http://media.www.hlrecord.org/media/storage/paper609/news/2003/04/17/News/Dating.Service.Creator.Accused.Of.Harassing.Students-419629.shtml
Dating service creator accused of harassing students
By: Emily Kimball
Posted: 4/17/03
"Hey! Let me put it this way. I'm a good judge of character. You seem
fantastic. I'd like to meet you. Love that 'Up late talking and
snuggling on the sofa' and 'Singing to me.' Sure, I'll play guitar &
sing for you. :) I know you're busy and this whole dating thing feels
like a burden. Maybe we can change all that. What have you got to
lose? Being romanced by a tall, fun, handsome gentleman will be quite
nice! :) Zing me a note and let's do a 'just coffee'. When? Or just
email is fine if you're shy. My profile is below, and two pics are
attached. :) Ciao, bella! Jon"
In the months following the MIT-Harvard-Wellesley Valentine's Match-
Up, some law students' inboxes continue to be flooded with unwanted
and potentially harassing e-mails like the one above.
Around Valentine's Day this year, Harvard Law School students received
fliers in their Harkboxes encouraging them to sign up for the Match-
Up, a service that promised to pair each participant with 20-30
compatible matches within the three university communities. Three
thousand two hundred people participated by Valentine's Day, and then
another 600 signed up when a second round was offered for those who
missed out the first time.
The survey included questions about the participant's religion,
smoking preference, idea of a romantic date, favorite movie, weekend
activities and hobbies.
The website describes the event as a "free service run by students, in
association with the MIT Young Alumni Club, the Harvard Med School
Student Council and other communities" including "MIT grads, alumni,
ugrads and others; Harvard grads, alumni, ugrads and others; Wellesley
alumni and ugrads."
However, Jon Monsarrat, a 34-year old MIT business graduate,
apparently organized the event on his own, as none of the listed
sponsors claim any involvement with the service or know of any other
genuine participants.
Johannes Kratz, of the Harvard Medical School Council, said that when
he was contacted by Monsarrat, he agreed to inform medical students
about the Match-Up and said that it would be fine to be listed as a
participant, but had no further contact with Monsarrat. "HMS Student
Council had absolutely no part whatsoever in setting up, sponsoring,
promoting, or hosting the match other than what I just described,"
said Kratz.
Eric Sit, MIT Young Alumni Chair, also agreed to publicize the event
to its members. ""After assuring us that all data would be kept
securely and confidentially, we said sure," Sit said. "We didn't have
anything to do with how it was run."
Since Valentine's Day, numerous HLS women have received e-mails from
Monsarrat requesting that they start dating him. He did not just email
the 20 or so people he had been matched with by the web service. In
fact, according to 3L Nicole De Sario, he admitted in an email to one
of her friends that he had sorted through all of the Match-Up profiles
himself, and used the service to gain access to many women's contact
information.
De Sario's friend wrote back two or three times saying she wasn't
interested, but Monsarrat continued to write her, including charts of
his weight loss, promises to lose more in the future and persistent
demands to meet with him. At one point he wrote, "You've made me wait
too long; I'm getting impatient."
De Sario realized the problem could be more widespread when she
herself started receiving emails from Monsarrat, one of which is
copied above. She e-mailed the site address that is listed on the
Match-Up web page to complain about the emails, but received no
response.
At De Sario's request, the Women's Law Association sent out an email
alerting the Law School community of the incident, urging students to
forward any correspondence to the Dean of Students and StopIT, an
organ of the Information Systems organization at MIT that monitors
misuses of the MIT computing system.
"A bunch of people came forward," De Sario said. Students sent e-mails
to the Dean of Students, who then made arrangements for a group of
students to speak with the Harvard University Police."
"It hasn't yet risen to a legal violation, De Sario added. "But it is
clearly a moral and ethical violation, and my concern is that it could
amount to a harassment claim."
According to Massachusetts law, criminal harassment applies to:
"Whoever willfully and maliciously engages in a knowing pattern of
conduct or series of acts over a period of time directed at a specific
person, which seriously alarms that person and would cause a
reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress.... Such
conduct or acts described in this paragraph shall include, but not be
limited to, conduct or acts conducted by mail or by use of a
telephonic or telecommunication device including, but not limited to,
electronic mail, internet communications or facsimile communications."
Administrators and police are still unaware of just how many women
have been contacted, or whether or not anyone has met with Monsarrat.
However, the police will be sending him a cease and desist letter
warning him of the potential legal implications of his actions.
"The police department is writing a letter to the guy and they sort of
said that was the end of it unless someone was suffering some kind of
serious harm," said 3L Bill Dance, Law School Council President.
"Which is why it would be useful to find out if someone was suffering
more serious harm."
"Everyone you talk to knows someone who was contacted," Dance added.
"According to Enice Matera, Student Services Officer in the Dean of
Students Office, there haven't been cases of serious or widespread
harassment over e-mail at the Law School before. "To my knowledge, I
don't remember anything like this happening before," she said.
StopIT is continuing to monitor and receive e-mails forwarded by
students who have corresponded with Monsarrat. According to Tim
McGovern, a StopIT member, their goals in any such case "are to
facilitate or mediate between parties to reach a mutually acceptable
set of conditions," which include "agreement on steps forward, no
contact orders and so forth."
Any student who has been bothered by Monsarrat can contact Amy
Schlosberg at the Harvard University Police Department (amy-
schlosberg@harvard.edu) and StopIT@MIT.edu with attachments of any e-
mails received from or sent to Monsarrat.
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