In the past year, several New School students said that they were harassed by a man near the TNS campus, who referred to them as “Marilyn Monroe” lookalikes, before wrapping his arms around them in a hug.
Josie Kunkle-Schoen, a second-year fine arts major at Parsons School of Design, made an Instagram story post stating that she and her friend were harassed by the same man outside of New School buildings, on Monday, April 15. The post stated that the man told Kunkle-Schoen she looked like Marilyn Monroe, before wrapping his arms around her into a side hug.
“I was talking to a friend, and we realized that she had just the same experience happen to her, to every word basically, maybe 15 minutes before me…I wasn’t freaking out or anything, but I know for some people, this would be really upsetting to them. So that’s why I posted it,” Kunkle-Schoen said.
A few hours passed before Kunkle-Schoen received a flood of messages in her Instagram DMs from other New School students stating they had experienced similar harassment from a man matching the same physical description. All of them similarly mentioned he started with the Marilyn Monroe comment. “I think maybe I counted around 21 people who responded and said that it had happened to them or it had happened to a friend of theirs. That’s what upset me a lot more,” Kunkle-Schoen said.
Women who messaged Kunkle-Schoen, along with students interviewed by The New School Free Press, stated the man was about 5’8”-5’9”, thin, Black, with little to no hair, and looked about 30 years old. The students also emphasized that this occurred within walking distance of university buildings, specifically outside Arnhold Hall, Eugene Lang, and the University Center.
Many students emphasized that their initial reaction to the incident was to shake it off but were more upset when they found out it had occurred multiple times. Vaugh Doré, a third-year Strategic Design and Management major at Parsons, recalled when her friend sent Kunkle-Schoen’s story post in a group chat, and they were shocked when they realized multiple of them dealt with the same experience.
“I feel like [harassment incidents] don’t faze me at this point, which is sad when you think about it in retrospect, but the fact that it’s happening to other girls in such a close vicinity is not okay,” Doré said.
Anna Volk, a first-year drama major at The New School College of Performing Arts, also described how she had heard about these incidents occurring to a friend of hers. Then days later, while walking past Ariston Flowers & Cafe directly in front of the UC, she heard a man say, “Hey, you look like Marilyn Monroe.”
“You don’t think that these things would ever happen to you because you’re thinking to yourself, ‘What are the chances,’ but then it does end up happening,” Volk said. “I instantly bolted. I had heard so many things at that point and so many people are reposting things on social media. Thank god for that, and just hearing my friends’ experience really helped me stay more alert,” Volk said.
Victoria, a third-year fashion design student at Parsons, also experienced the same incident last semester. The New School Free Press granted Victoria anonymity due to safety concerns.
Victoria described how she wasn’t comfortable opening up about her experience until she overheard other women speaking about it in the UC Dining Hall and online. Victoria mentioned that she had watched a post on TikTok of the same incident happening to TikToker Anna Molinari, almost two and a half years ago.
“All the comments underneath that are like, ‘Oh, well, they were on their phones,’ but that’s not an excuse. You can answer a text and not have to worry about getting assaulted,” Victoria said. “[People’s] first reaction is to blame girls … But I’m constantly aware of my surroundings. I shouldn’t have to be walking on the street filled with anxiety of getting attacked.”
In a statement from The New School, Campus Safety stated they had not heard any reports of the incidents The New School Free Press cited. However, Amelia Breeden, an acting major at COPA, said she alerted the university last Thursday around 2 a.m. Breeden stated they took her name and description down, as well as the man’s description, and told her they would notify her if they obtained security footage.