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In the Midst Of #Metoo, We Must Teach Our Children That Safety Triumphs Politeness

I really do hope the young girl told her parents

Edith Tollschein
5 min readJul 10, 2019

I was at the gym recently in my apartment complex. It was about 4 P.M.; a good time to go to the gym if you hate crowded gyms. There was a guy seated in one of the flat benches. He was on his phone doing whatever.

I said hi and went on to the elliptical machine.

The guy put his phone aside and faced in my direction. I could see him from the mirror in front of me, but he didn’t realize.

1 minute…. 3 minutes… 6 minutes…. Dude, what are you doing? Are you here to exercise or to make women feel uncomfortable? I thought to myself.

This continued for almost 10 mins, then a teenage girl, about 15–16 years old walked in. She went on to the treadmill. This guy’s gaze shifted from me to the teenage girl. I could see that the girl was uncomfortable.

The guy hadn’t realized that the whole time we could see him in the mirror in front of us… I guess he was too distracted to think.

I and the girl looked at each other… like WT***

Our neighborhood is a pretty secure place and there are security cameras in the gym, so I didn’t panic.

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