Shana Broders has been an elementary school teacher for over two decades. For the last year and a half, she has spent her downtime as a clinic escort, helping patients at a nearby North Carolina abortion provider navigate their way past the protesters and into the building for services. For that, a group of extreme anti-abortion activists wants to get her fired from her job. As a new school year begins, they have escalated their efforts, harassing her school by phone and threatening to picket. Broders tells Cosmopolitan.com how her school has responded and why no threats will make her give up supporting a person's right to a legal, safe abortion procedure.
Ms. Broder explains in the article how her world got turned upside down:
I have very strong and passionate beliefs and views on bodily autonomy and women's rights. I was following something on Twitter and I saw a video clip of protesters at a clinic in another city. I tweeted or made a comment, "Wow. That's so horrible. I'm so glad that doesn't happen where I live," in my ignorance. Then someone commented back, "Oh, yes it does, right down the road." I was like, "What? Where? Can I be an escort?" They said, "Yes and let me hook you up," so I got hooked up though Twitter with an escort group in Raleigh, North Carolina. That's how it started.
I'm not sure how I was targeted for this. All I can tell you is that I got [one activist] called out for trespass, me personally. It was July of 2014, and I was escorting, and he went behind our building and another building, and he hid in the bushes waiting for the doctor. I was afraid if he jumped out of the bushes at him, someone could get hurt. I called the police for that reason. I think that made it personal. He learned my name fairly early on and he calls me by name. "You know, Shana, you were nice when you first started." I have him on video saying, "You were nice. What you were doing was evil but you weren't a bad person when you first started this but the darkness is taking over you."
He called me out. He told me he would come to my school. He named my school. Another man who is in this group, AHA [Abolish Human Abortion], who lives in my town — that scares me — he has told me he's going to come to my school and tell all the parents that I'm a baby murderer. Pure intimidation tactics.
At first nothing happened, but then the next year the anti-choice folks followed up on their threats and the school started receiving harassing phone calls referring to her as a "baby murderer." And then they took to Facebook and started sharing the graphic at the top of the page, until it was essentially everywhere.
Now this poor woman, a teacher of small children, feels threatened and under siege in her own community.
Fortunately her school has rallied around her and she has support from her fellow teachers, and of course she is in no danger of losing her job.
However the question remains how long will it be before the people making these threatening accusations are no longer simply happy using words to cause her harm?
Because as we have seen time and time again, this kind of illogical hatred can often take the form of physical violence and even murder.
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| Dr. George Tiller. |
Ok, so, if they know who this guy is, why isn't he arrested and fined? Not once did she give any specific information about the dude. Surely, the guy is operating on a level of mental illness. Don't just be a victim and rally, escalate the action to legally shut him down. Post his name, his face, his address, his emails, the number of times he calls.....etc... Stop making these people anonymous and start shining light on their "darkness".
ReplyDeleteGreat advice!!!
DeleteI have often thought that their tactics should be turned on them. Get THEIR license plates. Follow THEM home. Call THEIR places of employment. Picket in front of THEIR homes. See how THEY like it. Bitches.
DeleteShana has named this man and his group in most of the interviews. His name is Matthew Tringali and he is part of a group called Abolish Human Abortion. He is 55 years old and his last known address is 4516 Baymor Drive Raleigh NC 27612. Apt 202.
DeleteUnfortunately, the stalking and harassment statutes in our state are extremely weak. Short of sexual assault or an explicit threat of physical harm, it's extremely difficult to make a case for a civil no contact order and even more difficult for criminal stalking.
DeleteJust another example of those with the ability (police) saying they can't do anything until the target is dead. Then they say they could have done more.
DeleteJust once I'd like to see these assholes do something BEFORE a woman dies.
Talk about bravery, talk about a steel spine and fire in her belly, a servant's heart and whatnot.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to know her school and community protects her, I just hope it doesn't get violent. These odious troglodytes and their sense of superiority and privilege is disgusting.
I think she should be wearing a GoPro 24-7.
DeleteThanks for this story, Gryphen. Ms. Broders, like most teachers, is a very brave woman.
ReplyDeleteThese creeps will escalate, if they don't feel that they are getting the satisfaction they crave from the school authorities. Informing the parents at school of her volunteer work is just the first step.
Bless you, Ms. Broders, for your work on behalf of all women. And please, stay safe!
This has carnage written all over it. Not just at this facility but everywhere around the country. This asswipes who made and distributed the fake video have any blood shed on their hands. I've been on the receiving end of these so-called pro-life folks. They think killing people involved with women's health is just fine.
ReplyDeleteBill O'Reilly played a huge part in having Dr. Tiller killed. He droned on every day, repeating the doctor's name, Too bad some of the mothers do not come out in force to defend this brave teacher.
ReplyDeletePalin put a target on Gabby Gifford and didn't pay for that either.
DeleteI consider the anti-abortion activists to be domestic terrorists. The laws need to be changed to lock them up.
ReplyDeleteWhy hasn't there been an arrest in this case? This is pure harassment that threatens, not only her safety, but also her livelihood. It also threatens the safety of the children she teaches and her co-workers.
ReplyDeleteIf I were a parent in that school, I would be livid that anyone was harassing one of the teachers. But, this kind of intimidation keeps other people from being supportive since they don't want the crazy directed at them.
The police need to be involved if they aren't already.
The police are very familiar with this man, but he's well trained to operate just within the limits of the law in his home state as well as in other states he visits. Because he has not made an explicit threat of physical violence, there's little that police or prosecutors can do. And most will shy away from any action against religious protesters, even within sight of elementary schools.
DeleteWell, it works both ways.
DeleteIf I were there and she was at my school, I would get together some fellow teachers and supportive parents, let us be trained in the exact same way to come right up to but not over the line, then turn the tables and harass the hell out of this asshole.
When my now-husband and I first started dating, I would drive to his suburban town and past a women's health clinic where there were always two or three protesters, middle aged men, who seemed to be there every day. We got engaged and moved together to a different town, but would visit his home town regularly. The same protesters were there. That went on for almost ten years. Don't these guys have jobs? We don't visit the town any more, but I wonder if those same couple of wild-eyed men are still standing in that parking lot holding their signs.
ReplyDeleteWhat draws these people to this particular cause, especially middle-aged men who don't seem to have anything else to do with their time? I think there's a lot of mental illness among the die-hard protesters, maybe ESPECIALLY the men. They latch on to abortion because it feeds their desires to be in control and to be "saviors" and to yell at women.
This teacher needs a restraining order so if the guy shows up at her school the police can be called immediately. She needs to do her best to make sure this nutcase does not come in contact (or even close) to the children in her school.
ReplyDeleteStalker behavior is a fact of life for many women. Recognizing the problem and managing it is part of the curriculum in that required freshman class, "Being Female 101"
OT... Sarah is now defending Curt Schilling
ReplyDeleteMeg K is getting it up the ASS .. She must love being a "dirty girl"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.politicususa.com/2015/08/28/journalists-suspect-fox-newsdonald-trump-feud-fake.html
Standing up:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.yahoo.com/tv/s/judge-joe-brown-begins-jail-222700871.html
I volunteered as a patient escort for an abortion clinic back in the early 80s outside of Appleton, WI. I wasn't in a job where anyone would take offense to what I was doing in my spare time. (I was a restaurant manager) Although my job was safe, my home was NOT as of course, after being an escort for a while, the protesters DO usually find out who you are. Even if you car pool over to the clinic, using one person's car (who they already know, so the driver doesn't even care anymore) they WILL find out. I had bloodied dolls stuffed into my mailbox. (my 3 sons retrieved the mail one day and found them) My windshield was smashed outside of a grocery store while shopping. My snow covered car was in a parking lot NEAR where I worked one day, all day. They poured something red on the snow on the car spelling out MURDERER. There was no internet then of course, but they took pictures of us (and we did the same) and printed them out in their handouts. With our names. We stood firm, and still did our part as escorts. I showed up one day and the police were already there, very early in the morning. Holes had been drilled in the side of the building and gas was to be pumped in, but the "vandalism" was caught in time. Our escort numbers did dwindle. My last time on the "front lines", one week after the aborted gassing the anti abortion troops were fired up. Their mentor from Chicago (I forget his name, but I believe he ended up killing someone at some point) showed up with fetuses in jars, stolen from a teaching hospital, to show to every patient entering the parking lot. They were also taunting us, outnumbering us, by crossing over the property line. I stood firm where I was as a husband-wife team, hubby carrying a jar of blood and his wife carrying a 5' cross with a "bloody" fetus strapped onto it, began to beat the livin' crap out out of me WITH THE CROSS. Nice. They were arrested of course. In the end they each got 10 days in County and 1 year probation. I only went back to the clinic in the position of "caterer" to help plan a Christmas party. Friends of mine worked there. The incidents I described were covered on National TV at the time, one of those "20/20" type news shows, although I no longer remember the name of it. I was interviewed, along with the "other side". The lady who beat me with the cross said I deserved it. She would kill in the name of Christ she said. We had a lot more people on OUR side back then. I would like to do it again. The scared look on so many faces of very YOUNG girls is what would drive me to escort again. But now I own my own business in a small town where it is 79% conservative Christians. Very red. More churches than gas stations. We were even a dry county until recently, because, ya know....GOD. It would kill my business/income if anyone found out I did that again.
ReplyDeleteShe's one brave lady. I only escorted once for a friend who was getting an abortion, so I know the "walk of shame", the bloody fetus signs, and those cute pro life caucasian fetus keychains they used to give out.
ReplyDeleteI don't care what my kids teachers do on their own time, or in the privacy of their homes or out in public for that matter. And "outing" someone on facebook, calling them "murderers" isn't helping their cause, it's just showing their own ignorance. Had this woman been "packing" pepper spray, and used it in self defense against the pervert in the bushes, she'd be well within her rights to use it.
I remember vividly the websites listing abortion provider's information, and the murder of Mr Tiller in his own kitchen. Another murder done in the cause of "pro life", what's wrong with this picture?
I thought Dr. Tiller was murdered on the steps of his church right after services.
DeleteYou're right, I confused him with Dr Barnett Slephian, whose name and address was published on the same website by the pro life militant vigilante killers
DeletePlease excuse my mistake, didn't mean to mislead anyone.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/abortviolence/stories/sniper.htm
Fear, intimidation and bullying.
ReplyDelete3 tactics used by Trump and Palin. Be prepared for more as The Donald and The Sarah continue their assault on the USA.
I'm thankful her school is rallying around her.
ReplyDeleteBut I suspect she is going to lose her job anyway.
These nutjobs will go over her and her school and to the board of education. If they can't get her fired that way, they will run their own stealth candidates for the board and after they are elected, they will show their true colors and have her fired.
If they have to they can replace her principal who will then document her with petty, vindictive transgressions, give her a poor evaluation and use that as grounds to dismiss her.
I've seen it happen.
I don't recall if North Carolina is a right to work state but I suspect even if it isn't and she is a union member, her union won't be able to protect her.
I only hope the files charges whenever possible against this group and follows through with court, etc.
But she is right to be fearful. We all know how easy it is for a whacko to get a gun, enter a school and start shooting.