August 27. 2011
2. Newblog2011: 08/27/11 Bullying at the Boston Public Library
There’s a section of the Boston Public Library where construction of some kind began soon after I’d started using the Internet here. The construction, or whatever it is, is being done in a place that any patron of the library who goes into the library from the front entrance will pass by if he or she is going to the large room where all the public access computers that have the Internet are.
The entrance to that place is blocked off with yellow tape. There are 2, yellow, “Caution” floor signs in front of the entrance at all times, including today. One day, a couple of weeks ago, I saw that one of the signs had been set across the room, where nothing was going on, at the top of the stairs leading into the room that has the computers. I picked up the sign, brought it over to the workers who were standing near the sectioned-off area and handed it to them, citing the fact that there was no need for it where it had been.
Once last week, I walked into the library from the side entrance. By the time that I got to the other side of the library, where the restrooms on the first floor are, I saw that both the men’s and the women’s restrooms had signs on them that said “Restrooms closed for cleaning.”
The attempts at bullying by other patrons of the library haven’t ceased. I wouldn’t say that all or even a majority of the patrons here do it, not even in the computer room. However, enough people do it so that there is a near-constant disruption of loud, fake coughing and sneezing, with and without vomiting sounds in that room. Mostly, the people who do it are men, but some women have participated, also.
Sometimes, a patron of the library who wants to harass me will do so by standing or sitting at the computer next to me and rubbing his or her nose repeatedly, or coughing as he or she is standing right next to me.
I try to pace my responses so that, as one batch of patrons has heard “However did you get that terrible infection in your throat,” “It must be terrible for you to have forgotten your tissues when your nose is running like that,” etc., completes its hour and leaves, the next batch can figure out what those responses mean.
I would prefer not to have to deal with the issue at all. I’m not sure why patrons of the library aren’t being encouraged to keep their coughing and sneezing as quiet as possible so as not to be disruptive.
I think I need to question whether everyone who tries to bully me reads all of my blogs every day. I don't think that they can be, or that they understand everything that they've tried to read if they have tried to read what I write online.
I'm not being elitist; I said last year that the entire situation had bringing out the worst in people as a primary component.
Copyright L. Kochman, August 27, 2011 @ 4:02 p.m.
2. Newblog2011: 08/27/11 Bullying at the Boston Public Library
There’s a section of the Boston Public Library where construction of some kind began soon after I’d started using the Internet here. The construction, or whatever it is, is being done in a place that any patron of the library who goes into the library from the front entrance will pass by if he or she is going to the large room where all the public access computers that have the Internet are.
The entrance to that place is blocked off with yellow tape. There are 2, yellow, “Caution” floor signs in front of the entrance at all times, including today. One day, a couple of weeks ago, I saw that one of the signs had been set across the room, where nothing was going on, at the top of the stairs leading into the room that has the computers. I picked up the sign, brought it over to the workers who were standing near the sectioned-off area and handed it to them, citing the fact that there was no need for it where it had been.
Once last week, I walked into the library from the side entrance. By the time that I got to the other side of the library, where the restrooms on the first floor are, I saw that both the men’s and the women’s restrooms had signs on them that said “Restrooms closed for cleaning.”
The attempts at bullying by other patrons of the library haven’t ceased. I wouldn’t say that all or even a majority of the patrons here do it, not even in the computer room. However, enough people do it so that there is a near-constant disruption of loud, fake coughing and sneezing, with and without vomiting sounds in that room. Mostly, the people who do it are men, but some women have participated, also.
Sometimes, a patron of the library who wants to harass me will do so by standing or sitting at the computer next to me and rubbing his or her nose repeatedly, or coughing as he or she is standing right next to me.
I try to pace my responses so that, as one batch of patrons has heard “However did you get that terrible infection in your throat,” “It must be terrible for you to have forgotten your tissues when your nose is running like that,” etc., completes its hour and leaves, the next batch can figure out what those responses mean.
I would prefer not to have to deal with the issue at all. I’m not sure why patrons of the library aren’t being encouraged to keep their coughing and sneezing as quiet as possible so as not to be disruptive.
I think I need to question whether everyone who tries to bully me reads all of my blogs every day. I don't think that they can be, or that they understand everything that they've tried to read if they have tried to read what I write online.
I'm not being elitist; I said last year that the entire situation had bringing out the worst in people as a primary component.
Copyright L. Kochman, August 27, 2011 @ 4:02 p.m.