the NIC (National Institute of Corrections) and the DoJ do very little to monitor this problem. They have questioned the transfer of female inmates from prisons in Oregon to privately run prisons in Arizona, where they claim that they have been exposed to state sanctioned rape and torture. They claim to have documented the rape or sexual injury of 3,500 female inmates in the US. Tiffany Wilson updates us on the AAUW’s lawsuit against Goddard College. She tells us that while she left Goddard, she did get a Master’s Degree from George Washington University, and that Goddard continues to be sued for sexual harassment. by female students who came forward after her suit. That is encouraging news, as women often become so traumatized by such action that they have problems functioning afterwards. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MALFEASANCE AND NONFEASANCE BY EEOC ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From John Jay: I just looked at the EEOC's web site, to read their recent decisions on discrimination, and AGAIN I noted that they have NOT published any decisions about discrimination in the FEDERAL sector. I asked myself WHY is that? The answer, and I am fairly certain I am correct, is that they have made NO significant decisions in the Federal sector in a LONG, LONG time. I have statistics that the EEOC publishes and the statistics are such that you can be easily confused about what they are doing in the FEDERAL sector. When you weigh what they are doing in the PRIVATE sector against what they have been doing in the FEDERAL sector, it is like comparing the Pacific Ocean to a tiny puddle of water in your back yard! It is that bad! In the PRIVATE sector, they certify class actions every month. In the FEDERAL sector, they certify one every 5 years or so, if that often. In the PRIVATE sector, they join with the complainants and sue the employers to have the discrimination stopped. In the FEDERAL sector, I cannot find a single case where they ever did that, and I have all their decisions going back to 1994. As I said, what they are doing in the PRIVATE sector to stop discrimination and what they are doing in the FEDERAL sector is like comparing the Pacific Ocean to a small puddle of water in your back yard. IF that is not NON FEASANCE and MALFEASANCE, then what is???? JOHN JAY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Maxine Trujillo Revisited ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A follow-up on the case of Maxine Trujillo, which we covered earlier this year, from Green Congress 2000 Online Forum: Dr. Dan's Dawn Patrol: The Death of Maxine Trujillo: What To Do When The First Amendment Fails Somebody complained to Senator Domenici. Not about Maxine. Mark Merton wrote to Pete that Maxine was the only one telling him the truth. Guess what? Telling the truth will get you killed. Our Founding Fathers knew that. That’s why they insisted the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights be protection of free speech. Guess what? We’ve lost the First Amendment. There is no protection for freedom of speech at Kirkland Air Force Base or at any other place of employment. There is no protection for any employee who is harassed, demoted, pressured, or emotionally injured for speaking up. What Dr. Dan failed to mention, is that Maxine Trujillo was physically injured and probably even murdered for speaking up. He felt that her ill health was caused by exposure to asbestos, but if that is so, why didn’t everyone get sick? It is obvious to me that she and anyone who supported her got sick. Law & Order, Special Victims Unit on September 9, 2000 had a story about the death of a woman, and the police finally traced the cause to a daughter anxious for her inheritance who had fed her mother an insecticide known to cause Parkinson’s disease. Although this was a fictional depiction, I believe that methods of this kind are routinely used by employers and harassers in order to make the targeted person easier to handle and to get them out of their way, just like the Law and Order scenario. And nobody is doing anything to address this vile practice. These criminals are exactly like serial rapists and serial murderers. They have no conscience in their actions. All they think about is how it effects them. If it takes care of a problem for them, then they will do whatever it takes. Recently, KTIV in Sioux City carried a story about the Law Enforcement Center there, because employees were having health problems. It sounded exactly like the problems I had when I was working for the State of South Dakota and being exposed to chlorine gas by my supervisor and co-worker. That stuff is nothing to ignore. It causes permanent health damage. I will never regain my health from that experience. I cannot and never will get any compensation for the horrible health problems I have had since then, because I cannot prove what happened. It is all anecdotal. And nobody even will acknowledge that it is happening. And nobody seems to face the fact that this is exactly why Adolf Hitler was able to control the German people the way he did. I lived in Germany for two years, and I know that Germans are the kindest and most caring people in the world. But as they said, as long as you did what you were told in Nazi Germany, you had no problems, if not . . . We would like to ask Maxine but she is just as dead as if she had been in one of Hitler’s concentration camps. It doesn’t matter if a woman has her throat cut in an honor killing, is doused with kerosene and set on fire by a husband dissatisfied with her dowry, has the crap beaten out of her by a lover or is poisoned. She is just as dead in any case. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE JUDGMENT FUND AND "WESTFALL" ACT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I believe that a mention was made of this in a previous issue, but it arrived too late to get it all in. To me, this is a totally immoral act of the Congress, intended to protect those who terrorize and harass employees, both male and female. Received from John Jay: The "slush" fund is called the Judgment Fund and is controlled by the Dept. of Justice and the Treasury Dept. It is NOT a line item in the budget and gets renewed automatically every year with NO VOTE in Congress being necessary to renew it! How is that for a great deal??? Congress deliberately set it up that way, so the fault lies in Congress. Congress, in 1998, also passed the evil WESTFALL ACT, which guarantees that, if you (the victim) sue a manager or supervisor who abused you, the U.S. Attorney MUST represent the jerk. YOU, the victim, have to pay for your own attorney. The abusive manager or supervisor gets FREE representation, because of the WESTFALL ACT, courtesy of the TAXPAYERS. YOU, the victim ( and also a taxpayer) are in reality paying TWICE, when you sue the government. You pay for the other side's representative (with YOUR TAXES). You then pay for your attorney and court costs from YOUR OWN bank account. IRONIC ISN'T IT??? Damned unfair, to say the least. Congress has set up a bullet proof system for federal managers and supervisors to abuse employees. Regardless of what they do to you (even assault and battery is covered), the TAXPAYERS will pay to represent the jerks, and the U.S. Attorney will ALWAYS represent them. Who says that justice is equal??? Or fair??? When I say the Pledge of Allegiance, I always add the words "with NO liberty and justice for you and I". John Jay I have always refused to support any legislation which does not include funds to enforce it. This is why. The harassers have the job, they have the support of their supervisors, the victims have nothing. Harassers are criminals and belong in criminal court. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In The Media ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ According to the AAUW newsletter, the Legal Action Fund is taking a sex discrimination suit against the University of Massachussets at Dartmouth. Cheryl Vuolo claimed that the higher she got in the management of their physical plant, the more hostility she experienced. At one point, she was afraid that a vice chancellor was going to strike her. I am very sorry that the ACLU has decided to defend a ‘boy love’ group in their first amendment rights. In the case, a child was murdered by a man who repeatedly viewed their web site and had some of their publications in his possession. Because the ACLU has defended pro-choice causes at times, it is difficult for me to be critical of them, but I cannot believe that anyone should have the right to advocate for the sexual abuse of children. According to the November 24th Argus Leader, Bonnie Jensen is suing the U. S. Postal Service for what she says is a pattern of sexual and religious harassment in Fargo, North Dakota. She claims that other letter carriers displayed pinups, offensive pornography, and that this caused a hostile work environment. A NOW press release of September 14 charges that the U. S. Postal Service is guilty of gross sexual harassment and discrimination. On October 15, NOW had a World March of Women 2000 in Washington, D. C. to energize women. Do these things work? After such an event, is there a great improvement in the effectiveness of advocacy? If so, then such events are useful, if not, then maybe the energy and money spent in putting them on would be better put into the advocacy itself. I suppose that they do raise visibility. Because I have only been to the UN’s conference on women, I always wonder. According to the AAUW’s fall Outlook, Colleen Crangle successfully sued Stanford University for sex bias. Stanford is refusing to pay. The same publication has a story about Christy Brzonkala, who unsuccessfully sued Virginia Tech after she was raped in a dormitory, although the school agreed to pay her $75,000.00 to settle a sex discrimination suit against the school. Larry Smith, the 2 star general who was accused of sexual harassment by Lieut. General Claudia Kennedy has retired after being reprimanded by the Army. According to the September 1 Argus Leader, James Sarff of Eagle Bend, Minnesota was found guilty of kidnapping his estranged wife Connie from her apartment in Long Prairie and taking her to Mexico. On October 19, 48 Hours had a story about the escape of a Princess from Bahrain with a U. S. Naval Officer. She said she was trying to escape the repressive atmosphere there and feared an honor-killing reprisal by her family if she goes back. Because she came to this country illegally, the U. S. is trying to send her back, even though she is now married to the man who has left the service. A couple of items received from Anne of tiptoe, a letter to the editor from the Oregonian dated October 29th, which states that a disproportionately small amount of attention is given to domestic abuse as compared to gang violence, implying that it is less prevalent, which the author, Psychologist Christopher Huffine says is not true. He says that there were more deaths due to domestic violence during the past three weeks than due to gang violence. The other is an item from listserv about Judicial Circuit Court Judge J. William Bill Callahan, who, finding a man guilty of spousal abuse, issued a divorce ruling and gave $150,000.00 in damages to the victim. When it became clear he had insufficient assets to pay the judgement, he awarded the wife alimony for life plus 100% of the marital estate including the husband’s pension and 401k. This was heralded as a landmark decision by ACAADC, where the item originated An item from The Miles Foundation, which tracks spousal abuse in the military, quotes Casey Gwinn, city prosecutor of San Diego, as saying that if you so much as lay a finger on your wife in any way but love, it’s a crime, if you put your hands around her neck, it’s strangulation. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Good News! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The best news we have had was that they Violence Against Women Act was renewed, although there is some question whether it was entirely intact. I would like to see funding included in this to help indigent women fight sexual harassment abusers. It is a travesty at that time in a women’s life when she is the most vulnerable, when she has lost her job or been demoted because of sexual harassment, she has to find the resources to sue an abuser who still has his job and in addition, often does not have to bear the expenses of the trial to defend himself. In any case, women’s groups that are drafting legislation to address sexual harassment should never even consider going to the trouble unless enforcement is included, either by existing law enforcement communities or by funding some enforcement entity. The EEOC is a joke for that reason. Not only can the victim not go to the police anymore to report a rape that occurred in a business atmosphere, or if she is pressured to provide sex by an employer or coworkers, she now has to go through the laborious process of filing a grievance with EEOC, and that grievance is likely to be heard by the likes of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, accused of sexual harassment himself. The Navy has named a ship after Mary Sears, who was a pioneer in the Navy’s Oceanography, having worked on discovering thermo clines where submarines could hide detection by sonar. She was the first oceanographer in the modern Navy. Way to go! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Understanding How The System Works (Or Doesn’t Work) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A recent Cops on November 25 showed the police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, diligently picking up prostitutes working the streets. I realize that when prostitutes start openly working in an area, it is one of the indications of neighborhood decay. What I don’t understand is that the supervisor who was responsible for the death of Maxine Trujillo and who sexually harassed Ruby Starr has never been punished. In fact, the government is protecting him. Ruby reported hearing another female employee having sex with him in his office. Where was the morality police then? The truth is that prostitution in the workplace is more often than not encouraged, while prostitution on the streets is prosecuted by the civil authorities. Why is that? My impression is that is because many prostitutes on the street don’t have a pimp, while those who have jobs do (their bosses). Those working the streets use the money they earn as they want to (often for drugs), which is much more than they would earn if working minimum wage, while those holding down jobs are nickel and dimed to death just to keep jobs where they have to provide sex to keep them. I think that is why women with jobs can’t go to the police for help, but have to fight their way through EEOC and civil courts, often with no resources, for redress. The EEOC provides a barrier to the criminal prosecution of pimps. That is what it is designed to do. It was never intended to stop job associated prostitution. It functions to control and manipulate victims of sexual harassment. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Interesting contacts: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ World Organization Against Torture Publisher of "Violence Against Women: A Report http://www.omet.org 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 Women Against Sexual Harassment (WASH) Regional Directors tesseract(bleep)poetic.com http://www.washrag.org/ Contact regarding the use of tax money to protect sex abusers being sued by them: 805-985-0273 JJay943(bleep)aol.com Justice Department Survey of Intimate Violence: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/vi.htm Organization tracking sexual abuse of female prisoners: Humanitas Christian Coalition info(bleep)humanitas.org.uk 4 Downfine Walk, Gransha, West Belfast, North of Ireland BT11 8NX U. S. Navy Statistics: Naval Safety Center, 375 A Street, Norfolk, VA 23511-4399 Naval Air Systems Command code Air 7.7.6, 47123 Buse Rd. Unit IPT, Patuxent River, MD 20670-1547 Marine Corps Statistics http://www.usmc.mil/ click Marines Magazine, cl. Back issues, cl. 1997 Almanac, cl. occupation fields, cl. Population, cd. 75xx From NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, a source of independent journalism e-news(bleep)womense-news.we-news.org Site to halt internet abuse: W.H.O.A. http://www.haltabuse.org/ whoapr(bleep)haltabuse.org International Women’s Media Foundation Http://www.iwmf.org/membership/index.html National Alliance for Family Court Justice Our issue is custody corruption in the form of organized domestic offender protection schemes. http://www.NAFCJ.org LIZGOAL(bleep)aol.com WE’RE ON THE WEB http://www.washrag.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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. 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