Sexual Harassment Stories and Experiences

Ella 

     I’m sixteen years old.  When school ended for the Summer, I came home and realized I needed gas for my car. 

     After I’d filled up my tank at a local gas station, I got back in my car and was about to pull out when a man pulled in to the slot next to me. He got very close to my car–within two inches of it.   He got so close, I was worried he was going to scratch my car.  So, when he made a motion for me to roll down my window, I assumed he was going  to tell me to go ahead so that we wouldn’t be moving at once, or that  something was wrong with my car (I’ve been having tire troubles).

     Instead, he started asking me questions about my car. He seemed harmless enough, and he wasn’t asking any personal questions.

     My family and  friends are always telling me that I don’t have any street sense, and that I need to be less trusting with strangers, but I didn’t see anything wrong with talking to this seemingly lonely older man for a few minutes, especially from the safety of my own car.

     After we talked for a couple of minutes (in broad daylight) about my  car, his questions started to get more personal. He asked me where I was from, couldn’t believe how young I was. When he found out I was still  in high school, he wanted to know what grade, what school, etc. I get asked things like that on a daily basis, so I didn’t hesitate to answer. That’s when I looked over: he was sitting in the driver’s side of his  car, fully exposed, masturbating while he was speaking with me. I drove off so quickly that I could barely recall anything about him.

     Now, my family knows what’s happened.  The police know what’s happened, but they probably can’t do anything to stop him because I wasn’t able to tell them enough, and I’m just trying to process.

     I read all those materials about not blaming myself for this, but I just don’t know how not to.  I feel like it’s my fault for rolling down that window, for talking to him, and especially for not taking the time to remember what he looked like. Now it could happen all over again to some other girl, and I fear it’s all because of me.  I’m too ashamed to talk to my family about any of this, but I also just have no idea what I’m supposed to do.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 at 1:21 pm and is filed under Sexual Harassment in Miscellaneous Settings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.