Pavel Nunez
5/15/19
Dr Carrie Hall
English 1121
Sexual Harassment in the MTA
For years, the MTA has been dealing with problems that people are unhappy about. To name a few are: Train Delays, Broken Signals, Smell on the stops, but one thing people don’t really is
Sexual Assault/ Sexual Misconduct. To begin Sexual Harassment /Sexual Misconduct of sexually harassing someone “because of that person’s sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation is prohibited on the MTA bus, subway and commuter railroad network. Improper sexual conduct can take many forms and anyone can be a victim of it or witness it. It can include misconduct involving the actual or threatened use of physical contact or force, including rape, assault, unwanted touching, and other forms of physical sexual misconduct. At other times, however, improper sexual conduct does not involve physical contact or force. Some examples of improper sexual conduct that does not include physical contact or force are verbal harassment, threats, intimidation, and peeping into or under a person’s clothing”(“Improper Sexual Conduct.” Mta.info, web.mta.info/sexual_misconduct/#misconduct.),so it’s not just physical, but also visually. So you get the idea based on the MTA’s version of defining this problem. But what do they do to tackle this, by far from what I’ve seen they only show a voice message that a ”crowded place is no excuse for an improper touch”. But they should really add more information like how to prevent it and what to do if it happens. Now I’m going to explain the following things that I think they should add based what Natasha Noman said but in simple terms Being able to contact the police while in the train in the middle of the journey to a stop with an aggressive or otherwise threatening person could stop an assault before it begins or actually send a photo of the offender and the location so the police would respond right away. Also I think the MTA should add cameras to its subway trains and having signs/posters that says that passengers they are being recorded so they won’t think about doing anything inappropriately or else they will get caught and receive punishments. But to cope with this, you should reach out for support because some people experienced depression,anxiety etc because they are too embarrassed to reach out on being sexually assaulted because they will probably think that it they are lying and that nobody will believe them which is not true at all. Just remember It’s not your fault. You may be feeling a lot of different emotions from what happened to you, but whatever you feel, know that what happened was not your fault at al. It was 100% their fault. Don’t blame yourself for anything you did or didn’t do because that it will only hurt you more mentally. Also lastly, Think about talking to the police. Sexual assault is a crime and you have the right to report it to the police and press charges against the person who has assaulted you— if you want to. You can call the police yourself or get someone you trust do it for you.. But the decision to call the police or not is yours to make, and not everyone decides calling the police is right for them, Alternatively, another solution is to please contact 1-800-656-4673.(It’s a real number)
Noman, Natasha. “After I Was Sexually Harassed on the Subway, I Came Up With 7 Simple Ways to Stop It.” Mic, 7 May 2019, www.mic.com/articles/120898/7-simple-ways-to-stop-sexual-harassment-on-the-nyc-subway.
“Improper Sexual Conduct.” Mta.info, web.mta.info/sexual_misconduct/#misconduct.
