Anti-Harassment Policy | Audio Drama Rama

Posted September 2, 2021 Revised September 3,2021

A Message from Alex Hensley

I find Anti-Harassment Policies to be lacking in so many ways. Many times they are made to fulfill some business requirement and are just another document in the stack that no one reads. This policy has taken me days to create, and I have already corrected it multiple times. Harassment is a difficult and complex issue that doesn't have an easy answer. Just removing a harasser from the situation doesn't magically fix everything. How did it happen? Could it have been prevented? Is there a culture that played into allowing it to take place? A policy to combat harassment will never be perfect, nor will it tell you how to handle every case of harassment. It needs to be a continuous work in progress. If you believe that your policy is perfect and doesn't need to be revised, I beg you to ask yourself two questions: "Are people reporting harassment?" and "Is there a reason they wouldn't report harassment?"

If you are being harassed online and you are unsure of how to get help, please visit HeartMob.org. Please also see the last part of this policy for useful information about bystander intervention. Thank you.

Expectations Of Our Members and Users

We will treat each other and users with respect, listen with an open mind, and make Audio Drama Rama a welcoming and comfortable place for all who join us in these goals.

Anti-Harassment Policy [Shortened Version]

Audio Drama Rama LLC is committed to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of ability, age, ancestry, background, body size, color, gender identity and expression, genetic information, national origin, physical appearance, race, religion, sexual orientation. We do not tolerate the harassment of our members or users in any form.

This policy applies to ALL operations, functions, and spaces of Audio Drama Rama, both online and off. All reports of harassment will be investigated, remedied, and we will attempt to prevent its reoccurrence. Anyone who violates this policy will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action and may be subject to expulsion from all parts of Audio Drama Rama at the discretion of its founder.

Anti-Harassment Policy [Full Version]

Audio Drama Rama LLC is committed to maintaining a safe space for our members and providing an experience free from any harassment regardless of ability, age, ancestry, background, body size, color, gender identity and expression, genetic information, national origin, physical appearance, race, religion, sexual orientation. This commitment applies to all operations and functions of Audio Drama Rama, both online and offline. We encourage our members, users, and community at large to share responsibility for avoiding, discouraging, and reporting any form of harassment. We encourage our members, users, and third parties, who feel that they are being harassed to seek assistance to rectify such problems. Audio Drama Rama will take immediate steps to end the harassment, prevent its reoccurrence, and remedy its effects.

Audio Drama Rama groups may have additional rules in place, which are made available to participants. Members and users of Audio Drama Rama are responsible for knowing and abiding by this policy and any additional rule that applies to them within the functions and operations of Audio Drama Rama.

Consequences Of Policy Violation

Anyone (Audio Drama Rama members or users) found to have engaged in harassment will face appropriate disciplinary action up to and including expulsion from all parts of Audio Drama Rama.

Other Violations Of The Anti-Harassment Policy

Retaliation against a person who has made a report or filed a complaint alleging harassment.
Retaliation against a person who has participated as a witness in a harassment investigation.
Filing a malicious or knowingly false report or complaint of harassment.
Disregarding, failing to investigate adequately, or delaying investigation of allegations of harassment.

Types Of Harassment

Harassment is any threatening, insulting, or dehumanizing gesture through technology, written, verbal, or physical conduct directed against a person that:

Places someone in reasonable fear of harm to their person or damage to their property.
It has the effect of interfering with their enjoyment of Audio Drama Rama operations, functions, and/or spaces.
Has the effect of disrupting operations.
Creates a hostile, intimidating, or offensive environment.

Harassment may include, but are not limited to:

Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion.
Unwelcome comments regarding a person's lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.
Deliberate misgendering or use of dead or rejected names.
Physical contact and simulated physical contact (e.g., textual descriptions like "*hug*" or "*backrub*") without consent or after a request to stop.
Threats of violence.
Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or engage in self-harm.
Deliberate intimidation.
Stalking or harassive following.
Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes.
Sustained disruption of discussion.
Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease.
Deliberate "outing" of any aspect of a person's identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse.
Publication of non-harassing private communication.
Purposeful outpacing of a person (e.x., knowingly putting an individual in a position to do or make choices more rapidly than they can tolerate).

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is a broad term, including many types of unwelcome verbal and physical sexual attention. Sexual assault refers to sexual contact or behavior, often physical, that occurs without the consent of the victim. Sexual harassment generally violates civil laws—you have a right to work or learn without being harassed—but in many cases is not a criminal act, while sexual assault usually refers to acts that are criminal.

Sexual harassment, is defined as any unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other conduct of a sexual or based on gender through technology, written, verbal, or physical communication. Offensive conduct that is based on an individual's gender and severe or pervasive enough to create an abusive environment is also a form of sexual harassment.

The harasser can identify with any gender and have any relationship to the victim, including being a direct manager, indirect supervisor, coworker, teacher, peer, or colleague. Acts that constitute sexual harassment can take a variety of forms. Examples of the types of conduct that may constitute sexual harassment include, but are not limited to:

Unwelcome sexual propositions, invitations, solicitations, and flirtations.
Unwanted physical and/or sexual contact.
Threats or insinuations that a person's employment, wages, promotion, or other work conditions may be negatively affected if they do not submit to the sexual advances.
Unwelcome sexual commentaries about a person's body, dress, appearance, or sexual activities.
Unwelcome use of sexually degrading language, jokes, or innuendoes.
Targeted comments specifically related to an individual's gender identity or expression
Sexually suggestive objects, pictures, videos, audio, or literature embarrass or offend individuals.
Unwelcome and inappropriate touching, patting, pinching, or obscene gestures.
Conduct that has sexual overtones and is intended to create or has the effect of creating discomfort and/or humiliation in another.
Remarks speculating about a person's sexual activities or history.
Remarks about one's own sexual activities or history.
The pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others
Physical contact and simulated physical contact without consent or after a request to stop.
Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they’re not appropriate.

Safety Over Comfort

Audio Drama Rama prioritizes marginalized people's safety over privileged people's comfort. We reserve the right not to act on complaints regarding:

Reversisms such as "reverse racism", "reverse sexism", "cisphobia", or other ways that privileged people try to victimize themselves.
Reasonable communication of boundaries.
The agreeableness of tone
Criticism of oppressive behavior

Procedure

We encourage you to first directly address your concern with the individual(s) involved. You are allowed to establish boundaries. However, we ask that you do this only if you are comfortable and feel safe. If you are not comfortable addressing the individual(s) involved, you may report your concern to Alex at Alex@AudioDramaRama.com.

Reporting

If you are being harassed by a member or user of Audio Drama Rama, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have concerns, we ask that you contact Alex Hensley at Alex@AudioDramaRama.com. We will respond as promptly as possible. The harassment does not need to occur in Audio Drama Rama operations, function, or spaces for us to take action, nor is there a timeframe for when the harassment must be reported.

We reserve the right to reject any report we believe in having been made in bad faith or reports that are intended to silence.

We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting the victims of abuse. We may publicly name the person about whom we've received harassment complaints or privately warn third parties about them if we believe that doing so will increase the safety of Audio Drama Rama members, users, or the general public. We will not name harassment victims without their consent.

Investigation

After harassment has been reported, an investigation will take place. All investigations are not the same and therefor this is a guide for how an investigation could look. We will not make a production out of trauma.

All investigations should include as much of the following information as possible: the identity of the individual(s) responsible for the harassment or retaliation, a detailed description of the conduct, a list of potential witnesses, documentation, and the resolution sought.

If the report is given orally, the member of Audio Drama Rama investigating the report will conduct an oral interview to prepare a written summary.

Upon receiving a report, the member of Audio Drama Rama in charge of the investigation will consider whether any action should be taken during the investigation phase of the procedure to protect the victim from further harassment or retaliation. In making the determination, the member of management will consult the victim of the harassment to assess their agreement to the proposed action. We reserve the right to go forward with the proposed action without the victim's consent if the action will protect the victim or the community from further harassment or harm.

Investigations should include:

Interviews with the person being harassed.
Interviews with the person accused of harassment.
Interviews with any other witnesses who may be expected to have any relevant information to the allegations.
Consideration of any documentation believed to be relevant to the allegations.

At the conclusion of the investigation, the member of Audio Drama Rama will prepare a report that summarizes all of the evidence gathered during the investigation. At that point, Alex Hensley will determine the appropriate action, up to and including expulsion from all Audio Drama Rama spaces and identification of the person as a harasser to other members and users of Audio Drama Rama or the general public.

Consequences

Members and users of Audio Drama Rama asked to stop any harassing behavior is expected to comply immediately.

If a member or user of Audio Drama Rama engages in harassing behavior, the founder, Alex Hensley, may take any action that they deem appropriate, up to and including expulsion from ALL Audio Drama Rama spaces and the exposure of their identity as a harasser to other members and users of Audio Drama Rama or the general public.

Tools For Bystander Intervention

In order to strengthen and support communities, a number of groups have created methods for how individuals can safely intervene and defuse a dangerous or harmful situation. The following is taken from hollaback!.

Distract: Create a distraction to de-escalate the situation
- In online settings, this can be supporting the person being harassed, share their post (not the harassment), or flooding comments or spaces with photos, memes, videos, support.
- In public, this could be pretending that you know the person being harassed, asking them questions, pretending to drop something, or creating some type of distraction that is not bringing attention to the harassment because it could become a very dangerous situation for everyone involved.

Delegate: Find support
- Do not contact the police unless the person being harassed is requesting it or it is a medical emergency.
- Reach out to your communities and ask them to help amplify the voice of the person being harassed.
- Report the harassment to the platform, admin, etc.

Document: Screenshot. Record. Document.
- The person being harassed will not always document the harassment because they can deepen their trauma and exposure. So if you witness harassment online, it is important to document it.
- If you have documented the harassment of someone else, you should provide the documentation to the person who was harassed, but presenting them with the documentation in a way that allows them the control of when, if ever, to see the evidence. You can do this by putting the documentation into a folder and emailing that folder to them.
- Never use the documentation of the harassment without the permission of the person being harassed.

Delay: After the incident is over, check in with the person who was harassed.
- Ask them if they want to talk. Let them know that it was not their fault. Let them know that they aren't alone.
- Share resources with them
- In public settings, ask the person who was harassed if they need help getting to their destination.

Direct: Speak up. Set boundaries with the harassers and turn your attention to the person being harassed.
- This is usually the first thing we think of when we think about intervention., but it can be the most dangerous and damaging.
- Always evaluate the safety risks to directly disrupting the harassment. Always consider actions that are less likely to put you or anyone else in harm's way. Ask yourself:
  - Will direct intervention escalate the situation?
  - Does the person being harassed want someone to speak up?
  - Will this result in the person being harassed being harmed?
  - Will this result in me being harmed?
- In online spaces, intervention is publicly allying with the person being harassed in a way that the harasser easily detects.
  - If you are going to interact with the harasser directly, it is important to recognize that the chances of educating a harasser online about why their behavior is unacceptable or harmful are extremely rare.
    - Avoid debating, dialogue, or arguing with them.
    - Establish norms for what is and is not appropriate behavior.
  - Do not name the harasser or shame them publicly; your goal is to support the person being harassed, not to target the harasser.
- In public settings, it is important to be firm and clear
  - If you choose to interact with the harasser, do not engage in dialogue, debate, or an argument. Say something like
    - That's inappropriate, disrespectful, not okay, not how we do things, etc.
    - Leave them alone
    - That's [insert type of harassment]
  - If you choose to interact with the person being harassed ask them something like
    - Are you okay?
    - Should I get help?
    - Should we get out of here?