2016 Championship Harassment Survey

[jgerstein]

Originally Posted by Ernst

Some people get uncomfortable from being looked at, talked to, seeing a mascot, being surrounded by a lot of people, hearing grinding gears, and seeing messy wiring. A lot of little things make a few people uncomfortable but shouldn't necessarily be banned.

Real harassment can happen at events. Complaining this much about clothes pinning, which is usually just mildly annoying, is an insult to victims of actual harassment.

Don't teach everyone not to have a little harmless fun. Teach creeps not to creep.

The things you've listed as making people uncomfortable are things that are not being forced on people. If they don't like grinding gears or messy wiring, they can stay out of the pits. If they don't want to talk, they can say "sorry, I need some quiet" or even just find a quiet place to sit for a little while.

Clothespinning is something that is being forced on people. Yes, some (perhaps many) people aren't bothered by it. But forcing somebody to accept deliberate violation of their personal space is harassment.

Yes, we should be striving to teach students "not to creep" aka respect boundaries. I see this as part of it. Some of my students were clothespinned in St. Louis last week, and while some shrugged it off, others were bothered by it. One of my girls had already had to deal with mentors yelling at her while she was pit scouting as well as students from another team throwing things at her while her friends helped her calm down from the incidents with the mentors. She was not exactly thrilled to have somebody sticking things to her.

I recognize that whoever had the clothespin didn't know about what happened to her. But that's part of the problem - you don't know what's going on with a stranger, and you don't know which stranger is the one who will be distressed by what you only intend as a harmless prank.