Sexual Harassment

By Tasha Lester

Send E-Mail to talester@iastate.edu


I have been harassed before and when I told the counselor about it first she talked to them and it still happened.

This all started when I picked the wrong boy friend to go out with. This guy was obsessed with me at the time or at least that's what he thought. I was going out with a wonderful guy named Jake. At the time I didn't really know J. that well and the guy was pressuring me in to going out with him. I broke up with J. and went out with the other guy two weeks later. I thought he would treat me how I had wanted to be treated but I was wrong!

When this guy and I we're going out, I suddenly became frightened of him he was cutting me down all the time and it seemed to me like all he wanted was my body. I went to a party with him it was supposed to be a birthday party. When I got there it seemed fine. We watched a movie and we were having a lot of fun. Then they decided to have a dance in the dark. He kept wanting to kiss me I really didn't want to and I told him that.

Then he grabbed me and through himself at me. He kept kissing me . I said no--I was scared. I didn't know what he was going to do next, so I yelled at him and screamed at him and I screamed for help. I left and walked to my dad's office, and went home. I finally got fed up with it and told the counselor again. She just said that she would warn him; she said that for three days straight .

Then in homeroom he put rubber cement on my desk and said I got a little wild with the desk. I ignored him that time, but the next morning when I went to sit down, he ran to my seat and sat there. Everywhere I tried to sit he did. It was a childish game if you ask me. But when I went to my school counselor about it, she told me to ignore it. I still loved him. I really didn't know why at the time, but I just did. I was going to brake up with him but he broke up with me. I was relieved. But I was still hurt because the harassment grew worse. I wrote him a note telling him to stop but, he just showed it to the whole class. I cried in class all the time and I couldn't work on my schoolwork.

J., my boy friend before him, helped me out. It was like he was trying to be my therapist, and friend, at the same time. We became close and then we became boyfriend and girlfriend. I don't no what I missed in him, but he is the only guy that I feel comfortable around, and he treats me better than I would ever expect to be treated like. If it wasn't for him and my friends, I would have already committed suicide.

I still have to live with the pain that I have experenced in my life like the harrassment jokes . I always think to my self when people harrass you it's just because that's the way they have been treated or have seen someone treated like that. All you can do is ignore it or you can take it to autority.