May 1, 2012 - As I've said, Star's probably super unlikeable, and she's totally crossing an ethical line here. Despite her behavior, I unfortunately don't believe her actions constitute sexual harrassment from a legal standpoint however. To my understanding, the law offers a lot of leniency in its definition, requiring repeated offenses of unwelcome behavior before taking action. Furthermore as an unpaid volunteer most of the legal protections that should be available to Ellie aren't available to her as explained in this article talking about interns.

To play devil's advocat, I understand some of this leniency. You don't want to create situations when someone can cry wolf to get a disliked coworker who hasn't done anything wrong fired or attempt to take a superior's job. But it's a very difficult situation to assess the proper reaction.

If Ellie offers a strong response towards Star it'd probably help her a lot, and fortunately there's no time limit on stating to Star what made her uncomfortable. Unfortunately, she hasn't said anything. ...yet.

I'm a strong advocate of being direct in communication, and situations like this in particular, I'd strongly advocate directness. People may try to exploit insecurities and loopholes (such as the ridiculous lack of protection for interns), but I feel that by being direct, the problem ends more quickly. The quicker it ends the less acceptable it becomes and hopefully it can stop persisting as a problem over time.

I may be being optimistic, but I'd rather have hope than the negativity of harrassment.

-D