schoolgirl flashed outside of school
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Sarah is a twenty year old, very, very beautiful Lebanese girl. She worked as a receptionist in an office in Sydney’s western suburbs and was friendly and talkative. That, however, changed, as the interview progressed. Her sister was present with her as were two other girls who walked in and out during the interview. Phones kept ringing, too, so it was not an ideal setting.
Have you been flashed?
She had been, once, she said. She was in Year Seven in school at the time, so she would have been about twelve years old.
I asked her to tell me what happened, and she said she didn’t want to talk about it.
I said that’s OK, and then asked what her reaction was.
She replied immediately: she was angry and shocked.
Her answer came a little too quickly, so I gave her some other options. I said that some women laugh, some get angry, some are offended, some don’t care and so on. At this point her sister chipped in and said that she would have thought it was funny.
But Sarah didn’t. She was quite adamant that she was angry and shocked, at the time.
She then proceeded to tell me what had happened. She was just finishing school for the day and as she walked outside the gate, a man was waiting. He dropped his trousers, exposing himself. I did not ascertain if she was on her own, or with some friends, at the time.
She did however tell the teachers, who called the police, but the man was long gone by the time they arrived.
I asked her if the act should be classified as criminal, and she immediately said, yes.
Once again, I tested this. I explained that criminal meant they could go to jail.
She didn’t budge. She considered exhibitionism to be a criminal offence.
I asked her why.
She said it might affect someone emotionally over a long period of time. They might not, for example, want to leave their house. In her case, she said, she didn’t want any boyfriends for a long time afterwards.
That pretty much ended the interview. As I was about to leave, Sarah started to ask me about how I got mixed up in this, but her phone rang and so we concluded the interview.
I feel bad about this because Sarah was a pleasant, friendly, amiable girl, who became less so as the interview progressed because, I suspect, it made her relive an unpleasant experience.
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