"THIS SHIT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE"--ANOTHER SMITHSONIAN RESEARCHER SPEAKS OUT ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT AND HER OWN EXPERIENCES

Earlier this week, I published a story in The Verge entitled "From Texas to the Smithsonian, following a trail of sexual misconduct."  It told the story of "Angie," a student researcher at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History who was sexually assaulted in 2011 and has spent the past several years trying to get the museum to do something about it. The story tracked Angie's aggressor, a mammalogist named Miguel Pinto, back to Texas Tech University, where he admitted to an earlier episode of sexual harassment (probably assault) on an undergraduate student. There have been a lot of reactions to the story, mostly positive. And just yesterday, another former student who was allegedly assaulted by Pinto, Susan Tsang, came forward on her Twitter feed and her Facebook page to tell of her own experiences. She has much more to say about Pinto and the larger context for her experiences, as you will read below. She has kindly given me permission to reproduce her post in its entirety, and I think it speaks for itself. Some background: Susan is now at the Smithsonian, and, like Pinto, is a bat researcher. Kris is Kris Helgen, a mammalogist at the NMNH and Pinto's adviser while he was there.

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Sorry, but I'm a shit stirrer so it's #UnpopularOpinion and #HardTruthstime.

I really really did not want to be the one to address this. I thought very long and hard about if I should be the one to say anything, and I know I will probably piss off a lot of people by posting this, but the muted response in our bat/mammal community, especially in comparison to other harassment-related news lately, disturbs me. I don't know if this hasn't been getting much attention because a) people genuinely did not know this was out, or b) people really don't know how to respond because of all the mixed emotions they probably have about those involved. But I feel like if we don't have this out in the public sphere at all, then the experiences of this student and the failures of these institutions will never get the public forum they need.

If you don't know what I am talking about, please see the following article: http://www.theverge.com/…/smithsonian-sexual-misconduct-inv…

Followed by this:
http://michael-balter.blogspot.com/…/how-to-apologize-or-no…
(Please note that I have blocked Miguel from my facebook)

I am still waiting to see what the institutional responses really are from TTU and NMNH, but needless to say it's disappointing that it's mostly been silence. We can do better than this.

The environment at TTU is one that many spoke of previously as being sexist; it just doesn't surprise me that the video exists to prove that. The non-apology from the ex-chair at TTU really pissed me off. And of the two other players in this, I have rather differing opinions, and it should become clear why by the end of this.

I do share the understanding of why women often do not report. I was 22 when I started my PhD, I was new to my field, I did not know anyone who could act in my defense should I need it, and I wanted to succeed. I was unsure of myself, but determined, and if it meant I had to put up with sexual harassment, I would. And I damn well did until I was 26. No one has ever dared to say or do that kind of shit to me since because I grew into myself a bit more, and I felt I had a community that would have my back should this ever happen again.

Of course, I am disappointed in Kris. Kris is my mentor, colleague, and friend, and I know he made the wrong choice with this matter, but I think this can be a teachable moment. I am not only doing this because I respect him greatly for his expertise, but I genuinely feel like Kris can become a better ally if he knew what he should have been doing. He did not understand the severity of the matter, and that is on him. I have been having an ongoing conversation with him regarding matters related to sexual harassment and hostile workplaces in greater detail for some time now. We've sat down for some long chats about this lately and I have pointed out to him that I do feel like he was a cog in the institutional machine that allowed this to happen. He was very upset and willing to learn and listen. And I think most men can--they just have no idea that some of the stuff happening around them constitutes sexual harassment and is making a hostile workplace for women. It's better to teach the men in our institutions to be allies instead of immediately lash out at ever single one of them. I realize this is 2016 and shouldn't need saying, but I think our political discourse this year already shows that perhaps we do need to clearly list what sexual harassment encompasses.

Now, Miguel is a different story. I do not believe that Miguel has reformed, and I do think it is a pattern of behavior from him. The fact that this story is now PUBLIC and he has admitted to these acts, but has yet to issue a direct apology to the young women he has wronged throughout the years makes me feel like he is just saying the words he knows we want to hear and he doesn't really quite know why. That Miguel is kind of a creepy, socially awkward guy is not new to me--we were in the same grad school cohort for 6 years. That's a lot of department parties, journal clubs, seminars, and other social events that I have had to interact with him. I have always been professionally courteous (and even helpful at times, since we both work on bats and were in the same classes!), but I have never liked him personally. He always gave off a creepy vibe, and I know I am not the only woman to have felt that from him.

There is another complicated layer to this, which I will never ever report on an official record anywhere (and if you try to include me in any salacious reporting, I will just not take part--I do not need someone else representing my experiences or twisting my words). I, too, was previously sexually assaulted by Miguel. Multiple times. And I do mean assault and not just harassment or a hostile workplace. Miguel might think of it as just trying to flirt with me, but physically invading my space is not flirting. Miguel laid hands on me on three separate occasions while we were in grad school. I was not flirting with him. And even if he thought I was interested, the manner in which he did (grabbing my face and kissing me on the lips (Spring 2010), grabbing my butt (Fall 2010), and trying to forcibly kiss me while holding onto my hand (Spring 2011) are all not ways to go about showing interest. I was obviously not comfortable reporting this back then, and I only want to be known for my work, not anything else, so I have never felt the desire to be on record anywhere about this. I do now think back about if it would have helped some other women had I said anything back then, but there were so many instances of sexual harassment I was going through from my first through third years that I did not want to have to sit in an ombudsman office and report and follow-up with every single possible thing I have had happen to me. I would just never have graduated if that were the case. Not necessarily because my department would have shunned me or anything, but because I would be stuck in the bureaucratic morasse of filing so many sexual harassment cases.

On any other occasion where someone showed unwanted interest in me, they have respected my space when I told them I am not interested. Miguel has clearly not based on the MULTIPLE transgressions with me, and he has never apologized after when he had supposedly reformed. I am not afraid of Miguel, and I most certainly do not see myself as someone who was victimized by him, and I do not need nor want an apology. But this does deeply color why I feel he is not reformed. Clearly, the young lady in the story, "Angie," has not felt that he has been properly dealt with and he has not made any real effort besides checking the institutional boxes to be cleared. At the very least, even if she does not want it, I think having him publicly admit to his wrongdoing directly to us (the scientific community), and not just admit it to a reporter would at least convince me he is trying to really learn and do right by the women he wronged.

I have trained and am still training mostly female students. I have informally mentored my female peers through some tough times. I sit on a selection committee for Women in Bat Conservation. And I don't want young women who are in bats/mammals to think that because a couple of cases of terrible people getting away with sexual harassment means that our entire field is like that. I want to see more women in leadership roles, not have women leave the field because it is a hostile place to work. I just want the young women out there to know that this kind of behavior is absolutely unacceptable in our community, and I am not going to be cute and half about it and only imply anything. I repudiate Miguel and absolutely do not want to work with him nor associate with him in anyway way in the future. He has seen no repercussions for his actions and that is abhorrent to me. I am willing to put myself in a precarious position in academia to say this very explicitly--THIS SHIT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE AND PEOPLE NEED TO STOP REWARDING HIM.

/soapbox

Image credit: By Amanda - originally posted to Flickr as National Museum of Natural History, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4442426