Path:
 tuegate.tue.nl!sun4nl!mcsun!uunet!paladin.american.edu!auvm!UKANVM.BITNET!GOLEM
From: GOLEM@UKANVM.BITNET (Jim Sinclair)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.autism
Subject: Re: Recent happenings
Date: 14 Aug 92 23:03:34 GMT
              <AUTISM@SJUVM.BITNET>
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
              14 Aug 1992 10:43:23 EDT from <apembert@VDOE386.VAK12ED.EDU>

On Fri, 14 Aug 1992 10:43:23 EDT Anne Pemberton said:

>   I, too, concur with the decisions made. I would not feel
>comfortable having my students, who are my responsibility when
>they are online, in contact with a person with such a history.

I think the decisions made were too little, too late, and I still have
serious concerns.  Anne, you know something about the person's history
because apparently Bob shared with you the information he received from
other sources (sources who came forward, by the way, as a direct result
of my making a public issue of his behavior--for which I was criticized).
What about others who still haven't been given the full story?  This
person consistently tried to use this list to get people to enter into
private communication with him, and he's certain to continue trying to
make private contacts with people whose electronic addresses he got
from this list.  Is there any intention to warn people about the likely
direction such contacts will take?  It's not just a "private matter" if
he gets people's names and addresses from a public list.  And as an
ethical matter, I think anyone who knows of a hazard to others is
responsible for sounding a warning or taking other appropriate action
regardless of how the hazardous situation developed.

Right now I'm feeling very unsettled about abuse issues and about the
way this matter has been handled here.  A person who was known to be
severely abusive was permitted to stalk the list for months, collecting
addresses and personal information, and posting open requests for other
contacts off the list.  I tried to alert the responsible "authorities"
to the situation, and was told that Ray didn't want to know anything
about it and Bob didn't want to do anything about it.  I feel that the
handling of this matter reflects both extreme ignorance of how abuse
occurs and how abusive people behave (for example, anyone with any
background in the area of abusive behavior knows that a person with
such a history isn't going to "change" without prolonged intensive
professional treatment, and even then the odds are very poor), and
extreme insensitivity to the concerns of victims and survivors of
abuse.  And the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach tells me that
this forum still doesn't feel like a safe place.  I would like to know
how subscribers are going to be screened from now on.  I would like to
know how future reports concerning abusive behavior by people on the
list will be handled.  I would like to know how Ray and Bob intend to
educate themselves and increase their sensitivity about abuse issues.
I would like to be given convincing reason to believe that concern for
a person with a long and well-documented history of abusive behavior
will no longer take priority on this list over concern for the past and
potential future victims of that abuse.

JS
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU