Enough is Enough I was Sexually Assaulted at Work. By Kelly LaLonde as told by Corrine Mundorff
Yesterday I texted a fellow union representative to ask how she was doing. I had heard there was a pretty big assault at her building and wanted to lend support. I was stunned when she replied. “I am not ok, I was sexually assaulted.” I told her that I would do anything I could to help her, and offered my blog as a way to share what happened. These are her words. This is her story.
On Friday, October 8, 2021, I was sexually assaulted at work.
After calling 911 repeatedly, reporting in person to the Public Safety Building, and waiting 7 hours to file my police report, I’ve been told that it’s now missing.
I was failed by my workplace and again by my city.
I have nowhere left to turn.
This is my story.
I am a high school English teacher in Rochester, New York.
I work in an urban environment, which really means I work with children who are victims of de facto segregation and generational poverty.
I’m going say it, since no one else will, I work in an area where gang violence is prevalent.
On the day of my attack I was preparing my materials for my next class when one of my students, a 14-year-old 9th grader, ran into my classroom and hid behind the teacher desk.
He was clearly afraid of something and came to my room because everyone knows my room is a safe place.
Seconds later, a student I didn’t know and had never seen before, came flying in, jumped on my student, and began punching him.
This isn’t the first time I’ve witnessed violence in my school. I daresay we’ve almost become desensitized to it.
But, I’m a mother and my students are my kids in every sense of the word. There is a maternal instinct that takes over. It is an urgency to protect your own and I immediately acted on that.
Fearing for my students’ safety, and before I even knew what I was doing, I intervened, separating the students.
The attacker was yelling and screaming. Threatening.
None of this is new or shocking. Teachers in many schools around the country work in schools like mine.
We try our best to be heard, reach our students, and protect them.
On the day I was attacked my best weapon was my “teacher voice”, and I used it.
I used it to get assailant out of my classroom and ensure no further harm would come to my students.
After the assailant exited the room, I left to find help.
My room is at the end of a hallway, so I could only go in one direction, the same way the aggressor just went.
All I kept thinking was that I needed to get help.
There were dozens of students in the hallway.
The attacker, still enraged, turned around and spit on me. They hit another adult.
They spit on me again and then shoved me.
I repeatedly told them not to put their hands on me, to stop spitting on me, and that I was not following them, but looking for security.
The students took out their phones and began recording.
I had my attacker on one side and a wall of students on the other.
I got lost in the middle, carried along in a wave of rage, fear and excitement.
I had nowhere to go and no help.
It was then that I was sexually assaulted.
My attacker placed both of their hands on my breasts, fondled me for approximately 30 seconds, and then shoved me and spit on me.
They did it again, this time for at least a minute.
I finally screamed at them, “I told you not to touch my breasts!” and attempted to push their hands off of me.
However, now there were a hundred students… so many filming… and I couldn’t get space to move my arms enough to push them away.
Help finally arrived. A security guard had been called. I explained to him that the student placed their hands on me and needed to go to the Principal’s office.
But, the student had not been restrained, allowing them to assault me again, punching me twice in the side of the head.
Then, all hell broke loose. A large brawl began, involving some of my students and some of the friends of the student who hit me.
I froze. I couldn’t move.
Luckily a fellow teacher physically shielded me and moved me to the main office.
Afterwards I called 911 to file a police report.
At 12:20 they took my call, but no one came.
I called 911 again at 12:50. No one came.
At 3:00 I decided to go to the Public Safety Building to try and file a police report there.
The officer on duty instructed me to call 911 again and ask to speak with the Clinton Precinct Sergeant, which I did at 3:15.
No one came.
At 5:15 I was instructed again to call 911 and ask to speak this time to a Lieutenant at the Clinton Precinct.
Finally, at 6:00 pm on Friday night, as I waited at the Public Safety Building, officers from the Clinton Precinct arrived to take my report.
After taking my report they acknowledged that it took a long time to get to me.
“Well you know, you guys did pull the Police officers out of the schools so…”
What they didn’t say I heard loud and clear.
Somehow, because my School Board voted to remove police officers from our schools, I was at fault for my own attack.
Stunned, I left.
I am enraged that I was treated as somehow “less” of a victim by the police because of things I have no control over.
I am a teacher, I don’t make policies, I don’t place or remove police in school buildings.
There were hundreds of students surrounding me in the hallway as the physical assault and the forcible touching happened. Many of them recorded the incidents.
I am absolutely humiliated that footage of me being sexually groped by a student is making the rounds on Instagram and Tiktok.
Today I was informed that the Rochester City School District decided not to long term suspend my assailant. They may be back in the classroom tomorrow.
I have so many thoughts on how and why we as a city, as a society, got here…but no one in power is listening.
Today I decided that someone needed to hear my story. That I will not be denied basic human dignity at my workplace.
I’m asking you to hear me, hear teachers when they are crying out for help.
I was sexually assaulted at work and deserve to be heard.
Corrine Mundorff
Rochester, N.Y