East County News Service

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May 24, 2022 (La Mesa) -- A resolution in support of three State legislative bills which address street harassment in public places, transit and private businesses will be considered by the La Mesa Council at its meeting tonight at 6  p.m.  The measure is item 12.1 on the agenda.

Vice Mayor Jack Shu and Councilmember Colin Parent are requesting the La Mesa City Council pass a resolution which supports three bills currently being considered in Sacramento. These bills will address hate generated harassment from a public health and civil rights framework.

First is AB 2549 by Assembly Members Mia Bonta, Al Muratsuchi and Dr. Akilah Weber which would authorize a study and campaign seeking  to prevent public street harassment. Then SB 1161 introduced by Senator Dave Min addresses harassment which takes place in our public transit systems. Third, AB 2448 introduced by Assembly Member Phil Ting will address harassment in private businesses. The resolution also supports corresponding budget requests for these bills.

Review By Walter G. Meyer

Infinity Publishing

February 21, 2013 (San Diego)--In her book, Back Off! Your Kick-Ass Guide to Ending Bullying at Work, Catherine Mattice knows whereof she writes. At one of her first jobs out of San Diego State, she was bullied at the nonprofit where she was working. It wasn’t that long ago, but bullying, if it was thought of at all, was considered a schoolyard, not a workplace phenomenon.

She decided to do something about it. She got her Masters in Organizational Communications at SDSU, writing her thesis on workplace bullying. For her research, she inverted a survey on workplace bullying and instead of asking targets what they thought of being bullied, she asked why people were bullies. She even dedicated it to “The Post-it Nazi,” to her former co-worker who inspired it.