[PC-NCSG] Comment on ICANN and Harassment Policy (Sexual and otherwise)

[Sam Lanfranco]

I would like to add a short comment on this issue from within the 
context of someone who was stalked. In 2012-13 I was stalked for six 
months by a mature student in one of my classes, and I learned a lot 
about both policy and process.  The problem was identified within the 
first month and it took six months to terminate the activity, hence the 
importance of process. The details are not important,  but here are the 
lessons learned, by me, as the target of the persistent harassment.

The lessons learned are about the importance of having processes in 
place to deal with both the target (victim) and the perpetrator. 
Policies alone are not enough. They tend to be a flag waved from on high 
when a problem goes public. Perpetrators are frequently more than just 
overly aggressive, they can be obsessed to the point of persistence and 
extreme self denial. Harassment is not like shoplifting or theft where 
the perpetrator is at best only weakly in denial, and the victim is a 
shopkeeper facing financial loses. From the very start (or incident) 
there have to be appropriate steps. For sexual harassment that has to 
include designated skilled and gender appropriate contact points for 
both the victim and for dealing with the perpetrator.

With policies and processes in place those initial contact points can 
frequently be appropriately trained and designated regular staff. In 
cases where there is need for either legal involvement or post traumatic 
treatment that expertise should probably reside outside the 
organization.  In my case my university has good anti-harassment 
policies but found itself at first at a bit of a loss on how to deal 
with a female student stalking a male faculty. It usually faces the 
reverse in gender roles. Within my department we had to innovate until 
the university could get a handle on the case.

Lastly, to drive the lessons learned home, in my case the student was 
prohibited from having direct contact with me and had to deal 
indirectly, as a student, through our undergraduate student adviser, a 
colleague who was a woman. The student's response was to threaten to 
take me before the governmental human rights commission for denying her 
the right to freedom of speech. Policy is not enough, have the process 
road map in place. Needless to add that even though I was male, and 
fortunately lived 250km from campus, there were moments of hell and 
terror during those six months.

Sam L. NPOC