August 29, 2011,
8. Newblog2011: 08/29/11 Constant harassment at the Boston Public Library
The extent to which I am continuously abused by other patrons at the Boston Public Library, with the full knowledge and complicity of almost every staffperson I have talked to about the issue, is unbelievable. It is SICKENING.
It’s not even close to a majority of the people who use the library who try to harass me. It is simply an ongoing, horrible issue of a small percentage of mostly men and a few women in the room that has the public computers who vomit-cough and vomit-sneeze so loudly that the entire room is filled with the sound. It’s not a small room. I suppose it might be the same if I went to any other part of the library for any length of time; the people who want to harass me would follow me and do it there.
I tried to talk to one of the staff on duty in this room when I got here, because the harassment starts the second I get here; she said she couldn’t hear it, which is a total lie.
This evening, I tried to talk to the Senior staffperson On Duty, or SOD, as they’re called. It was a man who laughed in my face as he told me the same lies “It’s a bodily function,” “Someone else can help you better than I can,” “You’re the only person who’s complained.” It may be that I’m the only person who has complained, because, although I’m sure that other women are getting harassed all over the country and even the world in exactly the same way, it has to be worse anywhere that I go as long as I’m there.
I finally said to the SOD who wouldn’t help me, “You know, I think it’s likely that you know who I am and what’s going on.” He smiled and walked away.
What I had said to him before I finally got to the heart of the issue, which is that I'm being abused, was this:
"There are people who aren't even trying to keep their coughing and sneezing at a quiet level. Would you please ask them to keep it as quiet as they can, and if they can't do that, to leave until they can be more quiet? This is a library, and they're being disruptive."
I thought that would be a better way for it to be handled than my trying to make comments about the behavior. I shouldn't be going through this; why is this happening?
Copyright L. Kochman, August 29, 2011 @ 5:54 p.m./addition @ 5:56 p.m./addition @ 5:58 p.m.
8. Newblog2011: 08/29/11 Constant harassment at the Boston Public Library
The extent to which I am continuously abused by other patrons at the Boston Public Library, with the full knowledge and complicity of almost every staffperson I have talked to about the issue, is unbelievable. It is SICKENING.
It’s not even close to a majority of the people who use the library who try to harass me. It is simply an ongoing, horrible issue of a small percentage of mostly men and a few women in the room that has the public computers who vomit-cough and vomit-sneeze so loudly that the entire room is filled with the sound. It’s not a small room. I suppose it might be the same if I went to any other part of the library for any length of time; the people who want to harass me would follow me and do it there.
I tried to talk to one of the staff on duty in this room when I got here, because the harassment starts the second I get here; she said she couldn’t hear it, which is a total lie.
This evening, I tried to talk to the Senior staffperson On Duty, or SOD, as they’re called. It was a man who laughed in my face as he told me the same lies “It’s a bodily function,” “Someone else can help you better than I can,” “You’re the only person who’s complained.” It may be that I’m the only person who has complained, because, although I’m sure that other women are getting harassed all over the country and even the world in exactly the same way, it has to be worse anywhere that I go as long as I’m there.
I finally said to the SOD who wouldn’t help me, “You know, I think it’s likely that you know who I am and what’s going on.” He smiled and walked away.
What I had said to him before I finally got to the heart of the issue, which is that I'm being abused, was this:
"There are people who aren't even trying to keep their coughing and sneezing at a quiet level. Would you please ask them to keep it as quiet as they can, and if they can't do that, to leave until they can be more quiet? This is a library, and they're being disruptive."
I thought that would be a better way for it to be handled than my trying to make comments about the behavior. I shouldn't be going through this; why is this happening?
Copyright L. Kochman, August 29, 2011 @ 5:54 p.m./addition @ 5:56 p.m./addition @ 5:58 p.m.