Reader advisory: Some accounts of sexual abuse in this story contain explicit details and strong language that some may find upsetting or objectionable.
A
nn West was performing an advanced backbend at a yoga workshop when her teacher came over and stroked her breasts and nipples, she said. He did it, she said, in a way “that could only be described as a caress.”
Her classmates were rolling back and forth -- no one could have seen the alleged groping by the teacher, West said. “I was amazed, shocked," she added. "I came out of the pose. He quickly got up and walked away and then didn't bother me for the rest of the class."
West shared her story in response to a KQED callout for #MeToo accounts in the Bay Area yoga world. An ensuing investigation revealed a range of allegations by seven women against five teachers: from inappropriate massage to a violating touch in class, from drugging to unlawful sex with a minor. KQED found that the yoga community is struggling to rein in this sexual misconduct and abuse in its ranks. Some experts believe the lack of oversight of teachers and schools is adding to the problems of an industry experiencing explosive growth, where touch and trust are a fundamental part of the practice.
The women are telling their stories amid a global outcry and reckoning over sexual misconduct and abuse -- the #MeToo movement -- at the highest levels of political office and in many industries, such as film, media and food. The growing number of accounts has forced many businesses and sectors to examine their codes of conduct, reporting processes and handling of bad actors.
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In yoga, experts and leaders say, that soul-searching is only beginning.
West, 50, said initially she was in denial about the November 2013 incident in San Diego -- she felt “psychologically shackled” to Iyengar yoga and kept attending classes with San Francisco-based Manouso Manos. Later, she was afraid to come forward with the allegation: afraid she’d be shunned by the Iyengar community for accusing a famous instructor and afraid it would hurt her livelihood as a yoga teacher of nearly two decades.
But that changed in 2015, when West alleged she saw Manos verbally abuse two students in class (which he denied through a spokesman). Though it wasn’t sexual abuse, seeing the experience of the other students was a wake-up call for her to finally distance herself from that world, she said. Then, in 2016, she read a 1991 news article that compelled her to go public: It said Manos had groped students in the 1980s.
A Flood of #MeToo Stories in Yoga
"W
e are, I believe, just beginning to see the impact on the yoga community of this #MeToo moment,” said Shannon Roche, chief operating officer of Yoga Alliance, a voluntary registry believed to be the industry’s largest credentialing body. “There is a long history of sexual misconduct and of abuse-of-power situations in the yoga community. We also know that, like many other communities, yoga has many times tried to keep those stories in the family.”
Some of those stories became public in December 2017 when a well-known yoga teacher and activist, Rachel Brathen, also known as Yoga Girl, released more than 300 accounts she received in response to a callout for #MeToo incidents. They included rape, groping, inappropriate touching, assault and harassment.
“Everybody knows that there are all these allegations out there. Why are these men still gracing the covers of yoga magazines? Why are they still headlining festivals? Why are they still out there leading teacher trainings, telling young women how to enter this practice?” Brathen told KQED. “It's very, very infuriating.”
To date, Brathen has received between 500 and 1,000 #MeToo stories worldwide. The most stories she got from the U.S. were about incidents that happened in California, while New York was second.
In nearly half of the accounts, an attacker wasn’t named; but in those that did, some named the same teacher, said Brathen. Following legal advice, she removed details that could ID the accused.
The #MeToo stories “shattered the yoga world,” wrote Yoga Journal. Roche said the accounts were “heartbreaking.”
A thread through many of them was “that teachers would take advantage of the inherent power dynamic in the teacher-student relationship,” she said, leaving students feeling “exploited and taken advantage of.”
Some cases of sexual abuse involving high-profile yoga teachers have gone public, such as that of Bikram Choudhury, founder of the California-based Bikram Yoga empire who was accused by multiple women of rape (he was never charged), according to The Associated Press, and that of the now-deceased Krishna Pattabhi Jois, who popularized Ashtanga yoga and was accused by nine women of sexual assault. Many others remain shrouded in secrecy and so-called whisper networks.
Yoga Alliance, formed in the late 1990s, issued a new sexual misconduct policy and procedures for handling these cases earlier this year, but the group declined to share the number of such complaints it had previously received.
“It's (yoga) been a bit of a hunting ground,” said Matthew Remski, a yoga teacher, trainer and culture critic who has written about sexual abuse in the community. “Because of the dominance hierarchies, the pedagogy, the implied consent -- the general sense that the practitioner is there to have their body perfected or to perfect their body and that they are going to submit or surrender to the instructions so that can be so.
“Those have been dominant themes,” he added. “And you know, sexual assault is about power -- it's not about sex.”
‘Anyone Can Be a Teacher’
T
he yoga industry has experienced dramatic growth in the U.S.: Over 36 million people practiced nationwide in 2016, skyrocketing from 16.5 million in 2004, according to the Yoga in America Study. Yoga was a $16 billion industry in 2016, shooting up from $10 billion in 2012.
Yoga Alliance said as of Aug. 31, it had nearly 92,000 registered yoga teachers -- surging from 9,700 in 2004 -- and 6,355 registered yoga schools, jumping from 280 that same year.
But that growth has not been accompanied by much oversight.
Yoga teachers aren’t licensed in the U.S. (In some states like Oklahoma, instructors of teacher training programs have their qualifications approved as part of a school’s licensure). No state agency, such as a medical board, oversees instructors, disciplines or investigates them, or defines their practice.
Roche said that, to her knowledge, there is no federal regulation of yoga.
“Anyone can be a yoga teacher. Anybody could just open a studio and start teaching yoga. They don't have to have any credentials whatsoever. They could have read a book on yoga,” said Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D. and physical therapist, who has been teaching yoga in the Bay Area since 1972.
“There is no accountability, professional accountability of yoga teachers in the United States,” she added. “All you need to be a yoga teacher in the United States of America is students.”
Laura Camp, owner of Flying Studios in Oakland, said the yoga industry was in its adolescence.
“It's almost like, I'm going to say, snake-oil salesmen -- you know, before medicine was codified in the Old West -- and people could just put a shingle up and say I do this,” Camp said. “The seminal crisis of this industry right now is sexual abuse and that has to stop.”
Oversight does exist in a few states. Minnesota, Oklahoma, Washington and Wisconsin actively regulate yoga teacher training programs, according to Yoga Alliance and a KQED analysis. California typically regulates schools that offer such programs as part of a broader portfolio of study -- currently, that number stands at about 15, according to the state’s Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education.
Potential harms of government oversight include the burden of fees and rules on the industry’s many small businesses, Yoga Alliance said. And though licensing may serve “as a form of quality assurance,” defining what a yoga teacher must teach would exclude some practices and “stifle creativity,” the group said.
When asked if this stance reflected the position of the new Yoga Alliance leadership, which came onboard in May 2017, the group said it was refining its stance but generally opposed regulation specifically targeting the practice or teaching of yoga.
Leading yoga experts were split on government oversight.
“Regulation and oversight would have consequences for people who have been truly doing not just unethical behavior but what is actually illegal behavior with their student,” said Lasater, whose credentials include C-IAYT (IAYT certified yoga therapist) and E-RYT-500 (experienced registered yoga teacher, 500 hours of training). “A lack of credentialing creates an arena where almost anything goes, from dangerous adjustments, to teachers with little or no training, to the possibility of major boundary crossings -- sexual, physical and emotional.”
Roche said she didn’t think a lack of government oversight had left the door open to sexual misconduct, but thought Yoga Alliance not having a scope of practice and an updated code of conduct in place -- it’s working on both now -- did.
“In its earlier years, Yoga Alliance maybe did fall a little bit short,” she said. “I don't think anybody envisioned that it would become ... in lieu of government regulation, the self-regulating body for the industry.”
Some dispute that it is: Adhering to any Yoga Alliance standards, codes, guidelines for teacher training programs -- even registering with the group -- is voluntary.
“It doesn't matter if you have a certificate to teach yoga if ... you cannot be prevented from teaching,” Lasater said. “You see what a mess it is? It's a mess.”
Many studios and teachers elect to opt out of the Yoga Alliance world, said Gary Kissiah, a lawyer, yoga philosophy teacher and author. “Teachers can certainly open yoga studios and teachers can teach without having any association with Yoga Alliance.”
Kissiah, who in January published a guide for studios on dealing with sexual misconduct, said he was skeptical that government regulation could solve the problem and felt effective change would come from the ground up. A first step: educating students about what is proper conduct by teachers.
"These teachers basically conned them into thinking it’s part of their spiritual development, a part of the spiritual practice, a part of the tradition -- all these sorts of things,” he said.
Kissiah wrote in his guide that yoga could be lost if “we allow it to collapse into ethical and sexual scandals, watered-down physical education classes and commercial exploitation.”
“If this fire just keeps burning out of control, at some point, the states are going to say we need to step in here and do something,” he told KQED.
‘I Wish I Had Come Forward. ... He’s Still Doing This’
C
harlotte Bell attended a yoga workshop for back pain in San Francisco in February 1988 at the Iyengar Yoga Institute. She said it included a who’s who of teachers, Manos among them.
Bell, then 32, was doing a variation of downward dog: In the pose, a practitioner’s chest is parallel to the floor -- with their legs shooting straight down from their hips -- and their hands on the wall.
That’s when, Bell said, Manos groped her.
“He came up to me from behind, put his hands on my collarbone and swept his hands over my whole front body right over my breasts,” she said. “I was stunned at first. It was like, ‘What? Did he really just do that?’ And then immediately -- because I was this starry-eyed newer student and he's this well-known and well-respected teacher -- immediately I started doubting it.”
Manos did not recognize nor was he familiar with Bell, his spokesman said. No complaint was ever filed, he said, and Manos denied that any adjustment he may have made was inappropriate.
Bell said she buried the incident, but in fall 1989 she heard rumors about other sexual misconduct allegations against Manos -- some that became the subject of a 1991 expose in West, a now-defunct magazine then published by the (San Jose) Mercury News.
Allegations had first surfaced against Manos in 1987. He told a representative of the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco that it wouldn’t happen again, wrote reporter Bob Frost.
More allegations were reported in 1989 and the institute suspended him from teaching in October of that year, Frost wrote. (Frost said there were no corrections to the article in which he quoted Manos as saying: “Though there are inaccuracies in the statements made in this article I do recognize the gravity of the subject matter.”) No criminal charges were filed against Manos, Frost wrote. KQED didn’t find any civil or criminal charges either.
B.K.S. Iyengar, who is “universally acknowledged as the modern master of yoga,” according to the Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States (IYNAUS), asked the community to forgive Manos, Frost wrote. In October 1990, the S.F. institute’s board of directors voted to reinstate him, Frost wrote.
A spokesman for Manos said the West article was inaccurate, saying Manos wasn’t suspended but voluntarily left (he said he didn’t know the reason for his departure) and didn’t seek reinstatement but was invited to return. He also said Manos denied past and current allegations of sexual misconduct. He didn’t know why Manos hadn’t sought a correction to Frost’s article if he believed there were inaccuracies.
Lasater, who said she was on the board of directors at the time, told KQED she resigned from it after the vote. She said she personally knew of up to five allegations against Manos -- and that she was in a room where he admitted to the sexual misconduct.
“I had a board member’s responsibility to keep our students safe,” she said. “I wasn’t convinced ... that this wasn’t going to happen again.”
West filed a police report in March 2018; the San Diego Police Department said it determined the incident to be a misdemeanor. The case was not forwarded to the city attorney for prosecution because it fell outside the statute of limitations, police said.
West also filed a complaint against Manos with IYNAUS, in which she included corroborating statements from four people who she’d told over the years about the alleged incident. When KQED asked Manos for comment about West’s allegations, his representative shared his May 15 statement to IYNAUS.
“I have devoted 42 years of my life to teaching and educating tens of thousands of students in a professional and ethical manner,” he wrote. “I categorically deny Ms. West’s allegations, but still feel horrible that a student of mine has these feelings.”
Manos said West was a student over many years: “It does not make sense to me why she would continue to take my classes if she supposedly felt uncomfortable.”
“I am shocked that any adjustment I may have provided to Ms. West in a classroom filled with 50 students has been characterized by her as an ‘assault’ of a sexual nature,” he said, noting that he asks students if he can touch them before making any hands-on adjustments. “That is a very serious accusation and one I do not take lightly.”
Bell, 63, a yoga teacher and writer/editor who lives in Salt Lake City, said she wrote about the alleged groping in 2013 and 2017. But she never named Manos, thinking he’d taken responsibility and wasn’t doing it anymore, nor did she file a police report or complaint with a yoga body.
“I didn't come forward until now -- until I found out that indeed he was still doing this and the incident was strikingly similar to what happened to me,” she said.
Bell said another person in the yoga community connected her to West.
“Damn, I wish I had come forward” sooner, she said. “When I heard her story, I felt like, wow, he's still doing this, and maybe I could have helped. So I felt bad ... that I didn’t say anything all those years.”
West wasn’t upset with Bell for not saying anything -- but she was upset with the national Iyengar yoga association (IYNAUS).
“They knew that he'd been at this" for decades, West said. “We weren't forewarned that essentially this predator was in our midst and we weren't able to make an informed decision as to whether or not we were even going to walk into his class. ... Why didn't we all know about this?”
A third woman told KQED Manos slipped his hands inside her bra and massaged her breasts while she was in a resting pose during a 1986 class in New York – an account shared in the Frost article. She wrote California Iyengar yoga leaders in 1990 after she learned Manos would attend an upcoming convention in San Diego despite the sexual misconduct allegations.
Bonnie Anthony, chair of the convention’s coordinating committee, replied in a May 7, 1990, letter, saying she was “willing to give him this one more chance.”
“It was our recommendation to Mr. Iyengar (and he agreed) to keep Manouso in a low profile at the Convention,” Anthony wrote. “Manouso has a problem, much like alcoholism. He has openly admitted it to Mr. Iyengar and to others and is in therapy, along with his wife, Rita.”
KQED contacted Anthony, sharing with her the May 7 letter plus one the woman sent in response dated May 27 and an earlier one to Lasater from April 18, 1990. Anthony replied: "The matter re: Manouso was settled many years ago and I have nothing additional to add to the record."
Manos' spokesman denied the 1986 allegation and said he doesn't have anything to say about the letter.
IYNAUS declined to answer KQED’s questions about its current Manos investigation or past allegations involving him, citing confidentiality.
When asked about the San Francisco Iyengar institute’s handling of the previous allegations against Manos, Brian Hogencamp, president of the Iyengar Yoga Association of Northern California, said he did not know or have additional information to make a comment. Manos is not a teacher at the S.F. institute; he plays an unpaid, external, advisory role to the teachers of one program, Hogencamp said.
Donna Farhi, a yoga instructor since 1982 who was on the board of Yoga Journal in the late 1980s, said by email that the publication got letters around that time from several women, unknown to each other and from different states, alleging Manos had “sexually molested” them in class.
“We made the decision not to feature him in the magazine, or to allow his name to appear in any advertising that might be purchased by someone hosting him,” said Farhi, who is helping Yoga Alliance draft a code of conduct for teachers and is an author of five books, including one on ethics for yoga teachers.
Farhi said she knew of West’s and Bell’s allegations, and they showed how students could be abused in class.
“When students are in positions where they can’t even see each other, it’s almost impossible for these women to get substantive evidence from others that these incidents did indeed happen,” she said.
'We’re Not the Yoga Police'
W
hen sexual misconduct or abuse does happen in yoga, people don’t have many ways to report it -- except for going to the police.
In a December 2017 post sharing her #MeToo experience of being sexually assaulted by a teacher, international yoga instructor Kino MacGregor said she reported the attack to Yoga Alliance.
“They replied with a standardized email saying that they could take no action. It made me so mad because it felt like there was no accountability in the yoga world,” she wrote.
Roche said it was awful to see Yoga Alliance being called out in that story, but added, “I'm glad she did.” The group separated policies for handling sexual misconduct from other grievances; Roche said they needed to be treated with more sensitivity and care.
“We are not law enforcement, unfortunately,” she added, echoing a line in a video to the membership in which she said, “We’re not becoming the yoga police.”
“We don't have the same resources that they do, and so we won't be able to take the same kind of action that law enforcement would,” she told KQED.
The national Iyengar yoga association, which formed in 1991, investigates complaints of ethical violations, including sexual misconduct, said Manju Vachher, chair of the group’s ethics committee.
The committee recommends sanctions to the executive council, if necessary, Vachher said. Information is shared with the parties involved and occasionally with the executive council.
“Your interest in exploring how the yoga community is responding to the ‘Me Too Movement’ is important,” Vachher said in an email. “I am not able to do an interview or discuss any cases due to the confidentiality issues. During and after any investigative process, we uphold strict standards of privacy for all parties ...”
Vachher declined to answer questions about the number of complaints made against Manos to IYNAUS since the late 1980s allegations arose and how many teachers the group has sanctioned over sexual misconduct complaints (and what the sanctions are for such violations).
West doesn’t think the committee can be an independent arbiter of Manos, who is on the association’s senior council.
“They're just one arm of an organization -- the same organization giving him these accolades and awards,” she said.
'He Felt That I Needed to Feel More Into My Body’
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fter moving to Oakland from L.A. in 2016, Deisha Smith had left some business problems behind and was looking to make friends in her new home. She thought yoga teacher training would be one way to do that.
At first, Smith said things felt great: Her mentor at Piedmont Yoga in Berkeley and Oakland, Zubin Shroff, dubbed her the “minister of joy” for sharing uplifting news items. After her one-on-one sessions began with Shroff in fall 2016, however, things took a turn: She said he had her meet him at his West Berkeley condo, where they discussed personal things about her life -- rarely yoga. Finding the experience odd, she eventually stopped going.
After a short break, Smith said, Shroff reached out, saying they should restart the sessions. And, she should let him give her a massage.
“He felt that I needed to feel more into my body and that would involve him doing massage. Shiatsu massage. I've never had shiatsu massage,” said Smith, 40, who works in financing and funding for small businesses. “I didn't even look it up -- but that's how trusting I was of the situation.”
Smith said the sessions in February and March 2017 were “all massage that got increasingly uncomfortable,” on a futon mattress. Unlike before, there was no conversation. They were both clothed.
"In the fifth (final) session, he spent the majority of the time massaging my butt and groin,” she said in a June 2017 statement to the Berkeley Police Department. “He literally massaged my butt and innermost part of my groin, as close as he could possibly be without physically touching my actual vagina.”
She thought the shiatsu was “extremely weird and uncomfortable, but just part of the procedure,” she said in her police statement. “He was my instructor so the last thing I expected was for him to do anything inappropriate."
When asked about Smith’s allegation, Shroff said in an email that he did not touch anyone inappropriately. In that same correspondence dated March 1, Shroff said he was no longer the studio’s director and noted it was “the end of a prolonged transition phase” where he had “been stepping back from directing the studio and teaching.” (Piedmont Yoga is a storied Bay Area yoga institution that has a checkered past with one of its founders, Rodney Yee, marrying a student and having sexual relationships with other students, according to various media reports.)
Smith wasn’t the only student getting massage from Shroff: Sarah Shimazaki said she had about 10 shiatsu sessions at Shroff’s condo starting in March 2017, paying about $40 for each one. She said the shiatsu was a “positive” experience that helped her where talk therapy hadn’t, and Shroff never touched her inappropriately.
Another student, who didn’t want to be identified, said Shroff told her during a one-on-one session at his condo in December 2016 that he offered shiatsu “at no cost” to students. She declined and said she later wondered, “ ‘Why is he offering me a free massage?’”
“I thought he was creeping on the people he was attracted to or the people who somehow appeared to be vulnerable,” she said.
Smith reported the massage to two teachers in the program and to the police. One of the teachers, Leslie Howard, told police she didn’t know Shroff was offering massage to students, nor had she heard of him providing massage sessions to any other students.
When she asked him about the massage, Howard said Shroff told her: “I totally get it, I won't do this anymore.”
“My thought, my feeling about Zubin is his heart is in the right place,” Howard said. “He has let so many people who can't afford yoga programs do the program for little to no money.”
Howard also said that when she asked Smith if Shroff had touched her inappropriately, Smith said “no.”
Shroff was a certified ohashiatsu consultant from 2011-13, according to the New York-based Ohashi International Ltd, which also said he graduated from the institute’s six-level curriculum program.
But Shroff didn’t have a license to perform massage in Berkeley, said Matthai Chakko, assistant to the city manager. Nor was he certified with the California Massage Therapy Council (which said such ohashiatsu credentials would not qualify someone to get certification with the organization).
California doesn’t have state licensing for massage, but the vast majority of its cities and counties have massage therapy ordinances. While certification with CAMTC is voluntary, cities are required by state law to accept it.
Berkeley authorities opened a code enforcement case regarding Shroff’s lack of massage and business licenses. In late June, Shroff was sent a notice of violation, which serves as a warning to encourage compliance, Chakko said.
“At the scheduled site inspection this week at his Berkeley condo, Mr. Shroff stated he has relinquished his part-ownership with Piedmont Yoga and no longer conducts any business within the City. Code Enforcement verified that his unit is vacant and actively listed for sale,” Chakko wrote on July 20.
“The case is now closed,” Chakko said. “Should new information arise, or if we find future violations with his involvement, we will pick up where we left off.”
Chakko said Shroff wasn’t penalized over the zoning violation, noting it was the city’s initial contact and the goal is to bring people into voluntary compliance.
Berkeley police forwarded Smith’s case with a charge of misdemeanor sexual battery to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, which declined to prosecute.
Howard recalled Smith as a student who didn’t participate as much in the beginning of the program but got more engaged over time.
“She did a stellar job in her student teaching class. ... I was just like, ‘Wow,’” Howard said. But when Howard went to Shroff to advocate for Smith at one point, she said he told her Smith wasn’t “participating in his class at all.”
Shimazaki said Shroff told her about the police investigation in June 2017; the next month, she said, he spoke with her and others about transferring the business to them. In early August 2018, Shimazaki said Shroff would be transferring the business to her and another student, though it wasn’t yet complete; she said he would assist as an adviser. On Friday, she said she wouldn’t be taking over. Shroff didn’t reply to an inquiry last week about who owned the business.
The transfer had nothing to do with Smith’s allegation, Shroff said.
Smith closes her police statement saying: “I do not want this to happen to anyone else. It was as though he was taking advantage of his role as the instructor to engage in the inappropriate massage.”
‘We Cannot Rely on Karma Alone’
S
ome people become dedicated to yoga “at a time of a lot of disruption in their life,” making it imperative that studios offer a safe space for students to practice, said Sarah Herrington, program administrator for the yoga studies program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
To help do that, Roche said Yoga Alliance was recommending studios set up reporting processes. That’s what Kissiah, the lawyer and yoga philosophy teacher, thinks will make an impact -- but right now is “absolutely lacking.”
Studios should have a code of conduct and a hotline or an email address where students can contact an independent ethics committee, he said. “That recommendation is really nothing other than applying what's very common in corporate America to the world of yoga studios.”
“What most studios have done is either nothing or they have referred to the ethical code in the Yoga Sutras,” which is general and doesn't provide “guidance in the modern context,” he said. “Often what happens is one of these situations arises and there's this huge panic because they simply don't have the structure or the means to deal with it.”
Herrington urged studios to post a code of ethics and have a place to report abuse. “We cannot rely on karma alone,” she wrote in a 2017 New York Times op-ed.
For Smith, such a reporting process didn’t exist -- and it’s part of the reason she wanted to share her story: to push for this kind of change. Her alleged assailant also was the head of the studio, complicating her reporting of his behavior.
Shroff said mediation was offered and he would have attended; Smith said she was initially interested but changed her mind due to her experience in college after she was raped. She said she didn't get anything from mediation then and questioned if the teachers would take on the person paying them.
West had the same concerns.
“I felt if I went against Manos I would be going against a big organization ... against the Iyengar family themselves” because of his close ties to B.K.S. Iyengar, the founder of Iyengar, West said. “There will be a sense of betrayal. ... that I'm betraying Iyengar yoga and I'm betraying the Iyengar family.”
‘It Was a Bloodbath’
S
ome people in the yoga community have taken a hard stand on dealing with sexual misconduct.
Camp, owner of Flying Studios in Oakland, has twice fired teachers over sexual harassment allegations, which almost put her out of business -- both times.
“There was a huge backlash and a huge loss of income and a huge loss of community,” she said after the first dismissal. “Open letter on my Facebook about how I needed to hire this person back or these students would never come back. It was a bloodbath. And then it happened again.”
Lisa Maria, a yoga instructor in the Bay Area who has written about sexual misconduct in the community, said studios have removed teachers from the schedule following complaints.
“In my experience, this seems to be getting better,” Maria said. “People are much more willing to talk about it now, and I think people are seeing responses from studios about it.”
SoulPlay Festivals, which organizes events around yoga, dance, personal growth and more, stresses safety, touch and consent at its gatherings: Presenters offer frequent reminders about it, the group has an online form to report misconduct, and staff are on site to handle allegations, said Romi Elan, founder and CEO of SoulPlay Festivals.
“It's that feeling of safety ... is what allows people to open up, open themselves up to having a very profound and deep experience,” he said.
Other studios and groups haven’t adopted such strategies.
Sometimes studio owners won't do anything about teachers accused of sexual misconduct because they’re a popular instructor, said Lasater. Or if they do fire them, “then the teacher just goes down the road and teaches somewhere else,” she said.
“Yoga teachers can reinvent themselves over and over and over again because of the ability to move from place to place,” Lisa Maria said.
Some students have left their studio -- or even given up the practice of yoga -- after misconduct or abuse. The latter was the case for some of the women who responded to KQED’s callout for #MeToo stories.
Herrington said she stopped attending classes taught by her favorite teacher after he began sending her sexually explicit messages on social media.
“Often what happens is that the student disappears and goes to another community. You lose your community. Because if somebody is running the show, and they're doing the misuse of power, where are you going to go?” she said.
The only thing that can stop a teacher who is sexually abusing students is if the studio owner takes action or if the victim goes the legal route, said Lasater. “They (the victim) have to be the one that shoulders all the burden,” she said.
And yet there’s not much that law enforcement can do: Most sex assault cases don’t make it into the criminal courts, said Kristen Houser, a spokeswoman at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
The challenge for prosecutors in pursuing these cases can be convincing jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime occurred, especially when there aren’t other witnesses -- if it happened one on one, which could trigger a “he said/she said” scenario, said Mary Ashley, an assistant district attorney in San Bernardino County whose work has included sexual battery cases.
“It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” she said. Even if “a jury says, ‘Well, I kind of believe her but I don't totally disbelieve him,’ the law at least criminally will say you have to give favor to the defendant.”
‘This Happened to Me, and I’m a Teacher’
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eaving yoga has been a heartbreaking consideration for Eka Ekong, a yoga teacher in Marin County, over the last year.
It began, she said, with an unwelcome remark.
Ekong, 42, of San Rafael, was taking a class in November 2017 at the studio where she worked. She’d just taken her sweatshirt off when the teacher, Allan Nett looked at her, she recalled, and said: “This is what I get to look at the whole time.” (Nett denied saying that, noting he said, “Now I can see you” -- meaning it would help him give her correct adjustments. He said he had no intention of objectifying her body or being sexual.)
The comment unnerved Ekong, she said, but she continued with the practice -- though later, she said, he adjusted her legs while she was in the lunge pose of Warrior 2.
“He came behind me and put his hands on my legs close to my genitals and he abruptly pulled my legs apart,” she said. “I came out of the pose. I tried to kind of neutralize or equalize because I could feel something was off.” (Nett said given his stature -- 5-foot-3, 120 pounds -- and that at the time he was awaiting an open heart operation, he didn’t have the strength, energy or size to “abruptly” pull her legs apart.)
Something was off: According to medical records, Ekong's doctor found she’d sustained a leg/groin injury, suffering bruising and soft tissue injuries. A week after the alleged assault, her doctor wrote, she had “significant swelling and several very tender areas where the instructor’s hands were placed as well as the surrounding tissues.”
Nett, 72, said he asks permission from students before he touches them, and Ekong said she had given him the OK earlier in the class to make adjustments.
“I put one hand just above the knee on the inner thigh and the other hand above the knee on the outer thigh ... to demonstrate and have the student feel the rotation that the pose requires to bring the hips into alignment,” he said. “So I've got hands above her knee -- one hand on the inside, one hand on the outside -- and I've got a good grip there and I'm starting to roll that thigh backwards.”
He said he “thought that she understood the action that I was asking for in the pose as she came up. There was not any kind of indication that she injured herself or that there was injury going on.”
As of today, Ekong said she still can’t practice yoga. She said she goes weekly to physical and trauma therapies, and sees her doctor every few weeks.
“There are some days my body just hurts,” she said. “And really basic things are not so basic.” Like putting on shoes. Walking. Straightening her legs. It has also been hard to sit, including cross-legged -- one of the most common poses in yoga.
The emotional wounds run deep, too, for Ekong, who began practicing in 1999 and teaching in 2006.
“Every day, my close friends, students and peers, they ask me, how are you healing? I don’t know what to tell them,” she wrote to the national Iyengar yoga association.
“How do I tell them at some moments I’m OK and then I’m in tears. How do I explain that this morning I was so angry that I wanted to scream out loud, that I wonder if I’ll ever be able to practice yoga asana again or feel safe as a student in the yoga studio? That I wonder daily if I still want to be a teacher and part of a larger systemic issue that elevates the teacher and lessens the wisdom of the student,” she continued in the letter.
“I don’t know if it involves teaching, but yoga will always be a part of my life. But I can’t say what that looks like,” she said. “There’s some part of me that has been taken away that I’m still trying to find again.”
Nett, an instructor of more than 25 years who hasn’t been teaching recently due to his surgery, said he was let go from the studio, which KQED isn’t naming due to Ekong’s concern that it’s her place of employment. The studio said it could not comment on specific employee matters.
“All I can say is, 'Gee whiz, I'm sorry that you got injured in my class.’ But I think there's more to this story than anybody's ever going to know,” he said in an hour-long phone call with KQED, adding that he felt there were enough “little inconsistencies” in Ekong’s description of the injuries that “I really question the truth of it all."
“As she has described it, I find it difficult to accept that she was injured. It was possibly a pre-existing weakness, combined with the strong posture of Warrior II that strained,” he said. But he also noted: “There's certainly some truth in it and I'm not saying that she was not injured.”
About five years ago, Nett said one of his students complained about inappropriate touch (not of a sexual nature; she just didn’t want to be touched) to a studio owner in Oakland: “I took it to heart,” he said, and modified his behavior.
Touch is an important part of learning, Nett said: “By moving a muscle manually the body understands it, and you don't have to think about it." But he has decided to stop offering adjustments.
“This has been traumatic. And I'm sure it's traumatic for her,” he said.
Immediately after the incident, Ekong withdrew from her friends and yoga community. She said she felt like she was wearing a scarlet letter “A,” was somehow to blame for what happened, and that her studio was no longer her home.
Then, she knew she had to speak out. She contacted the studio, Central Marin police and the national Iyengar yoga association.
“I think it’s important that you know this is happening, because if this happened to me and I’m a teacher, imagine what’s really happening and people aren’t saying anything,” she recalled telling the studio.
She and Nett said IYNAUS is reviewing her complaint (the group declined to comment about the case, citing confidentiality).
The Central Marin police said in an email that there was no mention of sexual assault when Ekong’s report was made, and since it “was not criminal in nature,” it did not meet the criteria for referral to the DA. The matter, police said, was left to the studio to handle; Ekong said she intends to file a supplemental report to police.
‘Most Victims Don’t Report’
H
oward, one of the teachers in the Piedmont Yoga training program, wanted to know why Deisha Smith hadn’t told her about the alleged inappropriate touch by director Zubin Shroff when she reported the massage and when Howard said she had specifically asked about it.
“I was completely uncomfortable and I was still dealing with the fact that he did not vaginally insert me. He 'just touched me,'” Smith said.
A number of the women who contacted KQED with their stories didn’t report right away to law enforcement or others what happened -- or only partially reported it.
Such behavior isn’t unusual: When sexual misconduct is reported, partial or delayed reporting -- or inconsistencies in such reports -- are “the norm and it should be expected,” said Houser.
“Through our eyes, that bolsters the validity of complaints,” she added. Few people make prompt complaints, include all of the details, and consistently tell it the same way. “That's not how traumatic events are processed and stored in our bodies and in our brains.”
While 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men in the U.S. reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime, only one in 10 women -- and one in 20 men -- filed an official complaint or report to an authority figure, including a police report, according to a January 2018 Stop Street Harassment online survey of 2,000 people.
Most victims don't report, or hold off doing so, for a variety of reasons. But they “all fall under the large umbrella of: They don’t trust the rest of us to respond appropriately,” said Houser.
Those reasons, she said, include fear of being disbelieved, blamed or having their privacy violated through gossip. Some people fear repercussions in their home life or their social circles, which often include the assailant.
“People often keep it to themselves, not to mention it's a very confusing thing when somebody that you know and trust violates that trust,” Houser said.
When asked what was holding people back from reporting abuse in yoga, Brathen said: “I think the biggest piece is fear of being alienated from this community that means so much to us.” That community built through yoga, she said, is “sacred” and such an “important part of the practice.”
‘I Trusted Yoga So I Trusted Him’
“A
re you 18 years old? Holy shit.” That was the first message a Bay Area teenager said that her yoga teacher sent to her.
She was then 17, in the summer before her first year in college; he was twice her age. She said she had a crush on him and thought he liked her, too.
Over the next few months, she said her teacher groomed her to have sex with him: In a number of text messages, he said he had something to tell her, but to do that, they had to meet in person and in private. (The teenager, who didn’t want to be identified out of concerns for her privacy and safety, shared the Facebook and text messages with KQED).
“He wanted to meet me alone so he could explain why everything had to be so secretive and he would always say it will all make sense once we get to chat in person,” she said. “I am a kid but I'm not dumb. And I knew the obvious reasons, which were that you don't want people to think that you fuck your students and I'm really young.”
One of his text messages read: “I know I sound like some kind of criminal or something but it would be great if we could hang out in a place that is not so public.” Another one read: “Any place that is low key so we aren’t seen.”
Early on, she expressed reservations about connecting outside the classroom. She’d blossomed in yoga: It helped ease her anxiety and made her feel safe, capable and independent. “I was convinced that I wanted to be a yoga teacher. It was my whole thing,” she said. “I considered it a big defining part of who I was.”
But he assured her, in text messages, that she could keep coming to classes.
Eventually, they did meet outside the studio -- a week before her 18th birthday.
She said he invited her to a bar in a quiet Bay Area community, where he bought her several drinks (she had a fake ID), and then he took her to a hotel, where they smoked hashish. She recalled being “very intoxicated and a little woozy” before they had sex.
In a nearly two-hour interview with KQED, the teacher said he didn’t have sex with her and that he left her with two of his friends in the hotel room whom he declined to identify; the police report said it was clear from the text messages that the pair did have a sexual relationship, “however brief,” and no mention was made of his friends. The teen said he didn’t have friends with him.
The teacher also said the teenager told him she was 18; she said her birthday -- including year -- was listed on Facebook, and though she at one point told him in a SMS that she was 18, she said she thought he knew her real age and they were both “going to pretend” she was 18. The police also noted that she had not told him her real age but said she was 18.
After their encounter, she said he left the hotel a short time later but it took months for her to realize what had happened: “I was basically sexually abused and manipulated.”
“I felt dumb for thinking that because he was my yoga teacher and because he was so much older than me -- because he was my spiritual counselor in some ways -- that he wouldn't take advantage of me,” she said.
“I trusted yoga so I trusted him,” she said. “I shouldn't have made that connection.”
When she came back home from college to the Bay Area, she planned to tell her mom -- only to find out she had gone through her phone and seen the messages.
The teen’s mom said she called some studios where he taught to report the teacher; he said one let him go and he assumed it was because of the mother’s calls. Another studio owner said they let him go because of the allegations.
The teacher said it had been “one really long hard struggle” after the teen -- who he called “just a fuckin’ girl” -- went to the police.
“I’ll just say that her mom tried really hard to make my life extremely hard and she succeeded,” he said. “I’ve lost a lot of sleep over this and been hurt ... I’ve had to ask some people for support.”
The teenager decided to come forward with her story after learning that a second student, Leah Tumerman, 36, had accused the teacher of threatening earlier this year that he and his partner should “Bill Cosby her.” Tumerman told police she understood this to mean “he would drug and rape me.”
Tumerman, a longtime student of the teacher, said she became scared of him and his change in personality. The pair had gotten into a conversation about food over text message, and the discussion somehow took a turn, she said. The teacher denied making the comment but said they did argue about food. Tumerman, an artist from Richmond, filed a police report for documentation purposes only.
The teen’s case was forwarded to the DA’s office, which declined to prosecute.
‘You Have to Face the Shame of Your Complicity’
A
number of women have come forward in recent months to share their accounts of alleged abuse by their yoga teachers -- triggering a growing conversation in the community about sexual misconduct.
In December, Yoga Alliance issued a statement on sexual misconduct in the yoga community. In January, it released Roche’s video and a podcast on the topic, and weeks later published sexual misconduct disciplinary procedures and a policy on its website. In early September, the group said it could “confirm that we have suspended and revoked credentials under our new policy.”
“In this #MeToo moment, we too must act,” Roche, of Yoga Alliance, said in the video. “There’s a deeply troubling pattern of misconduct within our community, a pattern that touches almost every tradition in modern yoga. To definitively turn the page on that history, we must openly acknowledge the issue of sexual misconduct in yoga.”
Remski, the yoga teacher and culture critic, said Roche’s message to the yoga community heralded a “sea change moment.”
“It puts the entire culture on notice that this is a thing. It's not dirty laundry anymore. It's totally out in the open,” he said. “With one sentence, she implicated the entire culture as having enabled this and that's what hasn't been done yet. ... Nobody has looked at it as a systemic problem -- because when you look at it as a systemic problem, you have to face the shame of your complicity.”
Lasater said she was very supportive of Yoga Alliance’s efforts but felt the community still has a long way to go.
“If teachers don't have true consequences, what is going to cause them to change their behavior?” she said. “Nothing.”
Brathen, or Yoga Girl, said she was “torn” over Yoga Alliance’s initial solutions.
“I am still very unclear as to what action will be taken at the end of the day,” she said. “If the worst thing that can happen to you as a perpetrator is that your name gets taken off the website, I don't think that that's going to do a whole lot.”
In early August, Brathen published her second series of #MeToo stories. She wrote how tough it was to expel the alleged sexual harassers and abusers from the community.
A Stone, a Token: The New Conversation on Touch Consent
L
asater and other yoga leaders said they felt students -- particularly women -- were going to be a part of the solution. One sign already? The “touch consent” cards, chips and tokens popping up in studios across the country. Years ago, the first version of those were painted stones, paper clips, even a leaf.
Students would place such an object on top or below their mat to signal if a teacher could touch them, said Remski.
“The yoga room has been a space of implied consent. And that is no longer the case. The politics, the techniques, the methods of consent are now fully part of yoga discourse,” Remski said. “It undoes something profound in the last 100 years of yoga pedagogy, which is the notion that the teachers should decide what the student needs or what they should do.”
The growing use of the tokens has broader implications, too.
“The #MeToo movement also signifies a solidification of the change in leadership in modern yoga from men to women because those tokens ... are the latest generation of what women started using about 10 or 12 years ago in small studios,” he said. “It's a grass-roots idea that has worked its way up.”
Teachers now typically ask students at the beginning of class to let them know if they want adjustments or not, and some instructors are holding workshops on touch and consent.
Bayley Blackney hosted such a gathering at a studio in Capitola in late March.
“Touch is something that I’m so passionate about. It’s love language and I am very, very passionate about creating a safe touch,” she said. “Now is the time to really offer this.”
The women that KQED interviewed experienced all of this and more as they grappled with what they said their teachers did to them.
“Sometimes I'm really angry because I feel like I lost a large chunk of my life living in a cloud that I didn't realize I was in until I got out of it,” Smith said.
She has experienced panic attacks, anxiety and days where she couldn’t get out of bed. Thirty-one percent of women and 20 percent of men felt anxiety or depression after experiencing sexual harassment and assault, according to Stop Street Harassment.
Smith still doesn’t have her teacher certificate, although Shroff said in a July 17 email that she’d met the requirements. Smith said she has an outstanding payment that she can’t bring herself to pay because she'd regret "paying to be abused."
As for the teen, she said it’s been a hard reckoning for her.
“I was fresh out of high school and I slept with someone literally twice my age -- like halfway between me and my parents,” she said. “It took my innocence away.”
Tumerman, who alleged the same teacher involved in the teen’s case had threatened to “Bill Cosby” her, hasn’t returned to yoga. Her last time was in his class, after the threat.
“I was still processing the change, my new understanding of my teacher,” she said in explaining why she attended the class. “I practiced with my eyes closed the entire time. ... I couldn't look at him. The sound of his voice was making me shake.
“I did my practice and I rolled up my mat and left the room. And I haven't seen him since,” she added.
Ekong said: “My life is forever changed.” She has decided to leave the Bay Area.
“It’s not home. I can’t heal here,” she said. "I don't want to worry about running into him or students asking when are you going to come back to teach."
As for West, she said she has removed herself to the “outskirts” of the Iyengar yoga community and attends classes only with the one teacher she can trust.
“Yoga isn't a safe space for me anymore. And it used to be,” she said. “I would take workshops and go to conventions and travel to India. And none of that is happening anymore. I have no interest in it.
“What had been my life is now no longer my life.”
Edited by David Weir and Patricia Yollin
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That’s in a public meeting Monday with pro-Palestinian student protesters… who’ve camped out on campus for the past week.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Reporter: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, KQED News \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Shasta County Selecting New Registrar of Voters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Shasta County Board of Supervisors is set to meet today to discuss next steps now that the longstanding County Registrar of Voters has retired, but it’s unclear exactly how her position will be filled.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Reporter: Alec Stutson, North State Public Radio\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":null,"status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1715104987,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":5,"wordCount":180},"headData":{"title":"How Have Wage Increases Affected Fast Food Workers? | KQED","description":"How Have Wage Increases Affected Fast Food Workers? 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That’s in a public meeting Monday with pro-Palestinian student protesters... who’ve camped","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"How Have Wage Increases Affected Fast Food Workers?","datePublished":"2024-05-07T14:03:53.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-07T18:03:07.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"source":"Morning Report ","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrarchive/","audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC5310058853.mp3?updated=1715090619","sticky":false,"nprStoryId":"kqed-11985166","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11985166/how-have-wage-increases-affected-fast-food-workers","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003ch2>How Have Wage Increases Affected Fast Food Workers?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s been over a month since California started requiring most fast food employers in the state to pay a minimum wage of $20 dollars an hour — a big jump from the state’s general minimum wage of $16 dollars.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED News\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>After Meeting With Students, San Francisco State Will Explore Divesting From Israel\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>San Francisco State University’s top administrator is promising to provide more transparency about financial ties to Israel … and to explore school divestment. That’s in a public meeting Monday with pro-Palestinian student protesters… who’ve camped out on campus for the past week.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Reporter: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, KQED News \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Shasta County Selecting New Registrar of Voters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Shasta County Board of Supervisors is set to meet today to discuss next steps now that the longstanding County Registrar of Voters has retired, but it’s unclear exactly how her position will be filled.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Reporter: Alec Stutson, North State Public Radio\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11985166/how-have-wage-increases-affected-fast-food-workers","authors":["236"],"programs":["news_72"],"categories":["news_21291"],"tags":["news_21998","news_21268"],"featImg":"news_11984991","label":"source_news_11985166"},"news_11985245":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11985245","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11985245","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"uc-berkeley-opens-civil-rights-investigation-into-confrontation-at-deans-home","title":"UC Berkeley Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Confrontation at Dean’s Home","publishDate":1715119736,"format":"standard","headTitle":"UC Berkeley Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Confrontation at Dean’s Home | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>UC Berkeley has opened a civil rights investigation into a professor who was seen in a viral video trying to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982697/confrontation-at-uc-berkeley-law-school-deans-home-highlights-campus-tensions\">wrench a microphone away from a Muslim student\u003c/a> giving a pro-Palestinian protest speech at the professor’s home last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Title IX investigation follows a complaint filed by the student, Malak Afaneh, who is Palestinian American and wears a hijab, with the university’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination. Afaneh hopes the investigation leads to the professor’s dismissal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I frankly don’t believe that a professor that is able to put her hands on a student should be allowed in the classroom, especially near other visibly Muslim, pro-Palestinian students,” Afaneh, 24, told KQED. She first learned of the investigation on April 26.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The confrontation took place at an April 9 dinner hosted by Berkeley Law professor Catherine Fisk and her husband, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school, in the backyard of their Oakland home to celebrate graduating students. As \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C5lAhZ0r-kF/\">shown in the video\u003c/a>, Afaneh, a third-year UC Berkeley law student, stands on the home’s garden steps wearing a red hijab and black and white keffiyeh and begins speaking into a microphone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reading from her phone, she begins a traditional Muslim greeting of peace to mark the final night of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Fisk approaches Afaneh from behind, wraps one arm around her shoulders, and, with her other hand, attempts to wrestle Afaneh’s phone and microphone from her hands mid-speech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not your house. It is my house. And I want you to leave,” shouts Fisk, who threatens to call the police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Chemerinsky called the university’s investigation a routine response to a complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is no more than that,” Chemerinsky said. “It is disturbing that the student who deliberately disrupted a dinner party at my home and refused to cease the disruption or leave when asked repeatedly to do so then had the audacity to file a complaint with the campus that she was mistreated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afaneh is co-president of the group Law Students for Justice in Palestine, which has long demanded that UC Berkeley divest from manufacturing companies that supply weapons to Israel and called for a boycott of the dinner at Fisk and Chemerinsky’s house. After the altercation, it \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C5m4-4gro1_/?igsh=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng%3D%3D\">released a statement\u003c/a> demanding the couple’s resignations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemerinsky, who is Jewish, has said a poster that Afaneh’s group distributed, which included a caricature of him holding a bloody knife and fork and the words “No dinner with Zionist Chem while Gaza starves,” was blatantly antisemitic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985256\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11985256 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Malak Afaneh, a third-year UC Berkeley law student, speaks during a protest at the university. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of UC Berkeley Free Palestine Encampment Organizers)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said in a statement last month that she was “appalled and deeply disturbed” by what happened and offered her support to Chemerinsky. “While our support for free speech is unwavering, we cannot condone using a social occasion at a person’s private residence as a platform for protest,” Christ said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, praised the university’s Title IX investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is crucial that all students, regardless of their religious or political beliefs, are safe and respected at university-sanctioned events,” Zahra Billoo, the group’s executive director, said in a statement on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian student protests continue at UC Berkeley, with 170 tents at the steps of Sproul Hall as of last Friday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2024/05/03/free-palestine-camp-uc-berkeley-divestment-gaza\">according to local news site Berkeleyside\u003c/a>. There were at least 14 pro-Palestinian encampments on college campuses in California as of last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11982697,forum_2010101905545,news_11978998,news_11979412\"]Israeli troops seized control of Gaza’s Rafah border crossing this week, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-war-05-07-2024-113bf4ee5dad87dc5c003d76ed2785bf\">according to the Associated Press\u003c/a>, raising concerns of a full-scale invasion and the collapse of aid as Cindy McCain, the American director of the U.N. World Food Program, said northern Gaza is experiencing “full-blown famine.” The war in Gaza has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/gaza-israel-famine-humanitarian-aid-children-8a4cb5736c42caf50b6e204f40d83a91\">the AP reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The devastation is personal for Afaneh, whose parents immigrated to the United States in 2001 from Abu Ghosh, an Arab town in Israel, and Al-Khalil, in the West Bank. Afaneh grew up in Chicago and “all over,” she said and came to Berkeley in 2021 to attend law school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the incident in Fisk and Chemerinsky’s backyard, Afaneh has continued to protest with the UC Berkeley encampment. She played an early role in negotiations with school administrators but has since pulled back as she prepares for her next steps: graduation, the bar exam and a job at a New York City civil rights law firm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The faculty member who will hand Afaneh her diploma when she walks the stage on Friday is Chemerinsky, the Berkeley Law dean who threw her out of his home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afaneh unsuccessfully asked the school to allow her to accept her diploma from another faculty member. At her graduation, Afaneh intends to wear a keffiyeh, a black-and-white checkered scarf \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/12/06/1216150515/keffiyeh-hamas-palestinians-israel-gaza\">that demonstrates support for Palestinian nationalism\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She will also refuse to shake Chemerinsky’s hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to handle it as I’ve always handled it,” Afaneh said. ”I’m going to hold my head up high with grace and dignity, as I have been doing.”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The Title IX investigation follows a complaint by a Palestinian American student against a Berkeley Law professor who tried to wrench a microphone away from her.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1715122666,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":23,"wordCount":955},"headData":{"title":"UC Berkeley Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Confrontation at Dean’s Home | KQED","description":"The Title IX investigation follows a complaint by a Palestinian American student against a Berkeley Law professor who tried to wrench a microphone away from her.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"UC Berkeley Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Confrontation at Dean’s Home","datePublished":"2024-05-07T22:08:56.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-07T22:57:46.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"sticky":false,"nprStoryId":"kqed-11985245","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11985245/uc-berkeley-opens-civil-rights-investigation-into-confrontation-at-deans-home","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>UC Berkeley has opened a civil rights investigation into a professor who was seen in a viral video trying to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982697/confrontation-at-uc-berkeley-law-school-deans-home-highlights-campus-tensions\">wrench a microphone away from a Muslim student\u003c/a> giving a pro-Palestinian protest speech at the professor’s home last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Title IX investigation follows a complaint filed by the student, Malak Afaneh, who is Palestinian American and wears a hijab, with the university’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination. Afaneh hopes the investigation leads to the professor’s dismissal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I frankly don’t believe that a professor that is able to put her hands on a student should be allowed in the classroom, especially near other visibly Muslim, pro-Palestinian students,” Afaneh, 24, told KQED. She first learned of the investigation on April 26.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The confrontation took place at an April 9 dinner hosted by Berkeley Law professor Catherine Fisk and her husband, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school, in the backyard of their Oakland home to celebrate graduating students. As \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C5lAhZ0r-kF/\">shown in the video\u003c/a>, Afaneh, a third-year UC Berkeley law student, stands on the home’s garden steps wearing a red hijab and black and white keffiyeh and begins speaking into a microphone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reading from her phone, she begins a traditional Muslim greeting of peace to mark the final night of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Fisk approaches Afaneh from behind, wraps one arm around her shoulders, and, with her other hand, attempts to wrestle Afaneh’s phone and microphone from her hands mid-speech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not your house. It is my house. And I want you to leave,” shouts Fisk, who threatens to call the police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Chemerinsky called the university’s investigation a routine response to a complaint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is no more than that,” Chemerinsky said. “It is disturbing that the student who deliberately disrupted a dinner party at my home and refused to cease the disruption or leave when asked repeatedly to do so then had the audacity to file a complaint with the campus that she was mistreated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afaneh is co-president of the group Law Students for Justice in Palestine, which has long demanded that UC Berkeley divest from manufacturing companies that supply weapons to Israel and called for a boycott of the dinner at Fisk and Chemerinsky’s house. After the altercation, it \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/C5m4-4gro1_/?igsh=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng%3D%3D\">released a statement\u003c/a> demanding the couple’s resignations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemerinsky, who is Jewish, has said a poster that Afaneh’s group distributed, which included a caricature of him holding a bloody knife and fork and the words “No dinner with Zionist Chem while Gaza starves,” was blatantly antisemitic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985256\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11985256 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Malak Afaneh, a third-year UC Berkeley law student, speaks during a protest at the university. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of UC Berkeley Free Palestine Encampment Organizers)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ said in a statement last month that she was “appalled and deeply disturbed” by what happened and offered her support to Chemerinsky. “While our support for free speech is unwavering, we cannot condone using a social occasion at a person’s private residence as a platform for protest,” Christ said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, praised the university’s Title IX investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is crucial that all students, regardless of their religious or political beliefs, are safe and respected at university-sanctioned events,” Zahra Billoo, the group’s executive director, said in a statement on Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian student protests continue at UC Berkeley, with 170 tents at the steps of Sproul Hall as of last Friday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2024/05/03/free-palestine-camp-uc-berkeley-divestment-gaza\">according to local news site Berkeleyside\u003c/a>. There were at least 14 pro-Palestinian encampments on college campuses in California as of last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Stories ","postid":"news_11982697,forum_2010101905545,news_11978998,news_11979412"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Israeli troops seized control of Gaza’s Rafah border crossing this week, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-war-05-07-2024-113bf4ee5dad87dc5c003d76ed2785bf\">according to the Associated Press\u003c/a>, raising concerns of a full-scale invasion and the collapse of aid as Cindy McCain, the American director of the U.N. World Food Program, said northern Gaza is experiencing “full-blown famine.” The war in Gaza has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/gaza-israel-famine-humanitarian-aid-children-8a4cb5736c42caf50b6e204f40d83a91\">the AP reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The devastation is personal for Afaneh, whose parents immigrated to the United States in 2001 from Abu Ghosh, an Arab town in Israel, and Al-Khalil, in the West Bank. Afaneh grew up in Chicago and “all over,” she said and came to Berkeley in 2021 to attend law school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the incident in Fisk and Chemerinsky’s backyard, Afaneh has continued to protest with the UC Berkeley encampment. She played an early role in negotiations with school administrators but has since pulled back as she prepares for her next steps: graduation, the bar exam and a job at a New York City civil rights law firm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The faculty member who will hand Afaneh her diploma when she walks the stage on Friday is Chemerinsky, the Berkeley Law dean who threw her out of his home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afaneh unsuccessfully asked the school to allow her to accept her diploma from another faculty member. At her graduation, Afaneh intends to wear a keffiyeh, a black-and-white checkered scarf \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/12/06/1216150515/keffiyeh-hamas-palestinians-israel-gaza\">that demonstrates support for Palestinian nationalism\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She will also refuse to shake Chemerinsky’s hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m going to handle it as I’ve always handled it,” Afaneh said. ”I’m going to hold my head up high with grace and dignity, as I have been doing.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11985245/uc-berkeley-opens-civil-rights-investigation-into-confrontation-at-deans-home","authors":["11690"],"categories":["news_18540","news_8"],"tags":["news_27626","news_33333","news_17597"],"featImg":"news_11985260","label":"news"},"news_11985130":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11985130","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11985130","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"sfsu-president-begins-negotiations-with-campus-gaza-protesters","title":"SFSU President Begins Negotiations With Campus Gaza Protesters","publishDate":1715038649,"format":"standard","headTitle":"SFSU President Begins Negotiations With Campus Gaza Protesters | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>Amid a wave of student protests that has spurred attacks and arrests on other California campuses, San Francisco State University’s top administrator met publicly with pro-Palestinian student protesters for the first time Monday to discuss their demands as news spread of a cease-fire proposal in the Gaza Strip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “moderated, open negotiations session” between President Lynn Mahoney and representatives of the SFSU Students for Palestine Encampment is believed to be one of the first of its kind, student organizers said. It came as Israel launched strikes in Rafah after saying the terms of a cease-fire deal agreed to by Hamas were not acceptable, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/05/06/1249360882/israel-hamas-cease-fire\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">NPR reported\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the cease-fire is true and it happens and, you know, there’s a free Palestine – because that’s what we’re reaching towards – of course we’re going to be relieved and we’re going to be happy, but at the same time we lost a lot,” said Monia Alsena, 22, who graduated from SFSU last year and attended Monday in support of the protest encampment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wish it was a permanent cease-fire,” said her friend Nermeen Elsaghir, 23, who is graduating this month and has family in the West Bank. “I wish it was freedom for Palestinians, for all of us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Elsaghir said she is “not very hopeful about having any kind of victory soon for Palestinians or a cease-fire. We’re helpless, and our leaders, especially Arab leaders, they’re not doing anything. It’s very sad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t see how I’m hopeful,” she said. “I’m not.”\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Gaza health officials, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, which Israel launched after Hamas militants killed around 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 hostage in a wave of attacks Oct. 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since April 29, a group called Students for Gaza has camped on a central lawn at SFSU to demand the California State University system disclose its financial ties to Israel and to divest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students also rejected what they called Islamophobic censorship of speech and activism on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985155\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11985155 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-57-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-57-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-57-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-57-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-57-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-57-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An SFSU community member speaks as President Lynn Mahoney listens outside of the César Chavez Student Center on campus on May 6, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During Monday’s public meeting with student representatives at the university’s Malcolm X Plaza, Mahoney said she would take steps to increase transparency around where the endowment money is invested and to “take another look at that investment policy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let me just say you’ve all been heard,” Mahoney said. “You have been heard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atzeli Ramirez praised Mahoney for being willing to negotiate with student protesters publicly, but she felt Mahoney didn’t go far enough in meeting their demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It felt like President Lynn Mahoney was trying to save face rather than negotiate,” Ramirez, 21, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amey Kulkarni is a media liaison for the protesters. Kulkarni has stayed in the encampment intermittently over the last week. He was angry Mahoney declined to declare the war in Gaza a genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s something we’ve been explicit about from day one,” Kulkarni, 25, said. “Me as well as so many others in this camp do not want to normalize this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='gaza']In 2020, the SFSU student government passed a resolution requesting a university boycott and divestment from Israel, but Mahoney refused to support it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school administration’s agreement to publicly negotiate with protesters this week, however, is starkly different from the approach of leadership at some other campuses. Nationally, more than 2,000 students have been arrested in protests against the war as of last week, according to the Associated Press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campus police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters in a parking structure at UCLA on Monday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-06/dozens-detained-at-ucla-early-monday\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">the Los Angeles Times reported\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, days after officers cleared the encampment there and arrested more than 200 people. Early Sunday, a student encampment at the University of Southern California disbanded after Los Angeles Police Department officers \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/pro-palestinian-encampment-at-usc-dismantled-after-protestors-comply-with-order-to-leave\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">threatened to arrest the students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. There were at least 14 pro-Palestinian encampments \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984845/pro-palestinian-protests-on-california-college-campuses-what-are-students-demanding\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">on college campuses in California\u003c/span>\u003c/a> as of last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other side of the country, Harvard warned students Monday that protesters would be placed on involuntary leave from school, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/university-protests-pro-palestinian-israel-05-06-24/index.html\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">according to CNN\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985121\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11985121\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A large crowd assembled outside the SFSU Cesar Chavez Student Center meets with SFSU President Lynn Mahoney on May 6, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Not all university leaders have responded to encampments with police. Sacramento State University President Luke Woods \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984845/pro-palestinian-protests-on-california-college-campuses-what-are-students-demanding\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">gave approval for the campus’ pro-Palestinian encampment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan class=\"s2\"> late last month, and \u003c/span>UC Riverside pro-Palestinian student protesters voluntarily ended their encampment last week after reaching an agreement with university leadership to explore divestment from Israel, \u003ca href=\"https://riversiderecord.org/student-protesters-ucr-administration-reach-agreement-to-end-encampment/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">according to the Riverside Record\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFSU has faced a decades-long challenge in responding to demands of its students around the Israeli-Palestinian\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>conflict. Former SFSU President Leslie Wong drew criticism from students and faculty for an email he sent in 2018 saying “Zionists are welcome on our campus,” \u003ca href=\"https://goldengatexpress.org/81119/latest/news/president-wong-fails-to-unify/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">according to the Golden Gate Express\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, the campus newspaper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"President Lynn Mahoney with pro-Palestinian student protesters to discuss their demands as news spread of a cease-fire proposal in the Gaza Strip.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1715041272,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":22,"wordCount":904},"headData":{"title":"SFSU President Begins Negotiations With Campus Gaza Protesters | KQED","description":"President Lynn Mahoney with pro-Palestinian student protesters to discuss their demands as news spread of a cease-fire proposal in the Gaza Strip.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"SFSU President Begins Negotiations With Campus Gaza Protesters","datePublished":"2024-05-06T23:37:29.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-07T00:21:12.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"sticky":false,"nprStoryId":"kqed-11985130","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11985130/sfsu-president-begins-negotiations-with-campus-gaza-protesters","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Amid a wave of student protests that has spurred attacks and arrests on other California campuses, San Francisco State University’s top administrator met publicly with pro-Palestinian student protesters for the first time Monday to discuss their demands as news spread of a cease-fire proposal in the Gaza Strip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “moderated, open negotiations session” between President Lynn Mahoney and representatives of the SFSU Students for Palestine Encampment is believed to be one of the first of its kind, student organizers said. It came as Israel launched strikes in Rafah after saying the terms of a cease-fire deal agreed to by Hamas were not acceptable, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/05/06/1249360882/israel-hamas-cease-fire\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">NPR reported\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the cease-fire is true and it happens and, you know, there’s a free Palestine – because that’s what we’re reaching towards – of course we’re going to be relieved and we’re going to be happy, but at the same time we lost a lot,” said Monia Alsena, 22, who graduated from SFSU last year and attended Monday in support of the protest encampment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wish it was a permanent cease-fire,” said her friend Nermeen Elsaghir, 23, who is graduating this month and has family in the West Bank. “I wish it was freedom for Palestinians, for all of us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Elsaghir said she is “not very hopeful about having any kind of victory soon for Palestinians or a cease-fire. We’re helpless, and our leaders, especially Arab leaders, they’re not doing anything. It’s very sad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t see how I’m hopeful,” she said. “I’m not.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Gaza health officials, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, which Israel launched after Hamas militants killed around 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 hostage in a wave of attacks Oct. 7.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since April 29, a group called Students for Gaza has camped on a central lawn at SFSU to demand the California State University system disclose its financial ties to Israel and to divest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students also rejected what they called Islamophobic censorship of speech and activism on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985155\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11985155 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-57-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-57-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-57-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-57-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-57-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-57-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An SFSU community member speaks as President Lynn Mahoney listens outside of the César Chavez Student Center on campus on May 6, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During Monday’s public meeting with student representatives at the university’s Malcolm X Plaza, Mahoney said she would take steps to increase transparency around where the endowment money is invested and to “take another look at that investment policy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let me just say you’ve all been heard,” Mahoney said. “You have been heard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atzeli Ramirez praised Mahoney for being willing to negotiate with student protesters publicly, but she felt Mahoney didn’t go far enough in meeting their demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It felt like President Lynn Mahoney was trying to save face rather than negotiate,” Ramirez, 21, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amey Kulkarni is a media liaison for the protesters. Kulkarni has stayed in the encampment intermittently over the last week. He was angry Mahoney declined to declare the war in Gaza a genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s something we’ve been explicit about from day one,” Kulkarni, 25, said. “Me as well as so many others in this camp do not want to normalize this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"label":"Related Coverage ","tag":"gaza"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In 2020, the SFSU student government passed a resolution requesting a university boycott and divestment from Israel, but Mahoney refused to support it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school administration’s agreement to publicly negotiate with protesters this week, however, is starkly different from the approach of leadership at some other campuses. Nationally, more than 2,000 students have been arrested in protests against the war as of last week, according to the Associated Press.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campus police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters in a parking structure at UCLA on Monday, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-06/dozens-detained-at-ucla-early-monday\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">the Los Angeles Times reported\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, days after officers cleared the encampment there and arrested more than 200 people. Early Sunday, a student encampment at the University of Southern California disbanded after Los Angeles Police Department officers \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/pro-palestinian-encampment-at-usc-dismantled-after-protestors-comply-with-order-to-leave\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">threatened to arrest the students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. There were at least 14 pro-Palestinian encampments \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984845/pro-palestinian-protests-on-california-college-campuses-what-are-students-demanding\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">on college campuses in California\u003c/span>\u003c/a> as of last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other side of the country, Harvard warned students Monday that protesters would be placed on involuntary leave from school, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/university-protests-pro-palestinian-israel-05-06-24/index.html\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">according to CNN\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985121\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11985121\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240506-SFSUPresident-28-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A large crowd assembled outside the SFSU Cesar Chavez Student Center meets with SFSU President Lynn Mahoney on May 6, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Not all university leaders have responded to encampments with police. Sacramento State University President Luke Woods \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984845/pro-palestinian-protests-on-california-college-campuses-what-are-students-demanding\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">gave approval for the campus’ pro-Palestinian encampment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan class=\"s2\"> late last month, and \u003c/span>UC Riverside pro-Palestinian student protesters voluntarily ended their encampment last week after reaching an agreement with university leadership to explore divestment from Israel, \u003ca href=\"https://riversiderecord.org/student-protesters-ucr-administration-reach-agreement-to-end-encampment/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">according to the Riverside Record\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFSU has faced a decades-long challenge in responding to demands of its students around the Israeli-Palestinian\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>conflict. Former SFSU President Leslie Wong drew criticism from students and faculty for an email he sent in 2018 saying “Zionists are welcome on our campus,” \u003ca href=\"https://goldengatexpress.org/81119/latest/news/president-wong-fails-to-unify/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">according to the Golden Gate Express\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, the campus newspaper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11985130/sfsu-president-begins-negotiations-with-campus-gaza-protesters","authors":["11690"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_27626","news_6631","news_2200"],"featImg":"news_11985119","label":"news"},"news_11985145":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11985145","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11985145","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"its-a-408-vs-510-showdown-as-san-jose-earthquakes-take-on-oakland-roots","title":"It’s a 408 vs. 510 Showdown as San Jose Earthquakes Take on Oakland Roots","publishDate":1715092232,"format":"standard","headTitle":"It’s a 408 vs. 510 Showdown as San Jose Earthquakes Take on Oakland Roots | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>This year’s U.S. Open Cup keeps getting better and better for Bay Area soccer fans. After knocking out \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11983120/a-new-bay-area-clasico-sfs-el-farolito-and-oakland-roots-set-to-battle-in-hayward\">San Francisco’s El Farolito in the previous round\u003c/a>, Oakland Roots Soccer Club will play against the San Jose Earthquakes on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in San José’s PayPal Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The game will also be streamed live. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ussoccer.com/us-open-cup/watch?matchId=5d5a6a7a-70df-4007-8429-3eec21629119\">\u003ci>You can watch it here.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whoever wins will move forward to the fifth round of the Open Cup, the oldest soccer competition in the country that brings teams together that usually play in different leagues — the Earthquakes compete in the Major League Soccer and the Roots in the United Soccer League Championship, for example. The stakes are high: whoever ends up winning the Open Cup will also be granted a spot in next year’s Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Champions Cup. And thanks to the tournament’s open format, you get very original matchups that you won’t see anywhere else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In none of the “Big Four” sports leagues — the MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL — does a team repping the South Bay face off against an East Bay team. But in soccer, anything can happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Earthquakes are coming into this match fresh off a 3–1 win against SoCal rival Los Angeles FC on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, a game that \u003ca href=\"https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/san-jose-earthquakes-bounce-back-against-lafc-derby-games-are-always-different#:~:text=L%C3%B3pez%20debuts,with%20options%20for%202027%2D28.\">drew in more than 43,000 fans\u003c/a>, many of them \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjearthquakes.com/news/match-highlights-quakes-dominate-lafc-in-3-1-win-at-levi-s-stadium\">hyped to see the Bay Area once again #BeatLA\u003c/a>. Due to competition rules, the South Bay team is jumping into the Open Cup this year, along with a handful of other MLS teams, much later, during the tournament’s fourth round.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2–1 victory against El Farolito on April 16 was the last time the Roots won a game, with the East Bay team unable to notch a win in their recent regular league matches. And despite their stadiums being a 30-minute drive away from each other, the Roots and Quakes have only played against each other once before: a 3–2 win for the Quakes at PayPal Park \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjearthquakes.com/news/news-earthquakes-to-host-oakland-roots-sc-in-2024-lamar-hunt-u-s-open-cup-round-of-32-on-may-7\">during the 2021 preseason\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Roots are feeling excited about this second opportunity to play the Quakes. “Facing an MLS team, you have to be fully prepared,” said Tommy Hodul, vice president of public relations for the Roots. “But there’s nothing that we can’t accomplish in that game with the staff and the players that we have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985150\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2149318986.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11985150\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2149318986.jpg\" alt=\"A closeup of two men dressed in soccer uniforms with the man on the right covering his mouth with his shirt.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2149318986.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2149318986-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2149318986-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2149318986-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ali Elmasnaouy, #45 of the Oakland Roots, celebrates scoring a goal during the U.S. Open Cup third-round match between the Oakland Roots and El Farolito on April 16, 2024, at Pioneer Stadium in Hayward. \u003ccite>(Doug Zimmerman/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This 510 vs. 408 area codes matchup also brings together a lot of homegrown soccer talent, with Bay Area-born-and-raised players featured on both rosters — and winning matches as well. In the match against El Farolito, Roots midfielder and Berkeley High alum Ali Elmasnaouy not only played his first game for the team, but the 19-year-old also scored the tie-breaking goal in overtime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A local kid scoring the game-winning goal in his professional debut for his hometown team —it doesn’t get much more special than that,” Hodul said. “It’s really special to see players from the 510 area code making it at the professional level through our club.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When local clubs seek out local talent, it doesn’t just benefit those clubs, but it also boosts soccer’s overall place in a community. Simon Tobin, head coach of men’s soccer at San José State University, has seen firsthand how quickly soccer has grown throughout California in the past few decades and said that local clubs, in particular, have helped boost the love for the sport among fans and young players.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a time when the NFL or the NBA were what local great athletes were looking towards,” he said. “I think the arrival of the MLS and especially the Quakes in this community gives local kids that aspiration to play at the top level in this country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11983120,news_11961286,news_11952128\" label=\"Related Stories\"]And the Bay is currently experiencing a boom of local professional teams: in 2021, the Earthquakes announced the creation of their very own MLS Next Pro team, now called The Town FC, which plays at Saint Mary’s Stadium in Contra Costa County and also serves as the Quakes’ reserve squad. For its part, the Roots launched in 2021 the all-female Oakland Soul team, which plays in the USL W League. And just this year, the Bay FC kicked off its first game \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11980330/a-new-pro-womens-soccer-team-kicks-off-in-the-bay\">as the Bay Area’s first-ever National Women’s Soccer League team\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With so many more pro teams in the Bay, fans are winning too, Tobin said. “It’s starting to mirror a little bit what you see if you live in South America or Europe, where you’ve got two or three teams in your vicinity, and you have a strong allegiance for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And as soccer grows in the U.S., so does the role of money, especially in the sport’s premier league, the MLS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, MLS teams \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/kirkwakefield/2024/03/08/big-brands-like-apple-buy-the-mls-pitch-our-soccer-is-calling/?sh=4a48a5d56ddd\">made 15% more in sponsorship revenue\u003c/a> — nearly $600 million more than the previous year. A factor in that seems to be Argentinean superstar Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami. Having a big name like Messi can turbocharge a fanbase — and sponsors — but \u003ca href=\"https://theathletic.com/4674349/2023/07/10/messi-miami-beckham-money/\">it also represents a big financial responsibility to the team\u003c/a>. After all, Inter Miami has agreed to pay Messi $60 million a year (compare that to the $47.61 million that LeBron James got paid this season). As for the Quakes, they’re also going in for some big contracts: last month, the San Jose team spent a club-record $6 million to bring in Argentine midfielder Hernán López.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985172\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2151500763.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11985172\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2151500763.jpg\" alt=\"A group of men wearing soccer uniforms on a soccer field are huddled together.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2151500763.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2151500763-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2151500763-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2151500763-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Jose Earthquakes huddle before a game between Los Angeles FC and San Jose Earthquakes at Levi’s Stadium on May 4, 2024 in Santa Clara. \u003ccite>(John Todd/ISI Photos/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, this recent wave of investment has \u003ca href=\"https://www.backheeled.com/mls-leave-us-open-cup-usl-lower-division-preach-importance/\">also changed the relationship between the MLS and the Open Cup\u003c/a>. Because the Open Cup welcomes teams from all different leagues, MLS teams often play against much smaller teams with fewer resources, and the Cup’s match schedule \u003ca href=\"https://www.sportingnews.com/us/soccer/news/why-mls-teams-withdraw-us-open-cup-2024-tournament-decision/b9a77a56ebcdc164e9ed0bb0#:~:text=In%20mid%2DDecember%20of%202023,soccer%20competition%20in%20the%20country.\">interferes with the increasingly busy MLS calendar\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, ESPN reported that MLS Commissioner Don Garber \u003ca href=\"https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37638582/mls-commissioner-garber-criticizes-state-us-open-cup\">publicly shared his disappointment with the much smaller reach Open Cup games have\u003c/a>. “I would say that they’re not games that we would want our product to be shown to a large audience … So I appreciate the enthusiasm about it, but we need to get better with the U.S. Open Cup,” he said. “It’s just not the proper reflection of what soccer in America at the professional level needs to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the number of MLS teams in the Open Cup is also dwindling. In 2023, all 26 teams in the league played. And the MLS \u003ca href=\"https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-plans-to-be-represented-by-mls-next-pro-clubs-in-2024-us-open-cup?ref=backheeled.com\">originally intended for no MLS teams to participate this year\u003c/a> but reached a deal with the U.S. Soccer Federation, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.sportingnews.com/us/soccer/news/why-mls-teams-withdraw-us-open-cup-2024-tournament-decision/b9a77a56ebcdc164e9ed0bb0#:~:text=In%20mid%2DDecember%20of%202023,soccer%20competition%20in%20the%20country.\">struck a deal to have eight teams come in this time\u003c/a>, the Quakes being one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s uncertain how many MLS teams will appear in next year’s Open Cup, making Tuesday’s uniquely Bay Area matchup between the Quakes and Roots even more special.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The Oakland Roots face against the San Jose Earthquakes in the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup. Here’s when and where to watch or stream this uniquely Bay Area game.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1715109403,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":21,"wordCount":1323},"headData":{"title":"It’s a 408 vs. 510 Showdown as San Jose Earthquakes Take on Oakland Roots | KQED","description":"The Oakland Roots face against the San Jose Earthquakes in the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup. Here’s when and where to watch or stream this uniquely Bay Area game.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"It’s a 408 vs. 510 Showdown as San Jose Earthquakes Take on Oakland Roots","datePublished":"2024-05-07T14:30:32.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-07T19:16:43.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"sticky":false,"nprStoryId":"kqed-11985145","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11985145/its-a-408-vs-510-showdown-as-san-jose-earthquakes-take-on-oakland-roots","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>This year’s U.S. Open Cup keeps getting better and better for Bay Area soccer fans. After knocking out \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11983120/a-new-bay-area-clasico-sfs-el-farolito-and-oakland-roots-set-to-battle-in-hayward\">San Francisco’s El Farolito in the previous round\u003c/a>, Oakland Roots Soccer Club will play against the San Jose Earthquakes on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in San José’s PayPal Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The game will also be streamed live. \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ussoccer.com/us-open-cup/watch?matchId=5d5a6a7a-70df-4007-8429-3eec21629119\">\u003ci>You can watch it here.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whoever wins will move forward to the fifth round of the Open Cup, the oldest soccer competition in the country that brings teams together that usually play in different leagues — the Earthquakes compete in the Major League Soccer and the Roots in the United Soccer League Championship, for example. The stakes are high: whoever ends up winning the Open Cup will also be granted a spot in next year’s Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Champions Cup. And thanks to the tournament’s open format, you get very original matchups that you won’t see anywhere else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In none of the “Big Four” sports leagues — the MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL — does a team repping the South Bay face off against an East Bay team. But in soccer, anything can happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Earthquakes are coming into this match fresh off a 3–1 win against SoCal rival Los Angeles FC on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, a game that \u003ca href=\"https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/san-jose-earthquakes-bounce-back-against-lafc-derby-games-are-always-different#:~:text=L%C3%B3pez%20debuts,with%20options%20for%202027%2D28.\">drew in more than 43,000 fans\u003c/a>, many of them \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjearthquakes.com/news/match-highlights-quakes-dominate-lafc-in-3-1-win-at-levi-s-stadium\">hyped to see the Bay Area once again #BeatLA\u003c/a>. Due to competition rules, the South Bay team is jumping into the Open Cup this year, along with a handful of other MLS teams, much later, during the tournament’s fourth round.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2–1 victory against El Farolito on April 16 was the last time the Roots won a game, with the East Bay team unable to notch a win in their recent regular league matches. And despite their stadiums being a 30-minute drive away from each other, the Roots and Quakes have only played against each other once before: a 3–2 win for the Quakes at PayPal Park \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjearthquakes.com/news/news-earthquakes-to-host-oakland-roots-sc-in-2024-lamar-hunt-u-s-open-cup-round-of-32-on-may-7\">during the 2021 preseason\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Roots are feeling excited about this second opportunity to play the Quakes. “Facing an MLS team, you have to be fully prepared,” said Tommy Hodul, vice president of public relations for the Roots. “But there’s nothing that we can’t accomplish in that game with the staff and the players that we have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985150\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2149318986.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11985150\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2149318986.jpg\" alt=\"A closeup of two men dressed in soccer uniforms with the man on the right covering his mouth with his shirt.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2149318986.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2149318986-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2149318986-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2149318986-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ali Elmasnaouy, #45 of the Oakland Roots, celebrates scoring a goal during the U.S. Open Cup third-round match between the Oakland Roots and El Farolito on April 16, 2024, at Pioneer Stadium in Hayward. \u003ccite>(Doug Zimmerman/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This 510 vs. 408 area codes matchup also brings together a lot of homegrown soccer talent, with Bay Area-born-and-raised players featured on both rosters — and winning matches as well. In the match against El Farolito, Roots midfielder and Berkeley High alum Ali Elmasnaouy not only played his first game for the team, but the 19-year-old also scored the tie-breaking goal in overtime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A local kid scoring the game-winning goal in his professional debut for his hometown team —it doesn’t get much more special than that,” Hodul said. “It’s really special to see players from the 510 area code making it at the professional level through our club.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When local clubs seek out local talent, it doesn’t just benefit those clubs, but it also boosts soccer’s overall place in a community. Simon Tobin, head coach of men’s soccer at San José State University, has seen firsthand how quickly soccer has grown throughout California in the past few decades and said that local clubs, in particular, have helped boost the love for the sport among fans and young players.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a time when the NFL or the NBA were what local great athletes were looking towards,” he said. “I think the arrival of the MLS and especially the Quakes in this community gives local kids that aspiration to play at the top level in this country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11983120,news_11961286,news_11952128","label":"Related Stories "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And the Bay is currently experiencing a boom of local professional teams: in 2021, the Earthquakes announced the creation of their very own MLS Next Pro team, now called The Town FC, which plays at Saint Mary’s Stadium in Contra Costa County and also serves as the Quakes’ reserve squad. For its part, the Roots launched in 2021 the all-female Oakland Soul team, which plays in the USL W League. And just this year, the Bay FC kicked off its first game \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11980330/a-new-pro-womens-soccer-team-kicks-off-in-the-bay\">as the Bay Area’s first-ever National Women’s Soccer League team\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With so many more pro teams in the Bay, fans are winning too, Tobin said. “It’s starting to mirror a little bit what you see if you live in South America or Europe, where you’ve got two or three teams in your vicinity, and you have a strong allegiance for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And as soccer grows in the U.S., so does the role of money, especially in the sport’s premier league, the MLS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, MLS teams \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/kirkwakefield/2024/03/08/big-brands-like-apple-buy-the-mls-pitch-our-soccer-is-calling/?sh=4a48a5d56ddd\">made 15% more in sponsorship revenue\u003c/a> — nearly $600 million more than the previous year. A factor in that seems to be Argentinean superstar Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami. Having a big name like Messi can turbocharge a fanbase — and sponsors — but \u003ca href=\"https://theathletic.com/4674349/2023/07/10/messi-miami-beckham-money/\">it also represents a big financial responsibility to the team\u003c/a>. After all, Inter Miami has agreed to pay Messi $60 million a year (compare that to the $47.61 million that LeBron James got paid this season). As for the Quakes, they’re also going in for some big contracts: last month, the San Jose team spent a club-record $6 million to bring in Argentine midfielder Hernán López.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985172\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2151500763.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11985172\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2151500763.jpg\" alt=\"A group of men wearing soccer uniforms on a soccer field are huddled together.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2151500763.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2151500763-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2151500763-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2151500763-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Jose Earthquakes huddle before a game between Los Angeles FC and San Jose Earthquakes at Levi’s Stadium on May 4, 2024 in Santa Clara. \u003ccite>(John Todd/ISI Photos/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, this recent wave of investment has \u003ca href=\"https://www.backheeled.com/mls-leave-us-open-cup-usl-lower-division-preach-importance/\">also changed the relationship between the MLS and the Open Cup\u003c/a>. Because the Open Cup welcomes teams from all different leagues, MLS teams often play against much smaller teams with fewer resources, and the Cup’s match schedule \u003ca href=\"https://www.sportingnews.com/us/soccer/news/why-mls-teams-withdraw-us-open-cup-2024-tournament-decision/b9a77a56ebcdc164e9ed0bb0#:~:text=In%20mid%2DDecember%20of%202023,soccer%20competition%20in%20the%20country.\">interferes with the increasingly busy MLS calendar\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, ESPN reported that MLS Commissioner Don Garber \u003ca href=\"https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37638582/mls-commissioner-garber-criticizes-state-us-open-cup\">publicly shared his disappointment with the much smaller reach Open Cup games have\u003c/a>. “I would say that they’re not games that we would want our product to be shown to a large audience … So I appreciate the enthusiasm about it, but we need to get better with the U.S. Open Cup,” he said. “It’s just not the proper reflection of what soccer in America at the professional level needs to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the number of MLS teams in the Open Cup is also dwindling. In 2023, all 26 teams in the league played. And the MLS \u003ca href=\"https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-plans-to-be-represented-by-mls-next-pro-clubs-in-2024-us-open-cup?ref=backheeled.com\">originally intended for no MLS teams to participate this year\u003c/a> but reached a deal with the U.S. Soccer Federation, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.sportingnews.com/us/soccer/news/why-mls-teams-withdraw-us-open-cup-2024-tournament-decision/b9a77a56ebcdc164e9ed0bb0#:~:text=In%20mid%2DDecember%20of%202023,soccer%20competition%20in%20the%20country.\">struck a deal to have eight teams come in this time\u003c/a>, the Quakes being one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s uncertain how many MLS teams will appear in next year’s Open Cup, making Tuesday’s uniquely Bay Area matchup between the Quakes and Roots even more special.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11985145/its-a-408-vs-510-showdown-as-san-jose-earthquakes-take-on-oakland-roots","authors":["11708"],"categories":["news_8","news_10"],"tags":["news_32793","news_3421","news_31142"],"featImg":"news_11985149","label":"news"},"news_11985053":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11985053","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11985053","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"small-houses-pose-solution-to-housing-crisis","title":"Small Houses Pose Solution to Housing Crisis","publishDate":1715013022,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Small Houses Pose Solution to Housing Crisis | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003ch2>Small Houses Pose Solution to Housing Crisis\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Can solutions to California’s housing crisis be found in how we used to design and build homes in the past, namely smaller multifamily dwellings in neighborhoods and cities with fewer zoning restrictions. That topic is explored by Los Angeles urban planner Max Podemski. In his new book, A Paradise of Small Houses. I met up with Podemski in the L.A. neighborhood of Eagle Rock.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Guests: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report , and Max Podemski. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>DACA Recipients To Be Eligible for Medi-Cal \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In California, tens of thousands of immigrants with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals will soon be able to get health insurance. That’s after President Joe Biden on Friday announced that those with DACA can enroll in Affordable Care Act coverage.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED News \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>UC Workers to Hold Strike Authorization Vote \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The union representing some 48 thousand academic workers in the UC system is planning to hold a strike authorization vote as early as this week over what they say is the university’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests. The decision to consider striking gained momentum after police action at UCLA that led to more than 200 arrests early last week\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Reporter: Tara Siler, KQED News, and Keith Mizuguchi, The California Report \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":null,"status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1715089222,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":5,"wordCount":225},"headData":{"title":"Small Houses Pose Solution to Housing Crisis | KQED","description":"Small Houses Pose Solution to Housing Crisis Can solutions to California's housing crisis be found in how we used to design and build homes in the past, namely smaller multifamily dwellings in neighborhoods and cities with fewer zoning restrictions. That topic is explored by Los Angeles urban planner Max Podemski. In his new book, A Paradise of Small Houses. I met up with Podemski in the L.A. neighborhood of Eagle Rock. Guests: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report , and Max Podemski. DACA Recipients To Be Eligible for Medi-Cal In California, tens of thousands of immigrants with Deferred Action for Childhood","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Small Houses Pose Solution to Housing Crisis","datePublished":"2024-05-06T16:30:22.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-07T13:40:22.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"source":"Morning Report ","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrarchive/","audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC7900010350.mp3?updated=1715012835","sticky":false,"nprStoryId":"kqed-11985053","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11985053/small-houses-pose-solution-to-housing-crisis","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003ch2>Small Houses Pose Solution to Housing Crisis\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Can solutions to California’s housing crisis be found in how we used to design and build homes in the past, namely smaller multifamily dwellings in neighborhoods and cities with fewer zoning restrictions. That topic is explored by Los Angeles urban planner Max Podemski. In his new book, A Paradise of Small Houses. I met up with Podemski in the L.A. neighborhood of Eagle Rock.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Guests: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report , and Max Podemski. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>DACA Recipients To Be Eligible for Medi-Cal \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In California, tens of thousands of immigrants with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals will soon be able to get health insurance. That’s after President Joe Biden on Friday announced that those with DACA can enroll in Affordable Care Act coverage.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED News \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>UC Workers to Hold Strike Authorization Vote \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The union representing some 48 thousand academic workers in the UC system is planning to hold a strike authorization vote as early as this week over what they say is the university’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests. The decision to consider striking gained momentum after police action at UCLA that led to more than 200 arrests early last week\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>Reporter: Tara Siler, KQED News, and Keith Mizuguchi, The California Report \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11985053/small-houses-pose-solution-to-housing-crisis","authors":["236"],"programs":["news_72"],"categories":["news_21291"],"tags":["news_21998","news_21268"],"featImg":"news_11985162","label":"source_news_11985053"},"news_11985061":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11985061","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11985061","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"a-family-fled-ethnic-violence-in-india-they-still-feel-the-impacts-in-the-bay-area","title":"A Family Fled Ethnic Violence in India. Its Echoes Resonate in the Bay Area","publishDate":1715079619,"format":"standard","headTitle":"A Family Fled Ethnic Violence in India. Its Echoes Resonate in the Bay Area | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sitting on a chair in a rented apartment in Delhi, India, Madhumati Khwairakpam recalled fleeing her home in Manipur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 3, 2023, violence erupted after a local court awarded government benefits to the Meitei people, an ethnic group native to Manipur, a state in northeast India. A majority of the Meiteis practice Hinduism, though Manipur’s dominant ethnic community includes Muslims, Christians and followers of the traditional Sanamahi religion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several tribal communities, including the Kuki, who are mostly Christian, protested the court ruling. Waves of armed Meitei mobs, unofficially supported by the state government according to activists and human rights groups, chanted “Death to Kukis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Khwairakpam, an 87-year-old mother of 10 who identifies as Meitei, married into a Kuki family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11985060\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2200\" height=\"1237\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004.jpg 2200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2200px) 100vw, 2200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Madhumati Khwairakpam, 87, eats lunch on March 31, 2024, made primarily with vegetables grown in Manipur, which the family bought in Delhi. Right: Tara Hangzo holds a photo of her parents, Vungkham Hangzo (left) and Madhumati Khwairakpam, in the apartment Hangzo shares with her mother, Madhumati, and her sister and sister-in-law in Delhi, India, on March 31, 2024. The photo was recovered by Hangzo’s sister-in-law, Renu Takhellambam, at their home in Manipur after the house was looted following the violence that erupted on May 3, 2023. It was the only photo found at the home. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One year ago this month, the lights in the family’s two-story home were off as they huddled silently in a bedroom. They heard the sound of windows being shattered by tossed stones. Someone called and said the nearby church had been lit aflame. The blasts from gas cylinders used for cooking shook the neighboring houses like bombs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reverberations were felt in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For roughly three decades, one of Khwairakpam’s daughters, Niang Hangzo, who was born and raised in Manipur, has lived in the Bay Area. Another daughter, Vung Hangzo, also lives in the Bay Area. According to \u003cem>The Mercury News\u003c/em>, people born in India \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/10/28/how-big-is-bay-area-boom-in-india-born-residents-together-theyd-rank-as-the-regions-fourth-largest-city/?clearUserState=true\">represent the largest immigrant group\u003c/a> in Santa Clara and Alameda counties. That’s about 250,000 people, as Indian immigrants have settled in Sunnyvale, Milpitas, Fremont and Dublin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Niang Hangzo co-founded an organization to raise awareness and support for the Kuki people. Bay Area residents who are part of the Indian diaspora attended protests in August. \u003ca href=\"https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/4/15/manipur-bjp-cm-inflamed-conflict-assam-rifles-report-on-india-violence\">More than 200 people have been killed\u003c/a> since the conflict in Manipur began, and 60,000 people, like Khwairakpam, have been displaced, according to Al Jazeera.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of temples and churches have been reduced to ashes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is unprecedented,” Niang Hangzo said. “The fact that they were burned seems to be very obvious that this is a real overt act of showing that ‘You guys don’t belong here.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Lakshmi Sarah and Beth LaBerge traveled to Delhi in March to see how Khwairakpam and her family are coping with the trauma of displacement. Khwairakpam told KQED she doesn’t have hope of seeing her home in Imphal, Manipur’s capital, again. She spoke in the Meitei language known as Manipuri, which was translated by Tara Manchin Hangzo, a daughter who lives with her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11984078 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Madhumati Khwairakpam’s daughter, Niang Hangzo, displays side-by-side photos of her family posing in front of their home in Manipur on the left in 2012. On the right, an image of the house after it burned when ethnic violence erupted on May 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One year ago, Khwairakpam and her family stood on the street as their home burned before running to a hotel operated by a Meitei man. Khwairakpam lost one of her slippers in the melee. They watched the mob grow on surveillance video. They stayed at the hotel until the police arrived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The police escorted them to a police station and then to a Kuki woman’s house near the precinct, where they waited to be picked up by the Indian Army. Several family members stayed in a squalid relief camp for three nights before relatives in the United States helped 12 of them pay for flights to Delhi, the sprawling metropolitan area that’s 1,500 miles away from their home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because of them, we were able to escape,” Khwairakpam said of her family in America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985075\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11985075\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/23210438080991.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/23210438080991.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/23210438080991-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/23210438080991-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/23210438080991-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/23210438080991-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dozens of houses lay vandalized and burnt during ethnic clashes and rioting in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur on June 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Altaf Qadri/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Khwairakpam doesn’t speak Hindi, the primary language spoken in Delhi. She’s had breathing problems when the air quality is hazardous. Her joints ached in the winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are no fruit trees near their three-bedroom apartment like the ones that surrounded their home in Manipur. There isn’t space to sit outside or walk on the street without the blaring horns of cars navigating the congested roads. The family doesn’t know how long they can afford the tight quarters they share, yet they still come together to enjoy each other’s company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984050\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984050\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Madhumati Khwairakpam, 87, rests in the room she shares with her daughter, Junia, while her daughter Tara sits with her on the bed at their apartment in Delhi on March 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984054\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984054\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Junia Hangzo, Khwairakpam’s youngest daughter, does laundry at the apartment she shares with her mother, sister, and sister-in-law in Delhi on March 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984053\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984053\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Jason Hangzo, 17, Renu Takhellambam, Jason’s mother, and Junia Hangzo drink tea together in their apartment in Delhi, India, on March 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘I didn’t believe it’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On May 4, 2023, Niang Hangzo received a WhatsApp message from her brother as she was on her way to her engineering job in San José. He said their house in Manipur was under attack, but she ignored the message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t believe it,” she recalled. “It’s so preposterous. What’s he talking about?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984079\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984079\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Niang Hangzo sits inside her home in Aptos, California, on Feb. 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She called her oldest sister, who was in Delhi for cancer treatment. It was true. According to Niang Hangzo, who knows many of the families living in the Bay Area who immigrated from Manipur, most of the mob were also from the local area. Some were neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They knew my mother,” she said. “She might have been the one who delivered them because she worked as a nurse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to the violence, she formed the \u003ca href=\"https://namta.us/\">North American Manipur Tribal Association\u003c/a> with a former Imphal neighbor, who now lives in Texas, to preserve the heritage of Manipur’s tribal people. Doing something felt important, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The other option was to just stay and do nothing, just cry and console each other,” she said. “They lost everything. But beyond that, I think nobody anticipated it to be this long.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984693\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11984693 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2200\" height=\"1238\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002.jpg 2200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2200px) 100vw, 2200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Sisters Niang (left) and Vung Hangzo sit at Vung’s home in San José on April 21, 2024. Right: Vung Hangzo looks at a WhatsApp group chat with her sisters that shows a photo of their mother, Madhumati Khwairakpam, in Delhi, at her home in San José on April 21, 2024. The family primarily uses WhatsApp to keep in touch and get updates on the situation in Manipur. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is currently seeking a historic third term, finally \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/india-modi-parliament-manipur-861226ea4158aaf3f278cc21cb0c9579\">broke his silence\u003c/a> more than three months after the violence began. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party holds power in Manipur, a hilly and mountainous state that shares an international border with Myanmar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conflict has impacted \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/world/asia/india-presidential-election-voting-manipur.html\">voting in the region\u003c/a>, as armed men have attacked polling stations, according to \u003cem>The New York Times\u003c/em>. The third round of voting in the world’s largest general election is scheduled for today. There will be \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/world/india/why-does-voting-last-six-weeks-indias-general-election-2024-04-17/\">seven phases in total\u003c/a> and results will be announced on June 4. Niang Hangzo is afraid of what will happen when the news cycle moves on.[aside postID=news_11957446 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“We could be annihilated, and nobody would know,” she said. “We need to have the government step up and the world to listen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 1 billion Indians are eligible to cast ballots, but Tara Hangzo isn’t one because the government has not established a way for \u003ca href=\"https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/risk-to-life-makes-voting-tough-exercise-for-displaced/articleshow/109416369.cms\">internally displaced people to vote remotely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel that I’m not part of India. Why should we be denied our right to vote just because we are here in Delhi as a displaced person?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Khwairakpam was forced to leave her home eight decades earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spring of 1944, around the time of the Battle of Imphal, when Japanese troops attempted to break Allied lines to invade India through Myanmar, then known as Burma. British Indian troops forced the Japanese to retreat during the fighting that changed the course of World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kishalay Bhattacharjee, a journalist who has reported on northeastern India, said there are many layers to today’s violence in Manipur. Land, jobs and economic interests in the region, including the illicit trade of narcotics, human trafficking and arms, makes Manipur one of the most strategic states in India, according to Bhattacharjee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another layer is the armed militias.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the most important story is the rise of a civil guerrilla outfit amongst the Meiteis,” Bhattacharjee said, referring to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.outlookindia.com/national/explained-who-are-meitei-radical-group-arambai-tenggol-and-why-did-they-summon-manipur-lawmakers\">Arambai Tenggol\u003c/a>, a radical Meitei group that is allegedly abducting people and threatening the government, according to news reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are the ones who are spearheading the attack against the Kukis,” Bhattacharjee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mob violence has created a situation that Sanjib Baruah, a professor of political studies at Bard College, believes resembles a civil war.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is ample evidence pointing to the fact that the state government bears the lion’s share of the responsibility for this violence,” he wrote in March in \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23210230241235360\">Studies in Indian Politics\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, an academic journal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984055\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984055\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A poster of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi hangs on a wall in Delhi, India, on March 31, 2024. The poster advertises the G20 summit, which took place in September 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chitra Ahanthem, an independent journalist, said many people, including the media, have oversimplified the conflict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not about the majority versus the minority. It’s not about the Hindu versus the Christian. It’s not about the poor tribal versus the entitled, majority community,” she said. “It’s much worse than that because the real reason is just too murky.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She believes it comes down to geopolitics and India’s business interests in Myanmar, where a civil war has been raging since the military coup in 2021. She said the conflict in Manipur provides a reason for the central government to activate more forces in the region, which is useful for India to defend itself against China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahanthem was in Manipur in November to aid in the relief work. Because she is Meitei, she was only able to visit Meitei camps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are people who have committed suicides inside relief camps because they don’t see a future,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People from the Meitei community in Delhi who have spoken out critically against the state government have had their homes in Manipur attacked by local militia, she said. Because of the retaliation tactics, many Meiteis in Delhi contacted by KQED said they did not want to speak to the media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Society is on its back foot when you are not allowed to ask questions. And that’s exactly where Manipur is,” Ahanthem said. “That’s exactly where India is — that you cannot ask questions anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984058\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984058\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tara Hangzo buys vegetables from a shop owner from the Naga tribal community in Manipur in the Munirka neighborhood of Delhi, India, on March 30, 2024. “Will I ever have peace of mind? Will my community ever have a peace of mind? … Will we trust them, [Meitei people]?” Hangzo asked. “We will not be able to live together in peace for many years to come.” \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984060\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tara Hangzo (center right) prays during Good Friday services at the Evangelical Baptist Convention Church in Delhi, India, on March 29, 2024. Hangzo belongs to the predominantly Christian Kuki tribal community. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘At least we have one another here’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Tara Hangzo’s life has drastically changed since coming to Delhi. It’s not just the extreme heat and cooler weather but also the water and food. Even the rice tastes different, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have very special rice. It’s almost sticky,” said Tara Hangzo, who continues to participate in the protest movement. “Everything was so natural and so fresh. We were living in a lap of nature.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984061\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984061\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ching Songput, daughter of Madhumati Khwairakpam, prepares tea in her kitchen in Delhi, India, on March 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She stops and looks at the stands on the side of the road to see if there are any items native to Manipur. She spends most of her time taking care of Khwairakpam and Junia Hangzo, her younger sister who has Down syndrome, with the help of her sister-in-law, whose husband died several years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ching Songput, Khwairakpam’s oldest daughter who is in Delhi for cancer treatment, doesn’t mind that she lost most of the material things like clothes and jewelry, but she wishes she still had the photo albums and videos from when her three daughters were young. Those were lost when the family’s compound was ransacked. The only photo recovered is of her mother and father, which is now in Khwairakpam’s Delhi apartment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For nearly a week, 11 members of the family shared Songput’s three-bedroom apartment. The family is devout Christian and has formed friendships with many people in the Kuki Christian community in Delhi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a church, so we get busy with that,” Songput said. “We miss what we used to have in Imphal. But at least we have one another here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984063\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984063\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Ching Songput, Tara Hangzo, and Junia Hangzo shop for food at a market in Delhi, India, on March 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984064\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984064\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tara Hangzo (right) and her sister Junia Hangzo walk through Delhi, India, on March 26, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"One year ago, the family of Bay resident Niang Hangzo fled violence in India. Hangzo started an organization to help raise awareness of the ethnic conflict as her mother and other family members wondered how to rebuild their lives.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1715054178,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":50,"wordCount":2503},"headData":{"title":"A Family Fled Ethnic Violence in India. Its Echoes Resonate in the Bay Area | KQED","description":"One year ago, the family of Bay resident Niang Hangzo fled violence in India. Hangzo started an organization to help raise awareness of the ethnic conflict as her mother and other family members wondered how to rebuild their lives.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"A Family Fled Ethnic Violence in India. Its Echoes Resonate in the Bay Area","datePublished":"2024-05-07T11:00:19.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-07T03:56:18.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-41c5-bcaf-aaef00f5a073/16456a17-ed24-447a-8d20-b16501067e3b/audio.mp3","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11985061/a-family-fled-ethnic-violence-in-india-they-still-feel-the-impacts-in-the-bay-area","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sitting on a chair in a rented apartment in Delhi, India, Madhumati Khwairakpam recalled fleeing her home in Manipur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 3, 2023, violence erupted after a local court awarded government benefits to the Meitei people, an ethnic group native to Manipur, a state in northeast India. A majority of the Meiteis practice Hinduism, though Manipur’s dominant ethnic community includes Muslims, Christians and followers of the traditional Sanamahi religion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several tribal communities, including the Kuki, who are mostly Christian, protested the court ruling. Waves of armed Meitei mobs, unofficially supported by the state government according to activists and human rights groups, chanted “Death to Kukis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Khwairakpam, an 87-year-old mother of 10 who identifies as Meitei, married into a Kuki family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11985060\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2200\" height=\"1237\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004.jpg 2200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-004-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2200px) 100vw, 2200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Madhumati Khwairakpam, 87, eats lunch on March 31, 2024, made primarily with vegetables grown in Manipur, which the family bought in Delhi. Right: Tara Hangzo holds a photo of her parents, Vungkham Hangzo (left) and Madhumati Khwairakpam, in the apartment Hangzo shares with her mother, Madhumati, and her sister and sister-in-law in Delhi, India, on March 31, 2024. The photo was recovered by Hangzo’s sister-in-law, Renu Takhellambam, at their home in Manipur after the house was looted following the violence that erupted on May 3, 2023. It was the only photo found at the home. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One year ago this month, the lights in the family’s two-story home were off as they huddled silently in a bedroom. They heard the sound of windows being shattered by tossed stones. Someone called and said the nearby church had been lit aflame. The blasts from gas cylinders used for cooking shook the neighboring houses like bombs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reverberations were felt in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For roughly three decades, one of Khwairakpam’s daughters, Niang Hangzo, who was born and raised in Manipur, has lived in the Bay Area. Another daughter, Vung Hangzo, also lives in the Bay Area. According to \u003cem>The Mercury News\u003c/em>, people born in India \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/10/28/how-big-is-bay-area-boom-in-india-born-residents-together-theyd-rank-as-the-regions-fourth-largest-city/?clearUserState=true\">represent the largest immigrant group\u003c/a> in Santa Clara and Alameda counties. That’s about 250,000 people, as Indian immigrants have settled in Sunnyvale, Milpitas, Fremont and Dublin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Niang Hangzo co-founded an organization to raise awareness and support for the Kuki people. Bay Area residents who are part of the Indian diaspora attended protests in August. \u003ca href=\"https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/4/15/manipur-bjp-cm-inflamed-conflict-assam-rifles-report-on-india-violence\">More than 200 people have been killed\u003c/a> since the conflict in Manipur began, and 60,000 people, like Khwairakpam, have been displaced, according to Al Jazeera.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of temples and churches have been reduced to ashes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is unprecedented,” Niang Hangzo said. “The fact that they were burned seems to be very obvious that this is a real overt act of showing that ‘You guys don’t belong here.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Lakshmi Sarah and Beth LaBerge traveled to Delhi in March to see how Khwairakpam and her family are coping with the trauma of displacement. Khwairakpam told KQED she doesn’t have hope of seeing her home in Imphal, Manipur’s capital, again. She spoke in the Meitei language known as Manipuri, which was translated by Tara Manchin Hangzo, a daughter who lives with her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984078\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11984078 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Madhumati Khwairakpam’s daughter, Niang Hangzo, displays side-by-side photos of her family posing in front of their home in Manipur on the left in 2012. On the right, an image of the house after it burned when ethnic violence erupted on May 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One year ago, Khwairakpam and her family stood on the street as their home burned before running to a hotel operated by a Meitei man. Khwairakpam lost one of her slippers in the melee. They watched the mob grow on surveillance video. They stayed at the hotel until the police arrived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The police escorted them to a police station and then to a Kuki woman’s house near the precinct, where they waited to be picked up by the Indian Army. Several family members stayed in a squalid relief camp for three nights before relatives in the United States helped 12 of them pay for flights to Delhi, the sprawling metropolitan area that’s 1,500 miles away from their home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because of them, we were able to escape,” Khwairakpam said of her family in America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11985075\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11985075\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/23210438080991.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/23210438080991.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/23210438080991-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/23210438080991-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/23210438080991-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/23210438080991-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dozens of houses lay vandalized and burnt during ethnic clashes and rioting in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur on June 21, 2023. \u003ccite>(Altaf Qadri/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Khwairakpam doesn’t speak Hindi, the primary language spoken in Delhi. She’s had breathing problems when the air quality is hazardous. Her joints ached in the winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are no fruit trees near their three-bedroom apartment like the ones that surrounded their home in Manipur. There isn’t space to sit outside or walk on the street without the blaring horns of cars navigating the congested roads. The family doesn’t know how long they can afford the tight quarters they share, yet they still come together to enjoy each other’s company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984050\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984050\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-008-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Madhumati Khwairakpam, 87, rests in the room she shares with her daughter, Junia, while her daughter Tara sits with her on the bed at their apartment in Delhi on March 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984054\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984054\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-005-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Junia Hangzo, Khwairakpam’s youngest daughter, does laundry at the apartment she shares with her mother, sister, and sister-in-law in Delhi on March 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984053\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984053\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-003-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Jason Hangzo, 17, Renu Takhellambam, Jason’s mother, and Junia Hangzo drink tea together in their apartment in Delhi, India, on March 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘I didn’t believe it’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On May 4, 2023, Niang Hangzo received a WhatsApp message from her brother as she was on her way to her engineering job in San José. He said their house in Manipur was under attack, but she ignored the message.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t believe it,” she recalled. “It’s so preposterous. What’s he talking about?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984079\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984079\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240421-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-004-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Niang Hangzo sits inside her home in Aptos, California, on Feb. 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She called her oldest sister, who was in Delhi for cancer treatment. It was true. According to Niang Hangzo, who knows many of the families living in the Bay Area who immigrated from Manipur, most of the mob were also from the local area. Some were neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They knew my mother,” she said. “She might have been the one who delivered them because she worked as a nurse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to the violence, she formed the \u003ca href=\"https://namta.us/\">North American Manipur Tribal Association\u003c/a> with a former Imphal neighbor, who now lives in Texas, to preserve the heritage of Manipur’s tribal people. Doing something felt important, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The other option was to just stay and do nothing, just cry and console each other,” she said. “They lost everything. But beyond that, I think nobody anticipated it to be this long.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984693\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11984693 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2200\" height=\"1238\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002.jpg 2200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240421-BayAreaManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-Diptych-002-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2200px) 100vw, 2200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Sisters Niang (left) and Vung Hangzo sit at Vung’s home in San José on April 21, 2024. Right: Vung Hangzo looks at a WhatsApp group chat with her sisters that shows a photo of their mother, Madhumati Khwairakpam, in Delhi, at her home in San José on April 21, 2024. The family primarily uses WhatsApp to keep in touch and get updates on the situation in Manipur. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is currently seeking a historic third term, finally \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/india-modi-parliament-manipur-861226ea4158aaf3f278cc21cb0c9579\">broke his silence\u003c/a> more than three months after the violence began. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party holds power in Manipur, a hilly and mountainous state that shares an international border with Myanmar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conflict has impacted \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/world/asia/india-presidential-election-voting-manipur.html\">voting in the region\u003c/a>, as armed men have attacked polling stations, according to \u003cem>The New York Times\u003c/em>. The third round of voting in the world’s largest general election is scheduled for today. There will be \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/world/india/why-does-voting-last-six-weeks-indias-general-election-2024-04-17/\">seven phases in total\u003c/a> and results will be announced on June 4. Niang Hangzo is afraid of what will happen when the news cycle moves on.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11957446","hero":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We could be annihilated, and nobody would know,” she said. “We need to have the government step up and the world to listen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 1 billion Indians are eligible to cast ballots, but Tara Hangzo isn’t one because the government has not established a way for \u003ca href=\"https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/risk-to-life-makes-voting-tough-exercise-for-displaced/articleshow/109416369.cms\">internally displaced people to vote remotely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel that I’m not part of India. Why should we be denied our right to vote just because we are here in Delhi as a displaced person?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Khwairakpam was forced to leave her home eight decades earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spring of 1944, around the time of the Battle of Imphal, when Japanese troops attempted to break Allied lines to invade India through Myanmar, then known as Burma. British Indian troops forced the Japanese to retreat during the fighting that changed the course of World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kishalay Bhattacharjee, a journalist who has reported on northeastern India, said there are many layers to today’s violence in Manipur. Land, jobs and economic interests in the region, including the illicit trade of narcotics, human trafficking and arms, makes Manipur one of the most strategic states in India, according to Bhattacharjee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another layer is the armed militias.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the most important story is the rise of a civil guerrilla outfit amongst the Meiteis,” Bhattacharjee said, referring to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.outlookindia.com/national/explained-who-are-meitei-radical-group-arambai-tenggol-and-why-did-they-summon-manipur-lawmakers\">Arambai Tenggol\u003c/a>, a radical Meitei group that is allegedly abducting people and threatening the government, according to news reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are the ones who are spearheading the attack against the Kukis,” Bhattacharjee said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mob violence has created a situation that Sanjib Baruah, a professor of political studies at Bard College, believes resembles a civil war.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is ample evidence pointing to the fact that the state government bears the lion’s share of the responsibility for this violence,” he wrote in March in \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23210230241235360\">Studies in Indian Politics\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, an academic journal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984055\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984055\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240331-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-031-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A poster of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi hangs on a wall in Delhi, India, on March 31, 2024. The poster advertises the G20 summit, which took place in September 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chitra Ahanthem, an independent journalist, said many people, including the media, have oversimplified the conflict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not about the majority versus the minority. It’s not about the Hindu versus the Christian. It’s not about the poor tribal versus the entitled, majority community,” she said. “It’s much worse than that because the real reason is just too murky.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She believes it comes down to geopolitics and India’s business interests in Myanmar, where a civil war has been raging since the military coup in 2021. She said the conflict in Manipur provides a reason for the central government to activate more forces in the region, which is useful for India to defend itself against China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahanthem was in Manipur in November to aid in the relief work. Because she is Meitei, she was only able to visit Meitei camps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are people who have committed suicides inside relief camps because they don’t see a future,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People from the Meitei community in Delhi who have spoken out critically against the state government have had their homes in Manipur attacked by local militia, she said. Because of the retaliation tactics, many Meiteis in Delhi contacted by KQED said they did not want to speak to the media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Society is on its back foot when you are not allowed to ask questions. And that’s exactly where Manipur is,” Ahanthem said. “That’s exactly where India is — that you cannot ask questions anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984058\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984058\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240330-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-025-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tara Hangzo buys vegetables from a shop owner from the Naga tribal community in Manipur in the Munirka neighborhood of Delhi, India, on March 30, 2024. “Will I ever have peace of mind? Will my community ever have a peace of mind? … Will we trust them, [Meitei people]?” Hangzo asked. “We will not be able to live together in peace for many years to come.” \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984060\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-014-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tara Hangzo (center right) prays during Good Friday services at the Evangelical Baptist Convention Church in Delhi, India, on March 29, 2024. Hangzo belongs to the predominantly Christian Kuki tribal community. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘At least we have one another here’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Tara Hangzo’s life has drastically changed since coming to Delhi. It’s not just the extreme heat and cooler weather but also the water and food. Even the rice tastes different, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have very special rice. It’s almost sticky,” said Tara Hangzo, who continues to participate in the protest movement. “Everything was so natural and so fresh. We were living in a lap of nature.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984061\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984061\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240329-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-018-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ching Songput, daughter of Madhumati Khwairakpam, prepares tea in her kitchen in Delhi, India, on March 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She stops and looks at the stands on the side of the road to see if there are any items native to Manipur. She spends most of her time taking care of Khwairakpam and Junia Hangzo, her younger sister who has Down syndrome, with the help of her sister-in-law, whose husband died several years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ching Songput, Khwairakpam’s oldest daughter who is in Delhi for cancer treatment, doesn’t mind that she lost most of the material things like clothes and jewelry, but she wishes she still had the photo albums and videos from when her three daughters were young. Those were lost when the family’s compound was ransacked. The only photo recovered is of her mother and father, which is now in Khwairakpam’s Delhi apartment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For nearly a week, 11 members of the family shared Songput’s three-bedroom apartment. The family is devout Christian and has formed friendships with many people in the Kuki Christian community in Delhi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a church, so we get busy with that,” Songput said. “We miss what we used to have in Imphal. But at least we have one another here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984063\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984063\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240327-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-010-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Ching Songput, Tara Hangzo, and Junia Hangzo shop for food at a market in Delhi, India, on March 27, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11984064\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11984064\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240326-ManipurIndia-BethLaBerge-001-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tara Hangzo (right) and her sister Junia Hangzo walk through Delhi, India, on March 26, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11985061/a-family-fled-ethnic-violence-in-india-they-still-feel-the-impacts-in-the-bay-area","authors":["11626","11667"],"categories":["news_8"],"tags":["news_1386","news_27626","news_20202","news_18436","news_17968","news_18536"],"featImg":"news_11984048","label":"news"},"news_11985122":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11985122","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11985122","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"californias-remarkable-groundwater-recharge-hits-over-4-million-acre-feet","title":"California Groundwater Surges After Torrential Rain and Snowstorms","publishDate":1715092202,"format":"standard","headTitle":"California Groundwater Surges After Torrential Rain and Snowstorms | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>After massive \u003ca style=\"font-weight: var(--font-weight-reg)\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-storm-atmospheric-river-a220927b40b0eb5cc3e45f2b5f204e2f\">downpours flooded California’s rivers\u003c/a> and packed mountains with snow, the state reported Monday the first increase in groundwater supplies in four years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state saw 4.1 million acre-feet of managed groundwater recharge in the water year ending in September and an 8.7 million acre-feet increase in groundwater storage, California’s Department of Water Resources said. Groundwater supplies are critical to growing much of the country’s fresh produce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The semiannual report came after water officials stepped up efforts during last year’s rains to capture water flows from melting \u003ca style=\"font-weight: var(--font-weight-reg)\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/weather-california-droughts-climate-and-environment-storms-6816d3f123af4b2b33e2d0ca5d4f45bf\">snowpack\u003c/a> in the mountains and encouraged farmers to \u003ca style=\"font-weight: var(--font-weight-reg)\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-farms-groundwater-recharge-drought-pumping-234e0303f9211ed8675132f3f5466ef5\">flood fields\u003c/a> to replenish groundwater basins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The impressive recharge numbers in 2023 are the result of hard work by the local agencies combined with dedicated efforts from the state, but we must do more to be prepared to capture and store water when the wet years come,” Paul Gosselin, deputy director of sustainable water management for the agency, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has sought to step up groundwater recharge with ever-drier years expected from \u003ca style=\"font-weight: var(--font-weight-reg)\" href=\"https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change\">climate change\u003c/a>. Much of the state’s population counts on groundwater for drinking water in their homes, and farmers that grow much of the country’s food rely on the precious resource for crops ranging from carrots and almonds to berries and leafy greens.[aside postID=news_11970558 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/15070582505_2539dd4809_o-1020x680.jpg']For many years, Californians pumped groundwater from wells without measuring how much they were taking. However, as some \u003ca style=\"font-weight: var(--font-weight-reg)\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-droughts-climate-and-environment-e49c8c5c34ead7ef7f83b770082f20bc\">wells ran dry\u003c/a> and land began sinking, the state enacted a law requiring local communities to start measuring and regulating groundwater pumping to ensure the basins would be sustainable for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Monday’s report, California water officials noted that some areas where land had been sinking saw a rebound as users pumped less groundwater since more surface water was available following the rains. Overall, the state extracted 9.5 million acre-feet of groundwater during the last water year, down from 17 million a year before, the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some California farmers have reported a recovery in their wells this year, prompting them to question how much the state needs to cut groundwater pumping. Joaquin Contente, a dairy farmer in the crop-rich San Joaquin Valley, said he has seen a recovery in his wells, with one returning to 19 feet deep from more than 30 feet deep two years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve already come back to almost a normal level,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California water officials welcomed the recharge but said it would take five rainy years like last year to boost groundwater storage to levels needed after so many years of overpumping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"California’s Department of Water Resources said Monday the state saw 4.1 million acre-feet of managed groundwater recharge in the water year ending in September.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1715037916,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":11,"wordCount":477},"headData":{"title":"California Groundwater Surges After Torrential Rain and Snowstorms | KQED","description":"California’s Department of Water Resources said Monday the state saw 4.1 million acre-feet of managed groundwater recharge in the water year ending in September.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"California Groundwater Surges After Torrential Rain and Snowstorms","datePublished":"2024-05-07T14:30:02.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-06T23:25:16.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"sticky":false,"nprByline":"The Associated Press","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11985122/californias-remarkable-groundwater-recharge-hits-over-4-million-acre-feet","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After massive \u003ca style=\"font-weight: var(--font-weight-reg)\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-storm-atmospheric-river-a220927b40b0eb5cc3e45f2b5f204e2f\">downpours flooded California’s rivers\u003c/a> and packed mountains with snow, the state reported Monday the first increase in groundwater supplies in four years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state saw 4.1 million acre-feet of managed groundwater recharge in the water year ending in September and an 8.7 million acre-feet increase in groundwater storage, California’s Department of Water Resources said. Groundwater supplies are critical to growing much of the country’s fresh produce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The semiannual report came after water officials stepped up efforts during last year’s rains to capture water flows from melting \u003ca style=\"font-weight: var(--font-weight-reg)\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/weather-california-droughts-climate-and-environment-storms-6816d3f123af4b2b33e2d0ca5d4f45bf\">snowpack\u003c/a> in the mountains and encouraged farmers to \u003ca style=\"font-weight: var(--font-weight-reg)\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-farms-groundwater-recharge-drought-pumping-234e0303f9211ed8675132f3f5466ef5\">flood fields\u003c/a> to replenish groundwater basins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The impressive recharge numbers in 2023 are the result of hard work by the local agencies combined with dedicated efforts from the state, but we must do more to be prepared to capture and store water when the wet years come,” Paul Gosselin, deputy director of sustainable water management for the agency, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has sought to step up groundwater recharge with ever-drier years expected from \u003ca style=\"font-weight: var(--font-weight-reg)\" href=\"https://apnews.com/hub/climate-change\">climate change\u003c/a>. Much of the state’s population counts on groundwater for drinking water in their homes, and farmers that grow much of the country’s food rely on the precious resource for crops ranging from carrots and almonds to berries and leafy greens.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11970558","hero":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/12/15070582505_2539dd4809_o-1020x680.jpg","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For many years, Californians pumped groundwater from wells without measuring how much they were taking. However, as some \u003ca style=\"font-weight: var(--font-weight-reg)\" href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-droughts-climate-and-environment-e49c8c5c34ead7ef7f83b770082f20bc\">wells ran dry\u003c/a> and land began sinking, the state enacted a law requiring local communities to start measuring and regulating groundwater pumping to ensure the basins would be sustainable for years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Monday’s report, California water officials noted that some areas where land had been sinking saw a rebound as users pumped less groundwater since more surface water was available following the rains. Overall, the state extracted 9.5 million acre-feet of groundwater during the last water year, down from 17 million a year before, the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some California farmers have reported a recovery in their wells this year, prompting them to question how much the state needs to cut groundwater pumping. Joaquin Contente, a dairy farmer in the crop-rich San Joaquin Valley, said he has seen a recovery in his wells, with one returning to 19 feet deep from more than 30 feet deep two years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve already come back to almost a normal level,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California water officials welcomed the recharge but said it would take five rainy years like last year to boost groundwater storage to levels needed after so many years of overpumping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11985122/californias-remarkable-groundwater-recharge-hits-over-4-million-acre-feet","authors":["byline_news_11985122"],"categories":["news_8","news_356"],"tags":["news_18538","news_19204","news_20023","news_5892","news_3187"],"featImg":"news_11985123","label":"news"},"news_11985069":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11985069","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11985069","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"who-owns-the-apartment-next-door-california-agency-says-it-will-take-millions-to-find-out","title":"Who Owns the Apartment Next Door? California Agency Says it Will Take Millions to Find Out","publishDate":1715022015,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Who Owns the Apartment Next Door? California Agency Says it Will Take Millions to Find Out | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":18481,"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>Who is the flesh-and-blood landlord with a city-spanning portfolio of apartments concealed behind an obscurely named limited liability company? Who is the proprietor of a local restaurant, hotel or regional car wash chain shrouded beneath a corporate veil?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who actually owns what in California?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For three years, a coalition of anti-eviction advocates, unions, legal aid organizations, affordable housing boosters, workers rights groups and pro-transparency activists have been demanding that the state make it easier to answer those questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for three years, those efforts have failed in the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of this year’s version, \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1201?slug=CA_202320240SB1201\">Senate Bill 1201,\u003c/a> authored by \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/maria-elena-durazo-165445\">Sen. María Elena Durazo\u003c/a>, a Los Angeles Democrat, now worry that their fourth effort will soon meet a similar fate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Businesses operating in California must regularly submit documents to the Secretary of State that list the company’s name and address, along with those of its top managers and anyone responsible for receiving legal filings on the company’s behalf. That information is publicly available on the \u003ca href=\"https://bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov/search/business\">Secretary of State’s website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Durazo’s bill would add an additional disclosure requirement: The names and home or business addresses of “beneficial owners” — defined as anyone who “exercises substantial control” or owns at least 25% of a company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11983000,news_11945744,news_11984610\" label=\"Related Stories\"]As Durazo \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/hearings/257789?t=1504&f=9894c3d5281deb91c62d4cf1b0cd7321\">explained at a recent Senate committee hearing\u003c/a>, the bill is “simply adding one line on the forms that anybody fills out…It’s not asking for any more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee, tasked with putting a fiscal price tag on pending legislation, said implementing the bill would cost the state $9.3 million in its first year and nearly $3 million every year after that. The majority of those ongoing expenses would go toward paying the estimated 24 state employees that Secretary of State analysts say are needed to make the bill work. That would represent \u003ca href=\"https://admin.cdn.sos.ca.gov/reports/2024/bus-filing-processing-time-report-march-2024.pdf\">roughly 10% of the agency’s workforce \u003c/a>that now processes business filings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though $9 million is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/04/budget-deficit-california-deal/\">couch cushion change by California budgetary standards\u003c/a>, the bill’s supporters say the number mystifies them. For a 2020 bill requiring the Secretary of State to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB3075\">add a different question to the same form\u003c/a>, the fiscal estimate was a mere $561,000 in the first year and $79,000 thereafter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an example of a good governance bill that will fail because of bad governance,” said Jyotswaroop Bawa with the progressive nonprofit Rise Economy, which is sponsoring the bill. “By not collecting beneficial owner information, the Secretary of State’s office is allowing chaos to continue with impunity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bawa and other supporters of the bill say publishing ownership information will make it easier for tenants, workers and regulators to track down scofflaw landlords and other business owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents of the bill, which include state and local landlord groups, the California Association of Realtors and the California Chamber of Commerce, argue that it is already easy enough to contact a business and that disclosing the identities of individual owners would violate their privacy and enable harassment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Secretary of State’s office refused to break down sky-high estimate\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Once a bill receives a big cost estimate, it’s put in a list known\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2017/09/capitol-suspense-california-bills-vanish-almost-without-trace/\"> as the “suspense file.”\u003c/a> Then, in marathon sessions held twice a year, the Assembly and Senate appropriations committees rapidly tick through every bill on that list, passing some along and killing others without debate or a public vote. The first legislative culling of the year is set for mid-May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With its seven-digit cost estimate, Bawa said she worries SB 1201 will be the latest victim of “death by price tag,” especially when the state is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/04/budget-deficit-california-deal/\">facing a multibillion-dollar deficit\u003c/a>. And it wouldn’t be the first time this idea has died a quiet procedural death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, a bill that would have required companies to unveil their human owners when filing business records with the state \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1199\">didn’t get a hearing\u003c/a>. A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB889\">revived attempt\u003c/a> the next year failed in the Senate after a majority on a key committee \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/digital-democracy/2024/04/california-democrats-no-votes/\">declined to cast a vote “yes” or “no” but simply abstained\u003c/a>. Last year, a third try succumbed to the suspense file after the bill was dinged with a $9 million cost estimate from the Secretary of State’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In coming up with this year’s figure, the Senate \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/202320240SB1201_Senate-Appropriations.pdf\">committee’s fiscal analysis\u003c/a> said it got the estimates from the Secretary of State. Itemized totals include $3 million in “IT project costs” and more than $2 million in “mailing costs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Secretary of State’s office refused to answer specific questions from CalMatters about the bill’s cost estimate but instead responded by email with an unsigned statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Office of the Secretary of State continues to be involved in deliberations and ongoing discussions with legislative staff related to SB 1201. In furtherance of this process, we must respectfully decline to publicly comment on the substantive or fiscal issues associated with the bill at this early point in the legislative process,” the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the office “did not provide context” for its fiscal breakdown, the committee analysis says, the Secretary of State expressed more detailed concerns over last year’s version of the bill. Back then, the office warned that investigating and verifying the ownership information through a modified form would be costly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill, as currently written, does not require the Secretary of State to perform that due diligence, which led an earlier Senate committee to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1201#\">raise concerns about the bill’s effectiveness.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘We could do it for $200’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Corporations and limited liability companies exist in part to ensure that investors in a company aren’t held directly legally responsible for the things that that company does or doesn’t do. If a company maintains unsafe conditions at a rental property, a tenant can sue the company itself, seeking damages from the corporate treasury but not from the business owner’s personal checking account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Publicizing an owner’s name and address, then, doesn’t serve an obvious legal purpose, said Debra Carlton, a spokesperson for the California Apartment Association. Landlords can always be reached through the property management companies they employ. Lawsuits can always be served to a company’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/service-process\">listed representative.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The point of the corporate veil is that you go after the corporation’s assets” in a lawsuit, said Carlton, but it doesn’t prevent landlords from getting sued. “You see lawsuits every day being brought against the industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Silver, a lawyer who represents cities and counties in substandard housing cases, agreed that Durazo’s bill isn’t likely to make his work easier going after negligent landlords. It’s often quicker to serve court papers to a corporation or LLC than “an individual slumlord” who doesn’t have a paper trail or web presence, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a path that leads you from the corporate name to the people who actually own it, ultimately, and we will find them and hold them responsible,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are times when it’s crucial to track down a human business owner quickly, long before matters end up at court, said Larry Brooks, who runs the residential lead prevention program for Alameda County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He remembers a case in 2022 when twin toddlers were found living in an old apartment with flaking paint. Lead levels in their blood were so high the children were immediately hospitalized. The twins’ parents, undocumented immigrants, initially refused to put Brooks and his team in touch with the building’s property management company, fearing eviction or deportation, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So Brooks began hunting on his own. He turned first to the county assessor’s office to find the property owner’s name, then plugged that name into the Secretary of State’s database. The corporate documents there only listed a street address. Brooks struggled to connect that address with a phone number or email address.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, a county nurse persuaded the twins’ mother to share the phone number of a Sacramento-based property management company. That company put Brooks in touch with the owner, a corporation in Texas, he said. The entire process took two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wish that there were some state or federal law that required every corporate landlord to have a local contact,” said Brooks, who has also advised Human Impact Partners, a public health nonprofit that supports Durazo’s bill. “In a situation like with the twins, where the blood lead levels were so high they were life-threatening, and the kids had to be rushed to the hospital, you want to be able to call somebody immediately.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brooks said he couldn’t share additional information about the children or the landlord, citing medical privacy laws and pending litigation. CalMatters was unable to verify the details of the story independently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making it easier to find the name and address of a business owner would provide a treasure trove of data for tenant rights organizations, housing researchers and \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-02-24/rental-housing-shell-companies-landlords\">investigative reporters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it would also be a boon for would-be harassers and activists, said Carlton. “I can’t figure out what their true purpose is,” she said of the bill’s sponsors. “They want to shame people publicly, maybe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Carlton was also puzzled by the $9 million cost estimate: “I almost felt like saying, ‘We could do it,’” she said. “We could do it for $200.”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A legislative effort to force LLCs and corporations to publicly disclose their owners publicly faces a surprising obstacle: A massive cost estimate from the Secretary of State.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1715026267,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":37,"wordCount":1673},"headData":{"title":"Who Owns the Apartment Next Door? California Agency Says it Will Take Millions to Find Out | KQED","description":"A legislative effort to force LLCs and corporations to publicly disclose their owners publicly faces a surprising obstacle: A massive cost estimate from the Secretary of State.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Who Owns the Apartment Next Door? California Agency Says it Will Take Millions to Find Out","datePublished":"2024-05-06T19:00:15.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-06T20:11:07.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}}},"sticky":false,"nprByline":"Ben Christopher, CalMatters","nprStoryId":"kqed-11985069","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/news/11985069/who-owns-the-apartment-next-door-california-agency-says-it-will-take-millions-to-find-out","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Who is the flesh-and-blood landlord with a city-spanning portfolio of apartments concealed behind an obscurely named limited liability company? Who is the proprietor of a local restaurant, hotel or regional car wash chain shrouded beneath a corporate veil?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who actually owns what in California?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For three years, a coalition of anti-eviction advocates, unions, legal aid organizations, affordable housing boosters, workers rights groups and pro-transparency activists have been demanding that the state make it easier to answer those questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for three years, those efforts have failed in the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of this year’s version, \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1201?slug=CA_202320240SB1201\">Senate Bill 1201,\u003c/a> authored by \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/maria-elena-durazo-165445\">Sen. María Elena Durazo\u003c/a>, a Los Angeles Democrat, now worry that their fourth effort will soon meet a similar fate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Businesses operating in California must regularly submit documents to the Secretary of State that list the company’s name and address, along with those of its top managers and anyone responsible for receiving legal filings on the company’s behalf. That information is publicly available on the \u003ca href=\"https://bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov/search/business\">Secretary of State’s website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Durazo’s bill would add an additional disclosure requirement: The names and home or business addresses of “beneficial owners” — defined as anyone who “exercises substantial control” or owns at least 25% of a company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11983000,news_11945744,news_11984610","label":"Related Stories "},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As Durazo \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/hearings/257789?t=1504&f=9894c3d5281deb91c62d4cf1b0cd7321\">explained at a recent Senate committee hearing\u003c/a>, the bill is “simply adding one line on the forms that anybody fills out…It’s not asking for any more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee, tasked with putting a fiscal price tag on pending legislation, said implementing the bill would cost the state $9.3 million in its first year and nearly $3 million every year after that. The majority of those ongoing expenses would go toward paying the estimated 24 state employees that Secretary of State analysts say are needed to make the bill work. That would represent \u003ca href=\"https://admin.cdn.sos.ca.gov/reports/2024/bus-filing-processing-time-report-march-2024.pdf\">roughly 10% of the agency’s workforce \u003c/a>that now processes business filings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though $9 million is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/04/budget-deficit-california-deal/\">couch cushion change by California budgetary standards\u003c/a>, the bill’s supporters say the number mystifies them. For a 2020 bill requiring the Secretary of State to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB3075\">add a different question to the same form\u003c/a>, the fiscal estimate was a mere $561,000 in the first year and $79,000 thereafter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an example of a good governance bill that will fail because of bad governance,” said Jyotswaroop Bawa with the progressive nonprofit Rise Economy, which is sponsoring the bill. “By not collecting beneficial owner information, the Secretary of State’s office is allowing chaos to continue with impunity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bawa and other supporters of the bill say publishing ownership information will make it easier for tenants, workers and regulators to track down scofflaw landlords and other business owners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents of the bill, which include state and local landlord groups, the California Association of Realtors and the California Chamber of Commerce, argue that it is already easy enough to contact a business and that disclosing the identities of individual owners would violate their privacy and enable harassment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Secretary of State’s office refused to break down sky-high estimate\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Once a bill receives a big cost estimate, it’s put in a list known\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2017/09/capitol-suspense-california-bills-vanish-almost-without-trace/\"> as the “suspense file.”\u003c/a> Then, in marathon sessions held twice a year, the Assembly and Senate appropriations committees rapidly tick through every bill on that list, passing some along and killing others without debate or a public vote. The first legislative culling of the year is set for mid-May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With its seven-digit cost estimate, Bawa said she worries SB 1201 will be the latest victim of “death by price tag,” especially when the state is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/04/budget-deficit-california-deal/\">facing a multibillion-dollar deficit\u003c/a>. And it wouldn’t be the first time this idea has died a quiet procedural death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, a bill that would have required companies to unveil their human owners when filing business records with the state \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1199\">didn’t get a hearing\u003c/a>. A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB889\">revived attempt\u003c/a> the next year failed in the Senate after a majority on a key committee \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/digital-democracy/2024/04/california-democrats-no-votes/\">declined to cast a vote “yes” or “no” but simply abstained\u003c/a>. Last year, a third try succumbed to the suspense file after the bill was dinged with a $9 million cost estimate from the Secretary of State’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In coming up with this year’s figure, the Senate \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/202320240SB1201_Senate-Appropriations.pdf\">committee’s fiscal analysis\u003c/a> said it got the estimates from the Secretary of State. Itemized totals include $3 million in “IT project costs” and more than $2 million in “mailing costs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Secretary of State’s office refused to answer specific questions from CalMatters about the bill’s cost estimate but instead responded by email with an unsigned statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Office of the Secretary of State continues to be involved in deliberations and ongoing discussions with legislative staff related to SB 1201. In furtherance of this process, we must respectfully decline to publicly comment on the substantive or fiscal issues associated with the bill at this early point in the legislative process,” the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the office “did not provide context” for its fiscal breakdown, the committee analysis says, the Secretary of State expressed more detailed concerns over last year’s version of the bill. Back then, the office warned that investigating and verifying the ownership information through a modified form would be costly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill, as currently written, does not require the Secretary of State to perform that due diligence, which led an earlier Senate committee to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1201#\">raise concerns about the bill’s effectiveness.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘We could do it for $200’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Corporations and limited liability companies exist in part to ensure that investors in a company aren’t held directly legally responsible for the things that that company does or doesn’t do. If a company maintains unsafe conditions at a rental property, a tenant can sue the company itself, seeking damages from the corporate treasury but not from the business owner’s personal checking account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Publicizing an owner’s name and address, then, doesn’t serve an obvious legal purpose, said Debra Carlton, a spokesperson for the California Apartment Association. Landlords can always be reached through the property management companies they employ. Lawsuits can always be served to a company’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/service-process\">listed representative.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The point of the corporate veil is that you go after the corporation’s assets” in a lawsuit, said Carlton, but it doesn’t prevent landlords from getting sued. “You see lawsuits every day being brought against the industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Silver, a lawyer who represents cities and counties in substandard housing cases, agreed that Durazo’s bill isn’t likely to make his work easier going after negligent landlords. It’s often quicker to serve court papers to a corporation or LLC than “an individual slumlord” who doesn’t have a paper trail or web presence, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a path that leads you from the corporate name to the people who actually own it, ultimately, and we will find them and hold them responsible,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are times when it’s crucial to track down a human business owner quickly, long before matters end up at court, said Larry Brooks, who runs the residential lead prevention program for Alameda County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He remembers a case in 2022 when twin toddlers were found living in an old apartment with flaking paint. Lead levels in their blood were so high the children were immediately hospitalized. The twins’ parents, undocumented immigrants, initially refused to put Brooks and his team in touch with the building’s property management company, fearing eviction or deportation, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So Brooks began hunting on his own. He turned first to the county assessor’s office to find the property owner’s name, then plugged that name into the Secretary of State’s database. The corporate documents there only listed a street address. Brooks struggled to connect that address with a phone number or email address.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, a county nurse persuaded the twins’ mother to share the phone number of a Sacramento-based property management company. That company put Brooks in touch with the owner, a corporation in Texas, he said. The entire process took two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wish that there were some state or federal law that required every corporate landlord to have a local contact,” said Brooks, who has also advised Human Impact Partners, a public health nonprofit that supports Durazo’s bill. “In a situation like with the twins, where the blood lead levels were so high they were life-threatening, and the kids had to be rushed to the hospital, you want to be able to call somebody immediately.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brooks said he couldn’t share additional information about the children or the landlord, citing medical privacy laws and pending litigation. CalMatters was unable to verify the details of the story independently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Making it easier to find the name and address of a business owner would provide a treasure trove of data for tenant rights organizations, housing researchers and \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-02-24/rental-housing-shell-companies-landlords\">investigative reporters\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it would also be a boon for would-be harassers and activists, said Carlton. “I can’t figure out what their true purpose is,” she said of the bill’s sponsors. “They want to shame people publicly, maybe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Carlton was also puzzled by the $9 million cost estimate: “I almost felt like saying, ‘We could do it,’” she said. “We could do it for $200.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11985069/who-owns-the-apartment-next-door-california-agency-says-it-will-take-millions-to-find-out","authors":["byline_news_11985069"],"categories":["news_6266","news_8"],"tags":["news_28458","news_1775","news_1852"],"affiliates":["news_18481"],"featImg":"news_11985077","label":"news_18481"},"forum_2010101905638":{"type":"posts","id":"forum_2010101905638","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"forum","id":"2010101905638","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"sfmomas-new-collaboration-with-artists-with-disabilities","title":"SFMOMA’s New Collaboration with Artists with Disabilities","publishDate":1715035387,"format":"audio","headTitle":"SFMOMA’s New Collaboration with Artists with Disabilities | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"forum"},"content":"\u003cp>If you go to the SFMOMA right now, it’ll be hard to miss the massive, 32-foot wide mural depicting a utopian, fantastical and hopeful version of San Francisco. The mural is the opening to a historic exhibition, “The House that Art Built,” which showcases eleven artists with developmental disabilities who are associated with Oakland-based nonprofit Creative Growth. In addition to the exhibition, SFMOMA has also permanently acquired more than 100 works created by artists with developmental disabilities. We’ll talk about the stunning exhibition, the acquisition and the future for artists with disabilities in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[gallery ids=\"2010101905663,2010101905665,2010101905664,2010101905662,2010101905660,2010101905661,2010101905657,2010101905658,2010101905659\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"We’ll talk about the stunning exhibition, the acquisition and the future for artists with disabilities in the Bay Area.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1715109048,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":true,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":4,"wordCount":117},"headData":{"title":"SFMOMA’s New Collaboration with Artists with Disabilities | KQED","description":"We’ll talk about the stunning exhibition, the acquisition and the future for artists with disabilities in the Bay Area.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"SFMOMA’s New Collaboration with Artists with Disabilities","datePublished":"2024-05-06T22:43:07.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-07T19:10:48.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC9652797629.mp3?updated=1715109263","airdate":1715097600,"forumGuests":[{"name":"Joseph Alef","bio":"artist, Creative Growth; Alef has a painting in the SFMOMA "},{"name":"Susan Janow","bio":"artist, Creative Growth; Janow has a video piece in the SFMOMA; her work was previously acquired by the SFMOMA in 2018"},{"name":"William Scott","bio":"artist, Creative Growth; Scott has a mural in the SFMOMA; his work was previously acquired by the SFMOMA in 2017"},{"name":"Chris Bedford","bio":"director, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) "},{"name":"Tom Di Maria","bio":"executive director, Creative Growth Art Center"}],"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/forum/2010101905638/sfmomas-new-collaboration-with-artists-with-disabilities","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>If you go to the SFMOMA right now, it’ll be hard to miss the massive, 32-foot wide mural depicting a utopian, fantastical and hopeful version of San Francisco. The mural is the opening to a historic exhibition, “The House that Art Built,” which showcases eleven artists with developmental disabilities who are associated with Oakland-based nonprofit Creative Growth. In addition to the exhibition, SFMOMA has also permanently acquired more than 100 works created by artists with developmental disabilities. We’ll talk about the stunning exhibition, the acquisition and the future for artists with disabilities in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"gallery","attributes":{"named":{"ids":"2010101905663,2010101905665,2010101905664,2010101905662,2010101905660,2010101905661,2010101905657,2010101905658,2010101905659","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/forum/2010101905638/sfmomas-new-collaboration-with-artists-with-disabilities","authors":["11757"],"categories":["forum_165"],"featImg":"forum_2010101905639","label":"forum"},"forum_2010101905643":{"type":"posts","id":"forum_2010101905643","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"forum","id":"2010101905643","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"amor-towles-on-his-new-short-story-collection-table-for-two","title":"Amor Towles on his New Short Story Collection 'Table for Two'","publishDate":1715040070,"format":"audio","headTitle":"Amor Towles on his New Short Story Collection ‘Table for Two’ | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"forum"},"content":"\u003cp>Amor Towles says the title of his new book “Table for Two” arose from a subconscious conviction “that our lives can often change materially due to a single conversation.” And it’s the power of a conversation – or a chance encounter or a sudden decision – to force a personal or historical reckoning that animate the characters in his latest work, a collection of six stories and a novella set in in New York and Los Angeles. We talk to Towles, who’s also the bestselling author of “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “The Lincoln Highway,” about finding inspiration for his stories, how history informs his work and what it’s like to see his novels adapted for the screen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":null,"status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1715109581,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":3,"wordCount":134},"headData":{"title":"Amor Towles on his New Short Story Collection 'Table for Two' | KQED","description":"Amor Towles says the title of his new book “Table for Two” arose from a subconscious conviction “that our lives can often change materially due to a single conversation.” And it’s the power of a conversation – or a chance encounter or a sudden decision – to force a personal or historical reckoning that animate the characters in his latest work, a collection of six stories and a novella set in in New York and Los Angeles. We talk to Towles, who’s also the bestselling author of “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “The Lincoln Highway,” about finding inspiration for his","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Amor Towles on his New Short Story Collection 'Table for Two'","datePublished":"2024-05-07T00:01:10.000Z","dateModified":"2024-05-07T19:19:41.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC5294031054.mp3?updated=1715109647","airdate":1715101200,"forumGuests":[{"name":"Amor Towles","bio":"author, \"Table for Two.\" His other books include \"The Lincoln Highway,\" \"A Gentleman in Moscow\" and \"Rules of Civility.\" "}],"sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/forum/2010101905643/amor-towles-on-his-new-short-story-collection-table-for-two","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Amor Towles says the title of his new book “Table for Two” arose from a subconscious conviction “that our lives can often change materially due to a single conversation.” And it’s the power of a conversation – or a chance encounter or a sudden decision – to force a personal or historical reckoning that animate the characters in his latest work, a collection of six stories and a novella set in in New York and Los Angeles. We talk to Towles, who’s also the bestselling author of “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “The Lincoln Highway,” about finding inspiration for his stories, how history informs his work and what it’s like to see his novels adapted for the screen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/forum/2010101905643/amor-towles-on-his-new-short-story-collection-table-for-two","authors":["243"],"categories":["forum_165"],"featImg":"forum_2010101905644","label":"forum"},"news_11690316":{"type":"posts","id":"news_11690316","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"news","id":"11690316","found":true},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"metoo-unmasks-the-open-secret-of-sexual-abuse-in-yoga","title":"#MeToo Unmasks the Open Secret of Sexual Abuse in Yoga","publishDate":1536351199,"format":"image","headTitle":"The California Report | KQED News","labelTerm":{"term":72,"site":"news"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>Reader advisory: Some accounts of sexual abuse in this story contain explicit details and strong language that some may find upsetting or objectionable.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap]nn West was performing an advanced backbend at a yoga workshop when her teacher came over and stroked her breasts and nipples, she said. He did it, she said, in a way “that could only be described as a caress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'We are, I believe, just beginning to see the impact on the yoga community of this #MeToo moment. \u003c/strong>There is a long history of sexual misconduct and of abuse-of-power situations in the yoga community.'\u003ccite> Shannon Roche, chief operating officer of Yoga Alliance\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Her classmates were rolling back and forth -- no one could have seen the alleged groping by the teacher, West said. “I was amazed, shocked,\" she added. \"I came out of the pose. He quickly got up and walked away and then didn't bother me for the rest of the class.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West shared her story in response to a KQED callout for #MeToo accounts in the Bay Area yoga world. An ensuing investigation revealed a range of allegations by seven women against five teachers: from inappropriate massage to a violating touch in class, from drugging to unlawful sex with a minor. KQED found that the yoga community is struggling to rein in this sexual misconduct and abuse in its ranks. Some experts believe the lack of oversight of teachers and schools is adding to the problems of an industry experiencing explosive growth, where touch and trust are a fundamental part of the practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The women are telling their stories amid a global outcry and reckoning over sexual misconduct and abuse -- the #MeToo movement -- at the highest levels of political office and in many industries, such as film, media and food. The growing number of accounts has forced many businesses and sectors to examine their codes of conduct, reporting processes and handling of bad actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In yoga, experts and leaders say, that soul-searching is only beginning.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11634433/i-dont-feel-safe-at-work-your-metoo-stories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">'I Don't Feel Safe At Work': Your #MeToo Stories\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>West, 50, said initially she was in denial about the November 2013 incident in San Diego -- she felt “psychologically shackled” to Iyengar yoga and kept attending classes with San Francisco-based Manouso Manos. Later, she was afraid to come forward with the allegation: afraid she’d be shunned by the Iyengar community for accusing a famous instructor and afraid it would hurt her livelihood as a yoga teacher of nearly two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that changed in 2015, when West alleged she saw Manos verbally abuse two students in class (which he denied through a spokesman). Though it wasn’t sexual abuse, seeing the experience of the other students was a wake-up call for her to finally distance herself from that world, she said. Then, in 2016, she read a 1991 news article that compelled her to go public: It said Manos had groped students in the 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Flood of #MeToo Stories in Yoga\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]\"W[/dropcap]e are, I believe, just beginning to see the impact on the yoga community of this #MeToo moment,” said Shannon Roche, chief operating officer of Yoga Alliance, \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/About_Us/Our_History\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a voluntary registry\u003c/a> believed to be the industry’s largest credentialing body. “There is a long history of sexual misconduct and of abuse-of-power situations in the yoga community. We also know that, like many other communities, yoga has many times tried to keep those stories in the family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/search/projectid:40564-Yoga-and-MeToo\">Read More Documents in KQED's Investigation\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Some of those stories became public in December 2017 when a well-known yoga teacher and activist, Rachel Brathen, also known as Yoga Girl, released \u003ca href=\"http://rachelbrathen.com/metoo-yoga-stories/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than 300 accounts\u003c/a> she received in response to a callout for #MeToo incidents. They included rape, groping, inappropriate touching, assault and harassment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody knows that there are all these allegations out there. Why are these men still gracing the covers of yoga magazines? Why are they still headlining festivals? Why are they still out there leading teacher trainings, telling young women how to enter this practice?” Brathen told KQED. “It's very, very infuriating.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To date, Brathen has received between 500 and 1,000 #MeToo stories worldwide. The most stories she got from the U.S. were about incidents that happened in California, while New York was second.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In nearly half of the accounts, an attacker wasn’t named; but in those that did, some named the same teacher, said Brathen. Following legal advice, she removed details that could ID the accused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/BcXH1GXFrfr/\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The #MeToo stories “shattered the yoga world,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/yoga-girl-rachel-brathen-collects-more-than-300-metoo-yoga-stories-the-community-responds?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=story1&utm_campaign=myyj_12192017\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote\u003c/a> Yoga Journal. Roche said the accounts were “heartbreaking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A thread through many of them was “that teachers would take advantage of the inherent power dynamic in the teacher-student relationship,” she said, leaving students feeling “exploited and taken advantage of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some cases of sexual abuse involving high-profile yoga teachers have gone public, such as that of \u003ca href=\"https://30for30podcasts.com/bikram/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bikram Choudhury\u003c/a>, founder of the California-based Bikram Yoga empire who was accused by multiple women of rape (he was never charged), according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-bikram-yoga-warrant-20170524-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Associated Press\u003c/a>, and that of the now-deceased \u003ca href=\"https://thewalrus.ca/yogas-culture-of-sexual-abuse-nine-women-tell-their-stories/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Krishna Pattabhi Jois\u003c/a>, who popularized Ashtanga yoga and was accused by nine women of sexual assault. Many others remain shrouded in secrecy and so-called whisper networks.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'[Yoga's] been a bit\u003c/strong> of a hunting ground.'\u003ccite> Matthew Remski, a yoga teacher, trainer and culture critic\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Yoga Alliance, formed in the late 1990s, issued a new sexual misconduct policy and procedures for handling these cases earlier this year, but the group declined to share the number of such complaints it had previously received.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's (yoga) been a bit of a hunting ground,” said Matthew Remski, a yoga teacher, trainer and culture critic who has written about sexual abuse in the community. “Because of the dominance hierarchies, the pedagogy, the implied consent -- the general sense that the practitioner is there to have their body perfected or to perfect their body and that they are going to submit or surrender to the instructions so that can be so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those have been dominant themes,” he added. “And you know, sexual assault is about power -- it's not about sex.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Anyone Can Be a Teacher’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he yoga industry has experienced dramatic growth in the U.S.: Over 36 million people practiced nationwide in 2016, skyrocketing from 16.5 million in 2004, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/Portals/0/2016%20Yoga%20in%20America%20Study%20RESULTS.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yoga in America Study\u003c/a>. Yoga was a $16 billion industry in 2016, shooting up from $10 billion in 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yoga Alliance said as of Aug. 31, it had nearly 92,000 registered yoga teachers -- surging from 9,700 in 2004 -- and 6,355 registered yoga schools, jumping from 280 that same year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690327\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 597px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11690327\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.29-AM-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"597\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.29-AM-qut.jpg 597w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.29-AM-qut-160x118.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.29-AM-qut-240x177.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.29-AM-qut-375x277.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.29-AM-qut-520x384.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot from Yoga Alliance’s social credentialing web page. \u003ccite>(Yoga Alliance)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But that growth has not been accompanied by much oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yoga teachers aren’t licensed in the U.S. (In some states like Oklahoma, instructors of teacher training programs have their qualifications approved as part of a school’s licensure). No state agency, such as a \u003ca href=\"http://www.mbc.ca.gov/CONSUMERS/COMPLAINTS/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">medical board\u003c/a>, oversees instructors, disciplines or investigates them, or defines their practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roche said that, to her knowledge, there is no federal regulation of yoga.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anyone can be a yoga teacher. Anybody could just open a studio and start teaching yoga. They don't have to have any credentials whatsoever. They could have read a book on yoga,” said Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D. and physical therapist, who has been teaching yoga in the Bay Area since 1972.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is no accountability, professional accountability of yoga teachers in the United States,” she added. “All you need to be a yoga teacher in the United States of America is students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690328\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690328\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.38-AM-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"257\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.38-AM-qut.jpg 594w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.38-AM-qut-160x118.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.38-AM-qut-240x177.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.38-AM-qut-375x276.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.38-AM-qut-520x383.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot from Yoga Alliance’s social credentialing web page. Yoga teacher training programs help studios turn a profit, said Gary Kissiah, a lawyer, yoga philosophy teacher and author. “Many studios have teacher training programs now and it's almost essential for their economic survival. A lot of studios break even and it's the yoga teacher training programs that really put them over the line into profitability so that's hugely important,” he said. \u003ccite>(Yoga Alliance)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Laura Camp, owner of Flying Studios in Oakland, said the yoga industry was in its adolescence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's almost like, I'm going to say, snake-oil salesmen -- you know, before medicine was codified in the Old West -- and people could just put a shingle up and say I do this,” Camp said. “The seminal crisis of this industry right now is sexual abuse and that has to stop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oversight does exist in a few states. Minnesota, Oklahoma, Washington and Wisconsin actively regulate yoga teacher training programs, according to Yoga Alliance and a KQED analysis. California typically regulates schools that offer such programs as part of a broader portfolio of study -- currently, that number stands at about 15, according to the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://app.dca.ca.gov/bppe/view-voc-names.asp?program_keyword=yoga+&city=&Submit=Search\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Yoga Alliance leadership \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/Learn/Article_Archive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fought state regulatory efforts\u003c/a>, persevering in at least 11 states. The group said in 2016 that it \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/Portals/0/YA%20Position%20Paper%20on%20Govt%20Regulation_Board%20Approved%20June%203%202016.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">opposed\u003c/a> licensing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Potential harms of government oversight include the burden of fees and rules on the industry’s many small businesses, Yoga Alliance said. And though licensing may serve “as a form of quality assurance,” defining what a yoga teacher must teach would exclude some practices and “stifle creativity,” the group said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if this stance reflected the position of the new Yoga Alliance leadership, which came onboard in May 2017, the group said it was refining its stance but generally opposed regulation specifically targeting the practice or teaching of yoga.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leading yoga experts were split on government oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Regulation and oversight would have consequences for people who have been truly doing not just unethical behavior but what is actually illegal behavior with their student,” said Lasater, whose credentials include C-IAYT (IAYT certified yoga therapist) and E-RYT-500 (experienced registered yoga teacher, 500 hours of training). “A lack of credentialing creates an arena where almost anything goes, from dangerous adjustments, to teachers with little or no training, to the possibility of major boundary crossings -- sexual, physical and emotional.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'It doesn't matter\u003c/strong> if you have a certificate to teach yoga if ... you cannot be prevented from teaching.'\u003ccite> Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D., physical therapist and yoga teacher\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Roche said she didn’t think a lack of government oversight had left the door open to sexual misconduct, but thought Yoga Alliance not having a scope of practice and an updated code of conduct in place -- it’s working on both now -- did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In its earlier years, Yoga Alliance maybe did fall a little bit short,” she said. “I don't think anybody envisioned that it would become ... in lieu of government regulation, the self-regulating body for the industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some dispute that it is: Adhering to any Yoga Alliance standards, codes, \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/Become_a_Member/Member_Overview/Standards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">guidelines\u003c/a> for teacher training programs -- even registering with the group -- is voluntary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn't matter if you have a certificate to teach yoga if ... you cannot be prevented from teaching,” Lasater said. “You see what a mess it is? It's a mess.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many studios and teachers elect to opt out of the Yoga Alliance world, said \u003ca href=\"http://garykissiah.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gary Kissiah\u003c/a>, a lawyer, yoga philosophy teacher and author. “Teachers can certainly open yoga studios and teachers can teach without having any association with Yoga Alliance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kissiah, who in January \u003ca href=\"http://garykissiah.com/general/lets-clean-up-our-yoga-community-now-take-a-stand-stop-the-crap/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published a guide\u003c/a> for studios on dealing with sexual misconduct, said he was skeptical that government regulation could solve the problem and felt effective change would come from the ground up. A first step: educating students about what is proper conduct by teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"These teachers basically conned them into thinking it’s part of their spiritual development, a part of the spiritual practice, a part of the tradition -- all these sorts of things,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kissiah wrote in his guide that yoga could be lost if “we allow it to collapse into ethical and sexual scandals, watered-down physical education classes and commercial exploitation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this fire just keeps burning out of control, at some point, the states are going to say we need to step in here and do something,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘I Wish I Had Come Forward. ... He’s Still Doing This’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]C[/dropcap]harlotte Bell attended a yoga workshop for back pain in San Francisco in February 1988 at the Iyengar Yoga Institute. She said it included a who’s who of teachers, Manos among them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bell, then 32, was doing a variation of downward dog: In the pose, a practitioner’s chest is parallel to the floor -- with their legs shooting straight down from their hips -- and their hands on the wall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when, Bell said, Manos groped her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He came up to me from behind, put his hands on my collarbone and swept his hands over my whole front body right over my breasts,” she said. “I was stunned at first. It was like, ‘What? Did he really just do that?’ And then immediately -- because I was this starry-eyed newer student and he's this well-known and well-respected teacher -- immediately I started doubting it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Manos did not recognize nor was he familiar with Bell, his spokesman said. No complaint was ever filed, he said, and Manos denied that any adjustment he may have made was inappropriate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690359\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690359\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-800x531.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-800x531.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-1200x797.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-1180x784.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-960x638.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-240x159.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-375x249.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-520x345.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut.jpg 1429w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charlotte Bell demonstrating downward dog pose at the wall. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Charlotte Bell)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bell said she buried the incident, but in fall 1989 she heard rumors about other sexual misconduct allegations against Manos -- some that became the subject of a 1991 \u003ca href=\"https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/ad65794f-8422-4f28-9a69-2259a6f5ad3c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">expose in West\u003c/a>, a now-defunct magazine then published by the (San Jose) Mercury News.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allegations had first surfaced against Manos in 1987. He told a representative of the \u003ca href=\"https://iyisf.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco\u003c/a> that it wouldn’t happen again, wrote reporter Bob Frost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More allegations were reported in 1989 and the institute suspended him from teaching in October of that year, Frost wrote. (Frost said there were no corrections to the article in which he quoted Manos as saying: “Though there are inaccuracies in the statements made in this article I do recognize the gravity of the subject matter.”) No criminal charges were filed against Manos, Frost wrote. KQED didn’t find any civil or criminal charges either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>B.K.S. Iyengar, who is “universally acknowledged as the modern master of yoga,” according to the \u003ca href=\"https://iynaus.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States\u003c/a> (IYNAUS), asked the community to forgive Manos, Frost wrote. In October 1990, the S.F. institute’s board of directors voted to reinstate him, Frost wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesman for Manos said the West article was inaccurate, saying Manos wasn’t suspended but voluntarily left (he said he didn’t know the reason for his departure) and didn’t seek reinstatement but was invited to return. He also said Manos denied past and current allegations of sexual misconduct. He didn’t know why Manos hadn’t sought a correction to Frost’s article if he believed there were inaccuracies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lasater, who said she was on the board of directors at the time, told KQED she resigned from it after the vote. She said she personally knew of up to five allegations against Manos -- and that she was in a room where he admitted to the sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had a board member’s responsibility to keep our students safe,” she said. “I wasn’t convinced ... that this wasn’t going to happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11667323/in-california-trying-to-end-the-silence-in-the-wake-of-metoo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In California, Trying to End the Silence in the Wake of #MeToo\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>West filed a police report in March 2018; the San Diego Police Department said it determined the incident to be a misdemeanor. The case was not forwarded to the city attorney for prosecution because it fell outside the statute of limitations, police said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West also filed a complaint against Manos with IYNAUS, in which she included corroborating statements from four people who she’d told over the years about the alleged incident. When KQED asked Manos for comment about West’s allegations, his representative shared his May 15 statement to IYNAUS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have devoted 42 years of my life to teaching and educating tens of thousands of students in a professional and ethical manner,” he wrote. “I categorically deny Ms. West’s allegations, but still feel horrible that a student of mine has these feelings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Manos said West was a student over many years: “It does not make sense to me why she would continue to take my classes if she supposedly felt uncomfortable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am shocked that any adjustment I may have provided to Ms. West in a classroom filled with 50 students has been characterized by her as an ‘assault’ of a sexual nature,” he said, noting that he asks students if he can touch them before making any hands-on adjustments. “That is a very serious accusation and one I do not take lightly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'I am shocked \u003c/strong>that any adjustment I may have provided...in a classroom filled with 50 students has been characterized by her as an ‘assault’ of a sexual nature.'\u003ccite> Manouso Manos, yoga teacher accused of assault\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Bell, 63, a yoga teacher and writer/editor who lives in Salt Lake City, said she wrote about the alleged groping in \u003ca href=\"https://www.huggermugger.com/blog/2013/teacher-student-relationship-2/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2013\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://catalystmagazine.net/yoga-teacher-student-relationship/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2017\u003c/a>. But she never named Manos, thinking he’d taken responsibility and wasn’t doing it anymore, nor did she file a police report or complaint with a yoga body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn't come forward until now -- until I found out that indeed he was still doing this and the incident was strikingly similar to what happened to me,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bell said another person in the yoga community connected her to West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Damn, I wish I had come forward” sooner, she said. “When I heard her story, I felt like, wow, he's still doing this, and maybe I could have helped. So I felt bad ... that I didn’t say anything all those years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West wasn’t upset with Bell for not saying anything -- but she was upset with the national Iyengar yoga association (IYNAUS).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They knew that he'd been at this\" for decades, West said. “We weren't forewarned that essentially this predator was in our midst and we weren't able to make an informed decision as to whether or not we were even going to walk into his class. ... Why didn't we all know about this?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A third woman told KQED Manos slipped his hands inside her bra and massaged her breasts while she was in a resting pose during a 1986 class in New York – an account shared in the Frost article. She wrote California Iyengar yoga leaders in 1990 after she learned Manos would attend an upcoming convention in San Diego despite the sexual misconduct allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonnie Anthony, chair of the convention’s coordinating committee, replied in a \u003ca href=\"https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/263a106c-e0f6-404d-8e41-ba0862ec07be\">May 7, 1990, letter\u003c/a>, saying she was “willing to give him this one more chance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was our recommendation to Mr. Iyengar (and he agreed) to keep Manouso in a low profile at the Convention,” Anthony wrote. “Manouso has a problem, much like alcoholism. He has openly admitted it to Mr. Iyengar and to others and is in therapy, along with his wife, Rita.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED contacted Anthony, sharing with her the May 7 letter plus one the woman sent in response dated May 27 and an earlier one to Lasater from April 18, 1990. Anthony replied: \"The matter re: Manouso was settled many years ago and I have nothing additional to add to the record.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Manos' spokesman denied the 1986 allegation and said he doesn't have anything to say about the letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>IYNAUS declined to answer KQED’s questions about its current Manos investigation or past allegations involving him, citing confidentiality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about the San Francisco Iyengar institute’s handling of the previous allegations against Manos, Brian Hogencamp, president of the Iyengar Yoga Association of Northern California, said he did not know or have additional information to make a comment. Manos is not a teacher at the S.F. institute; he plays an unpaid, external, advisory role to the teachers of one program, Hogencamp said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Donna Farhi, a yoga instructor since 1982 who was on the board of Yoga Journal in the late 1980s, said by email that the publication got letters around that time from several women, unknown to each other and from different states, alleging Manos had “sexually molested” them in class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We made the decision not to feature him in the magazine, or to allow his name to appear in any advertising that might be purchased by someone hosting him,” said Farhi, who is helping Yoga Alliance draft a code of conduct for teachers and is an author of five books, including one on ethics for yoga teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farhi said she knew of West’s and Bell’s allegations, and they showed how students could be abused in class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When students are in positions where they can’t even see each other, it’s almost impossible for these women to get substantive evidence from others that these incidents did indeed happen,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>'We’re Not the Yoga Police'\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen sexual misconduct or abuse does happen in yoga, people don’t have many ways to report it -- except for going to the police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kinoyoga.com/metoo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In a December 2017 post\u003c/a> sharing her #MeToo experience of being sexually assaulted by a teacher, international yoga instructor Kino MacGregor said she reported the attack to Yoga Alliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They replied with a standardized email saying that they could take no action. It made me so mad because it felt like there was no accountability in the yoga world,” she wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'We’re not\u003c/strong> becoming the yoga police.'\u003ccite> Shannon Roche, chief operating officer of Yoga Alliance\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Roche said it was awful to see Yoga Alliance being called out in that story, but added, “I'm glad she did.” The group separated policies for handling sexual misconduct from other grievances; Roche said they needed to be treated with more sensitivity and care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not law enforcement, unfortunately,” she added, echoing a line in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/About_Yoga/Article_Archive/Shannon_Roche_Addresses_Sexual_Misconduct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video\u003c/a> to the membership in which she said, “We’re not becoming the yoga police.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don't have the same resources that they do, and so we won't be able to take the same kind of action that law enforcement would,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The national Iyengar yoga association, which formed in 1991, investigates complaints of ethical violations, including sexual misconduct, said Manju Vachher, chair of the group’s ethics committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The committee recommends sanctions to the executive council, if necessary, Vachher said. Information is shared with the parties involved and occasionally with the executive council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your interest in exploring how the yoga community is responding to the ‘Me Too Movement’ is important,” Vachher said in an email. “I am not able to do an interview or discuss any cases due to the confidentiality issues. During and after any investigative process, we uphold strict standards of privacy for all parties ...”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vachher declined to answer questions about the number of complaints made against Manos to IYNAUS since the late 1980s allegations arose and how many teachers the group has sanctioned over sexual misconduct complaints (and what the sanctions are for such violations).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West doesn’t think the committee can be an independent arbiter of Manos, who is on the association’s senior council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They're just one arm of an organization -- the same organization giving him these accolades and awards,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>'He Felt That I Needed to Feel More Into My Body’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap]fter moving to Oakland from L.A. in 2016, Deisha Smith had left some business problems behind and was looking to make friends in her new home. She thought yoga teacher training would be one way to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, Smith said things felt great: Her mentor at \u003ca href=\"http://www.piedmontyoga.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Piedmont Yoga\u003c/a> in Berkeley and Oakland, Zubin Shroff, dubbed her the “minister of joy” for sharing uplifting news items. After her one-on-one sessions began with Shroff in fall 2016, however, things took a turn: She said he had her meet him at his West Berkeley condo, where they discussed personal things about her life -- rarely yoga. Finding the experience odd, she eventually stopped going.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/438664/what-happens-when-metoo-stories-reignite-old-trauma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What Happens When #MeToo Stories Reignite Old Trauma\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>After a short break, Smith said, Shroff reached out, saying they should restart the sessions. And, she should let him give her a massage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He felt that I needed to feel more into my body and that would involve him doing massage. Shiatsu massage. I've never had shiatsu massage,” said Smith, 40, who works in financing and funding for small businesses. “I didn't even look it up -- but that's how trusting I was of the situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith said the sessions in February and March 2017 were “all massage that got increasingly uncomfortable,” on a futon mattress. Unlike before, there was no conversation. They were both clothed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In the fifth (final) session, he spent the majority of the time massaging my butt and groin,” she said in a June 2017 statement to the Berkeley Police Department. “He literally massaged my butt and innermost part of my groin, as close as he could possibly be without physically touching my actual vagina.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She thought the shiatsu was “extremely weird and uncomfortable, but just part of the procedure,” she said in her police statement. “He was my instructor so the last thing I expected was for him to do anything inappropriate.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about Smith’s allegation, Shroff said in an email that he did not touch anyone inappropriately. In that same correspondence dated March 1, Shroff said he was no longer the studio’s director and noted it was “the end of a prolonged transition phase” where he had “been stepping back from directing the studio and teaching.” (Piedmont Yoga is a storied Bay Area yoga institution that has a checkered past with one of its founders, Rodney Yee, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/fashion/weddings/07Vows.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">marrying\u003c/a> a \u003ca href=\"http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/12023/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">student\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.self.com/story/yoga-sex-scandals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">having sexual relationships\u003c/a> with \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Yoga-guru-in-compromising-position-Celebrity-2836809.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">other students\u003c/a>, according to various media reports.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith wasn’t the only student getting massage from Shroff: Sarah Shimazaki said she had about 10 shiatsu sessions at Shroff’s condo starting in March 2017, paying about $40 for each one. She said the shiatsu was a “positive” experience that helped her where talk therapy hadn’t, and Shroff never touched her inappropriately.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11642818/sexual-abuse-in-the-yoga-community-share-your-story\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sexual Abuse in the Yoga Community: Share Your Story\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Another student, who didn’t want to be identified, said Shroff told her during a one-on-one session at his condo in December 2016 that he offered shiatsu “at no cost” to students. She declined and said she later wondered, “ ‘Why is he offering me a free massage?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought he was creeping on the people he was attracted to or the people who somehow appeared to be vulnerable,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith reported the massage to two teachers in the program and to the police. One of the teachers, Leslie Howard, told police she didn’t know Shroff was offering massage to students, nor had she heard of him providing massage sessions to any other students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she asked him about the massage, Howard said Shroff told her: “I totally get it, I won't do this anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My thought, my feeling about Zubin is his heart is in the right place,” Howard said. “He has let so many people who can't afford yoga programs do the program for little to no money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Howard also said that when she asked Smith if Shroff had touched her inappropriately, Smith said “no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shroff was a \u003ca href=\"http://www.ohashiatsu.org/us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">certified ohashiatsu consultant\u003c/a> from 2011-13, according to the New York-based Ohashi International Ltd, which also said he graduated from the institute’s six-level curriculum program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Shroff didn’t have a license to perform massage in Berkeley, said Matthai Chakko, assistant to the city manager. Nor was he certified with the California Massage Therapy Council (which said such ohashiatsu credentials would not qualify someone to get certification with the organization).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California doesn’t have state licensing for massage, but the vast majority of its cities and counties have massage therapy ordinances. While certification with CAMTC is voluntary, cities are required by state law to accept it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley authorities opened a code enforcement case regarding Shroff’s lack of massage and business licenses. In late June, Shroff was sent a notice of violation, which serves as a warning to encourage compliance, Chakko said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the scheduled site inspection this week at his Berkeley condo, Mr. Shroff stated he has relinquished his part-ownership with Piedmont Yoga and no longer conducts any business within the City. Code Enforcement verified that his unit is vacant and actively listed for sale,” Chakko wrote on July 20.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The case is now closed,” Chakko said. “Should new information arise, or if we find future violations with his involvement, we will pick up where we left off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chakko said Shroff wasn’t penalized over the zoning violation, noting it was the city’s initial contact and the goal is to bring people into voluntary compliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11691888/yoga-and-metoo-i-trusted-yoga-so-i-trusted-him\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn more about this investigation on The Bay\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101867191/reports-of-sexual-misconduct-expose-lack-of-oversight-in-yoga-industry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum discusses KQED’s findings about sexual abuse in the yoga community.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Berkeley police forwarded Smith’s case with a charge of misdemeanor sexual battery to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, which declined to prosecute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Howard recalled Smith as a student who didn’t participate as much in the beginning of the program but got more engaged over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She did a stellar job in her student teaching class. ... I was just like, ‘Wow,’” Howard said. But when Howard went to Shroff to advocate for Smith at one point, she said he told her Smith wasn’t “participating in his class at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shimazaki said Shroff told her about the police investigation in June 2017; the next month, she said, he spoke with her and others about transferring the business to them. In early August 2018, Shimazaki said Shroff would be transferring the business to her and another student, though it wasn’t yet complete; she said he would assist as an adviser. On Friday, she said she wouldn’t be taking over. Shroff didn’t reply to an inquiry last week about who owned the business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The transfer had nothing to do with Smith’s allegation, Shroff said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith closes her police statement saying: “I do not want this to happen to anyone else. It was as though he was taking advantage of his role as the instructor to engage in the inappropriate massage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘We Cannot Rely on Karma Alone’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ome people become dedicated to yoga “at a time of a lot of disruption in their life,” making it imperative that studios offer a safe space for students to practice, said Sarah Herrington, program administrator for \u003ca href=\"https://bellarmine.lmu.edu/yoga/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the yoga studies program\u003c/a> at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To help do that, Roche said Yoga Alliance was recommending studios \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/timesup-metoo-ending-sexual-abuse-in-the-yoga-community\">set up reporting processes\u003c/a>. That’s what Kissiah, the lawyer and yoga philosophy teacher, thinks will make an impact -- but right now is “absolutely lacking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Studios should have a code of conduct and a hotline or an email address where students can contact an independent ethics committee, he said. “That recommendation is really nothing other than applying what's very common in corporate America to the world of yoga studios.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What most studios have done is either nothing or they have referred to the ethical code in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/5-reasons-know-patanjalis-yoga-sutra\">Yoga Sutras\u003c/a>,” which is general and doesn't provide “guidance in the modern context,” he said. “Often what happens is one of these situations arises and there's this huge panic because they simply don't have the structure or the means to deal with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrington urged studios to post a code of ethics and have a place to report abuse. “We cannot rely on karma alone,” she \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/07/opinion/yoga-code-of-ethics-bikram-choudhury.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote in a 2017 New York Times op-ed\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690335\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690335\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deisha Smith alleges her yoga mentor groped her during a teacher training program in the East Bay. \u003ccite>(Samantha Shanahan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Smith, such a reporting process didn’t exist -- and it’s part of the reason she wanted to share her story: to push for this kind of change. Her alleged assailant also was the head of the studio, complicating her reporting of his behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shroff said mediation was offered and he would have attended; Smith said she was initially interested but changed her mind due to her experience in college after she was raped. She said she didn't get anything from mediation then and questioned if the teachers would take on the person paying them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West had the same concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt if I went against Manos I would be going against a big organization ... against the Iyengar family themselves” because of his close ties to B.K.S. Iyengar, the founder of Iyengar, West said. “There will be a sense of betrayal. ... that I'm betraying Iyengar yoga and I'm betraying the Iyengar family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘It Was a Bloodbath’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ome people in the yoga community have taken a hard stand on dealing with sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Camp, owner of Flying Studios in Oakland, has twice fired teachers over sexual harassment allegations, which almost put her out of business -- both times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a huge backlash and a huge loss of income and a huge loss of community,” she said after the first dismissal. “Open letter on my Facebook about how I needed to hire this person back or these students would never come back. It was a bloodbath. And then it happened again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lisa Maria, a yoga instructor in the Bay Area who has written about sexual misconduct in the community, said studios have removed teachers from the schedule following complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In my experience, this seems to be getting better,” Maria said. “People are much more willing to talk about it now, and I think people are seeing responses from studios about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SoulPlay Festivals, which organizes events around yoga, dance, personal growth and more, stresses \u003ca href=\"http://soulplay.co/festival/safety\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">safety, touch and consent\u003c/a> at its gatherings: Presenters offer frequent reminders about it, the group has an online form to report misconduct, and staff are on site to handle allegations, said Romi Elan, founder and CEO of SoulPlay Festivals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's that feeling of safety ... is what allows people to open up, open themselves up to having a very profound and deep experience,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690329\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 480px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690329 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-480x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-480x1200.jpg 480w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-160x400.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-800x2000.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-1020x2550.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-1180x2950.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-960x2400.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-240x600.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-375x938.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-520x1300.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SoulPlay, which organizes events around yoga, dance, personal growth and more, stresses safety and consent at its gatherings. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SoulPlay)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other studios and groups haven’t adopted such strategies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes studio owners won't do anything about teachers accused of sexual misconduct because they’re a popular instructor, said Lasater. Or if they do fire them, “then the teacher just goes down the road and teaches somewhere else,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yoga teachers can reinvent themselves over and over and over again because of the ability to move from place to place,” Lisa Maria said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some students have left their studio -- or even given up the practice of yoga -- after misconduct or abuse. The latter was the case for some of the women who responded to KQED’s callout for #MeToo stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrington said she stopped attending classes taught by her favorite teacher after he began sending her sexually explicit messages on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Often what happens is that the student disappears and goes to another community. You lose your community. Because if somebody is running the show, and they're doing the misuse of power, where are you going to go?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only thing that can stop a teacher who is sexually abusing students is if the studio owner takes action or if the victim goes the legal route, said Lasater. “They (the victim) have to be the one that shoulders all the burden,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet there’s not much that law enforcement can do: Most sex assault cases don’t make it into the criminal courts, said Kristen Houser, a spokeswoman at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge for prosecutors in pursuing these cases can be convincing jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime occurred, especially when there aren’t other witnesses -- if it happened one on one, which could trigger a “he said/she said” scenario, said Mary Ashley, an assistant district attorney in San Bernardino County whose work has included sexual battery cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” she said. Even if “a jury says, ‘Well, I kind of believe her but I don't totally disbelieve him,’ the law at least criminally will say you have to give favor to the defendant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘This Happened to Me, and I’m a Teacher’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]L[/dropcap]eaving yoga has been a heartbreaking consideration for Eka Ekong, a yoga teacher in Marin County, over the last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It began, she said, with an unwelcome remark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ekong, 42, of San Rafael, was taking a class in November 2017 at the studio where she worked. She’d just taken her sweatshirt off when the teacher, Allan Nett looked at her, she recalled, and said: “This is what I get to look at the whole time.” (Nett denied saying that, noting he said, “Now I can see you” -- meaning it would help him give her correct adjustments. He said he had no intention of objectifying her body or being sexual.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The comment unnerved Ekong, she said, but she continued with the practice -- though later, she said, he adjusted her legs while she was in the lunge pose of Warrior 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He came behind me and put his hands on my legs close to my genitals and he abruptly pulled my legs apart,” she said. “I came out of the pose. I tried to kind of neutralize or equalize because I could feel something was off.” (Nett said given his stature -- 5-foot-3, 120 pounds -- and that at the time he was awaiting an open heart operation, he didn’t have the strength, energy or size to “abruptly” pull her legs apart.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Something was off: According to medical records, Ekong's doctor found she’d sustained a leg/groin injury, suffering bruising and soft tissue injuries. A week after the alleged assault, her doctor wrote, she had “significant swelling and several very tender areas where the instructor’s hands were placed as well as the surrounding tissues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nett, 72, said he asks permission from students before he touches them, and Ekong said she had given him the OK earlier in the class to make adjustments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I put one hand just above the knee on the inner thigh and the other hand above the knee on the outer thigh ... to demonstrate and have the student feel the rotation that the pose requires to bring the hips into alignment,” he said. “So I've got hands above her knee -- one hand on the inside, one hand on the outside -- and I've got a good grip there and I'm starting to roll that thigh backwards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he “thought that she understood the action that I was asking for in the pose as she came up. There was not any kind of indication that she injured herself or that there was injury going on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/series/beyondmetoo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KQED's Series: Beyond #MeToo\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>As of today, Ekong said she still can’t practice yoga. She said she goes weekly to physical and trauma therapies, and sees her doctor every few weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are some days my body just hurts,” she said. “And really basic things are not so basic.” Like putting on shoes. Walking. Straightening her legs. It has also been hard to sit, including cross-legged -- one of the most common poses in yoga.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emotional wounds run deep, too, for Ekong, who began practicing in 1999 and teaching in 2006.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day, my close friends, students and peers, they ask me, how are you healing? I don’t know what to tell them,” she wrote to the national Iyengar yoga association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How do I tell them at some moments I’m OK and then I’m in tears. How do I explain that this morning I was so angry that I wanted to scream out loud, that I wonder if I’ll ever be able to practice yoga asana again or feel safe as a student in the yoga studio? That I wonder daily if I still want to be a teacher and part of a larger systemic issue that elevates the teacher and lessens the wisdom of the student,” she continued in the letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know if it involves teaching, but yoga will always be a part of my life. But I can’t say what that looks like,” she said. “There’s some part of me that has been taken away that I’m still trying to find again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nett, an instructor of more than 25 years who hasn’t been teaching recently due to his surgery, said he was let go from the studio, which KQED isn’t naming due to Ekong’s concern that it’s her place of employment. The studio said it could not comment on specific employee matters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All I can say is, 'Gee whiz, I'm sorry that you got injured in my class.’ But I think there's more to this story than anybody's ever going to know,” he said in an hour-long phone call with KQED, adding that he felt there were enough “little inconsistencies” in Ekong’s description of the injuries that “I really question the truth of it all.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As she has described it, I find it difficult to accept that she was injured. It was possibly a pre-existing weakness, combined with the strong posture of Warrior II that strained,” he said. But he also noted: “There's certainly some truth in it and I'm not saying that she was not injured.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About five years ago, Nett said one of his students complained about inappropriate touch (not of a sexual nature; she just didn’t want to be touched) to a studio owner in Oakland: “I took it to heart,” he said, and modified his behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Touch is an important part of learning, Nett said: “By moving a muscle manually the body understands it, and you don't have to think about it.\" But he has decided to stop offering adjustments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has been traumatic. And I'm sure it's traumatic for her,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immediately after the incident, Ekong withdrew from her friends and yoga community. She said she felt like she was wearing a scarlet letter “A,” was somehow to blame for what happened, and that her studio was no longer her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fekaette.ekong.5%2Fposts%2F10155956900267272&width=500\" width=\"600\" height=\"290\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, she knew she had to speak out. She contacted the studio, Central Marin police and the national Iyengar yoga association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s important that you know this is happening, because if this happened to me and I’m a teacher, imagine what’s really happening and people aren’t saying anything,” she recalled telling the studio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and Nett said IYNAUS is reviewing her complaint (the group declined to comment about the case, citing confidentiality).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Central Marin police said in an email that there was no mention of sexual assault when Ekong’s report was made, and since it “was not criminal in nature,” it did not meet the criteria for referral to the DA. The matter, police said, was left to the studio to handle; Ekong said she intends to file a supplemental report to police.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Most Victims Don’t Report’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]H[/dropcap]oward, one of the teachers in the Piedmont Yoga training program, wanted to know why Deisha Smith hadn’t told her about the alleged inappropriate touch by director Zubin Shroff when she reported the massage and when Howard said she had specifically asked about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was completely uncomfortable and I was still dealing with the fact that he did not vaginally insert me. He 'just touched me,'” Smith said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of the women who contacted KQED with their stories didn’t report right away to law enforcement or others what happened -- or only partially reported it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such behavior isn’t unusual: When sexual misconduct is reported, partial or delayed reporting -- or inconsistencies in such reports -- are “the norm and it should be expected,” said Houser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Through our eyes, that bolsters the validity of complaints,” she added. Few people make prompt complaints, include all of the details, and consistently tell it the same way. “That's not how traumatic events are processed and stored in our bodies and in our brains.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men in the U.S. reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime, only one in 10 women -- and one in 20 men -- filed an official complaint or report to an authority figure, including a police report, according to a January 2018 \u003ca href=\"http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Full-Report-2018-National-Study-on-Sexual-Harassment-and-Assault.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stop Street Harassment online survey\u003c/a> of 2,000 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most victims don't report, or hold off doing so, for a variety of reasons. But they “all fall under the large umbrella of: They don’t trust the rest of us to respond appropriately,” said Houser.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'I trusted yoga so I trusted him.\u003c/strong> I shouldn't have made that connection.'\u003ccite> a teenager, who says her yoga teacher had sex with her\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Those reasons, she said, include fear of being disbelieved, blamed or having their privacy violated through gossip. Some people fear repercussions in their home life or their social circles, which often include the assailant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People often keep it to themselves, not to mention it's a very confusing thing when somebody that you know and trust violates that trust,” Houser said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked what was holding people back from reporting abuse in yoga, Brathen said: “I think the biggest piece is fear of being alienated from this community that means so much to us.” That community built through yoga, she said, is “sacred” and such an “important part of the practice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘I Trusted Yoga So I Trusted Him’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]“A[/dropcap]re you 18 years old? Holy shit.” That was the first message a Bay Area teenager said that her yoga teacher sent to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was then 17, in the summer before her first year in college; he was twice her age. She said she had a crush on him and thought he liked her, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next few months, she said her teacher groomed her to have sex with him: In a number of text messages, he said he had something to tell her, but to do that, they had to meet in person and in private. (The teenager, who didn’t want to be identified out of concerns for her privacy and safety, shared the Facebook and text messages with KQED).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690342\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 424px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11690342\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_Bother_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.15.15-PM-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"424\" height=\"278\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_Bother_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.15.15-PM-qut.jpg 424w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_Bother_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.15.15-PM-qut-160x105.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_Bother_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.15.15-PM-qut-240x157.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_Bother_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.15.15-PM-qut-375x246.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He wanted to meet me alone so he could explain why everything had to be so secretive and he would always say it will all make sense once we get to chat in person,” she said. “I am a kid but I'm not dumb. And I knew the obvious reasons, which were that you don't want people to think that you fuck your students and I'm really young.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of his text messages read: “I know I sound like some kind of criminal or something but it would be great if we could hang out in a place that is not so public.” Another one read: “Any place that is low key so we aren’t seen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690343\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 601px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11690343\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_secretbar_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.10.44-PM-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"601\" height=\"498\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_secretbar_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.10.44-PM-qut.jpg 601w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_secretbar_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.10.44-PM-qut-160x133.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_secretbar_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.10.44-PM-qut-240x199.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_secretbar_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.10.44-PM-qut-375x311.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_secretbar_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.10.44-PM-qut-520x431.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 601px) 100vw, 601px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Early on, she expressed reservations about connecting outside the classroom. She’d blossomed in yoga: It helped ease her anxiety and made her feel safe, capable and independent. “I was convinced that I wanted to be a yoga teacher. It was my whole thing,” she said. “I considered it a big defining part of who I was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he assured her, in text messages, that she could keep coming to classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690355\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690355\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-800x714.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"714\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-800x714.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-160x143.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-1020x910.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-1200x1071.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-1180x1053.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-960x856.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-240x214.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-375x335.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-520x464.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut.jpg 1224w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, they did meet outside the studio -- a week before her 18th birthday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690348\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690348\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut-800x218.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"136\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut-800x218.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut-160x44.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut-240x65.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut-375x102.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut-520x142.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut.jpg 902w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690349\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690349\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut-800x232.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"145\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut-800x232.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut-160x46.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut-240x70.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut-375x109.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut-520x151.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut.jpg 904w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She said he invited her to a bar in a quiet Bay Area community, where he bought her several drinks (she had a fake ID), and then he took her to a hotel, where they smoked hashish. She recalled being “very intoxicated and a little woozy” before they had sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a nearly two-hour interview with KQED, the teacher said he didn’t have sex with her and that he left her with two of his friends in the hotel room whom he declined to identify; the police report said it was clear from the text messages that the pair did have a sexual relationship, “however brief,” and no mention was made of his friends. The teen said he didn’t have friends with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690356\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690356\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_police_Screen-Shot-2018-08-30-at-2.08.17-PM-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_police_Screen-Shot-2018-08-30-at-2.08.17-PM-qut.jpg 605w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_police_Screen-Shot-2018-08-30-at-2.08.17-PM-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_police_Screen-Shot-2018-08-30-at-2.08.17-PM-qut-240x159.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_police_Screen-Shot-2018-08-30-at-2.08.17-PM-qut-375x249.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_police_Screen-Shot-2018-08-30-at-2.08.17-PM-qut-520x345.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The teacher also said the teenager told him she was 18; she said her birthday -- including year -- was listed on Facebook, and though she at one point told him in a SMS that she was 18, she said she thought he knew her real age and they were both “going to pretend” she was 18. The police also noted that she had not told him her real age but said she was 18.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690364\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690364\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_18_Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-12.23.59-PM-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_18_Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-12.23.59-PM-qut.jpg 617w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_18_Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-12.23.59-PM-qut-160x87.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_18_Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-12.23.59-PM-qut-240x131.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_18_Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-12.23.59-PM-qut-375x205.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_18_Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-12.23.59-PM-qut-520x284.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After their encounter, she said he left the hotel a short time later but it took months for her to realize what had happened: “I was basically sexually abused and manipulated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt dumb for thinking that because he was my yoga teacher and because he was so much older than me -- because he was my spiritual counselor in some ways -- that he wouldn't take advantage of me,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I trusted yoga so I trusted him,” she said. “I shouldn't have made that connection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she came back home from college to the Bay Area, she planned to tell her mom -- only to find out she had gone through her phone and seen the messages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teen’s mom said she called some studios where he taught to report the teacher; he said one let him go and he assumed it was because of the mother’s calls. Another studio owner said they let him go because of the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teacher said it had been “one really long hard struggle” after the teen -- who he called “just a fuckin’ girl” -- went to the police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll just say that her mom tried really hard to make my life extremely hard and she succeeded,” he said. “I’ve lost a lot of sleep over this and been hurt ... I’ve had to ask some people for support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>Have a tip or information to share? You can contact reporter Miranda Leitsinger on the encrypted communications app Signal (650-888-2765) or by email: mleitsinger@kqed.org\u003c/h3>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The teenager decided to come forward with her story after learning that a second student, Leah Tumerman, 36, had accused the teacher of threatening earlier this year that he and his partner should “Bill Cosby her.” Tumerman told police she understood this to mean “he would drug and rape me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tumerman, a longtime student of the teacher, said she became scared of him and his change in personality. The pair had gotten into a conversation about food over text message, and the discussion somehow took a turn, she said. The teacher denied making the comment but said they did argue about food. Tumerman, an artist from Richmond, filed a police report for documentation purposes only.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teen’s case was forwarded to the DA’s office, which declined to prosecute.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘You Have to Face the Shame of Your Complicity’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap] number of women have come forward in recent months to share their accounts of alleged abuse by their yoga teachers -- triggering a growing conversation in the community about sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, Yoga Alliance issued \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/About_Yoga/Article_Archive/Yoga_Alliance_Statement_on_Sexual_Misconduct_in_Our_Community\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a statement\u003c/a> on sexual misconduct in the yoga community. In January, it released Roche’s video and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/Sexual_Misconduct_Resources/Unity_in_Yoga_with_RAINN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">podcast\u003c/a> on the topic, and weeks later published \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/About_Us/Policies/Sexual_Misconduct_Disciplinary_Procedure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sexual misconduct disciplinary procedures\u003c/a> and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/About_Us/Policies/Policy_Prohibiting_Sexual_Misconduct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">policy\u003c/a> on its website. In early September, the group said it could “confirm that we have suspended and revoked credentials under our new policy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In this #MeToo moment, we too must act,” Roche, of Yoga Alliance, said in the video. “There’s a deeply troubling pattern of misconduct within our community, a pattern that touches almost every tradition in modern yoga. To definitively turn the page on that history, we must openly acknowledge the issue of sexual misconduct in yoga.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remski, the yoga teacher and culture critic, said Roche’s message to the yoga community heralded a “sea change moment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/p/BmCL66zlrlz/?hl=en&taken-by=yoga_girl\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It puts the entire culture on notice that this is a thing. It's not dirty laundry anymore. It's totally out in the open,” he said. “With one sentence, she implicated the entire culture as having enabled this and that's what hasn't been done yet. ... Nobody has looked at it as a systemic problem -- because when you look at it as a systemic problem, you have to face the shame of your complicity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lasater said she was very supportive of Yoga Alliance’s efforts but felt the community still has a long way to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If teachers don't have true consequences, what is going to cause them to change their behavior?” she said. “Nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brathen, or Yoga Girl, said she was “torn” over Yoga Alliance’s initial solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am still very unclear as to what action will be taken at the end of the day,” she said. “If the worst thing that can happen to you as a perpetrator is that your name gets taken off the website, I don't think that that's going to do a whole lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early August, Brathen published her second series of #MeToo stories. She wrote how tough it was to expel the alleged sexual harassers and abusers from the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Stone, a Token: The New Conversation on Touch Consent\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690330\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690330\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Touch consent tokens at Yoga Tree near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Miranda Leitsinger/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]L[/dropcap]asater and other yoga leaders said they felt students -- particularly women -- were going to be a part of the solution. One sign already? The “touch consent” cards, chips and tokens popping up in studios across the country. Years ago, the first version of those were painted stones, paper clips, even a leaf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students would place such an object on top or below their mat to signal if a teacher could touch them, said Remski.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690326\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690326\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-160x213.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-900x1200.jpg 900w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-1180x1573.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-960x1280.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-240x320.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-375x500.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-520x693.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yoga teacher Bayley Blackney leads a workshop on touch in Capitola on March 24, 2018. \u003ccite>(Miranda Leitsinger/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The yoga room has been a space of implied consent. And that is no longer the case. The politics, the techniques, the methods of consent are now fully part of yoga discourse,” Remski said. “It undoes something profound in the last 100 years of yoga pedagogy, which is the notion that the teachers should decide what the student needs or what they should do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The growing use of the tokens has broader implications, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://video.kqed.org/show/metoo-now-what/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#MeToo, Now What?\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“The #MeToo movement also signifies a solidification of the change in leadership in modern yoga from men to women because those tokens ... are the latest generation of what women started using about 10 or 12 years ago in small studios,” he said. “It's a grass-roots idea that has worked its way up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teachers now typically ask students at the beginning of class to let them know if they want adjustments or not, and some instructors are holding workshops on touch and consent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bayley Blackney hosted such a gathering at a studio in Capitola in late March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Touch is something that I’m so passionate about. It’s love language and I am very, very passionate about creating a safe touch,” she said. “Now is the time to really offer this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘I Lost a Large Chunk of My Life’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap]nger. Anxiety. Depression. Discomfort. Distrust. Empowerment. Exhaustion. Fear. Guilt. Frustration. Insomnia. Isolation. Self-doubt. Tears. Triggering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The women that KQED interviewed experienced all of this and more as they grappled with what they said their teachers did to them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes I'm really angry because I feel like I lost a large chunk of my life living in a cloud that I didn't realize I was in until I got out of it,” Smith said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She has experienced panic attacks, anxiety and days where she couldn’t get out of bed. Thirty-one percent of women and 20 percent of men felt anxiety or depression after experiencing sexual harassment and assault, according to Stop Street Harassment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith still doesn’t have her teacher certificate, although Shroff said in a July 17 email that she’d met the requirements. Smith said she has an outstanding payment that she can’t bring herself to pay because she'd regret \"paying to be abused.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the teen, she said it’s been a hard reckoning for her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was fresh out of high school and I slept with someone literally twice my age -- like halfway between me and my parents,” she said. “It took my innocence away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tumerman, who alleged the same teacher involved in the teen’s case had threatened to “Bill Cosby” her, hasn’t returned to yoga. Her last time was in his class, after the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'Yoga isn't a safe space\u003c/strong> for me anymore. And it used to be ... What had been my life is now no longer my life.'\u003ccite> Ann West\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“I was still processing the change, my new understanding of my teacher,” she said in explaining why she attended the class. “I practiced with my eyes closed the entire time. ... I couldn't look at him. The sound of his voice was making me shake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did my practice and I rolled up my mat and left the room. And I haven't seen him since,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ekong said: “My life is forever changed.” She has decided to leave the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not home. I can’t heal here,” she said. \"I don't want to worry about running into him or students asking when are you going to come back to teach.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for West, she said she has removed herself to the “outskirts” of the Iyengar yoga community and attends classes only with the one teacher she can trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yoga isn't a safe space for me anymore. And it used to be,” she said. “I would take workshops and go to conventions and travel to India. And none of that is happening anymore. I have no interest in it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What had been my life is now no longer my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Edited by David Weir and Patricia Yollin\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A KQED investigation found that the yoga community is struggling to rein in sexual misconduct and abuse in its ranks.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1539282847,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":237,"wordCount":10600},"headData":{"title":"#MeToo Unmasks the Open Secret of Sexual Abuse in Yoga | KQED","description":"A KQED investigation found that the yoga community is struggling to rein in sexual misconduct and abuse in its ranks.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"#MeToo Unmasks the Open Secret of Sexual Abuse in Yoga","datePublished":"2018-09-07T20:13:19.000Z","dateModified":"2018-10-11T18:34:07.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png","isAccessibleForFree":"Y","publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","@id":"https://www.kqed.org/#organization","name":"KQED","url":"https://www.kqed.org","logo":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"authorsData":[{"type":"authors","id":"11310","meta":{"index":"authors_1591205172","id":"11310","found":true},"name":"Miranda Leitsinger","firstName":"Miranda","lastName":"Leitsinger","slug":"mleitsinger","email":"mleitsinger@KQED.org","display_author_email":false,"staff_mastheads":["news"],"title":"KQED Contributor","bio":"Miranda Leitsinger has worked in journalism as a reporter and editor since 2000, including seven years at The Associated Press in locales such as Cambodia and Puerto Rico, four years at NBC News Digital in New York and 2.5 years at CNN.com International in Hong Kong. Major stories she has covered included sexual abuse in the yoga community, the rise of women in local politics post-2016 election, the struggle over LGBTQ inclusion in the Boy Scouts, aftermath of the 2004 and 2011 tsunamis, the Aurora movie theater attack, the Newtown school shooting, Superstorm Sandy and the Boston Marathon bombing.","avatar":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/cdd00de7be92aab3b7fd3d915e02033d?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twitter":"mimileitsinger","facebook":null,"instagram":null,"linkedin":null,"sites":[{"site":"arts","roles":["author"]},{"site":"news","roles":["subscriber"]},{"site":"futureofyou","roles":["editor"]},{"site":"stateofhealth","roles":["editor"]}],"headData":{"title":"Miranda Leitsinger | KQED","description":"KQED Contributor","ogImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/cdd00de7be92aab3b7fd3d915e02033d?s=600&d=blank&r=g","twImgSrc":"https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/cdd00de7be92aab3b7fd3d915e02033d?s=600&d=blank&r=g"},"isLoading":false,"link":"/author/mleitsinger"}],"imageData":{"ogImageSize":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/yogaharassment_final001-qut-1020x546.jpg","width":1020,"height":546,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"twImageSize":{"file":"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/yogaharassment_final001-qut-1020x546.jpg","width":1020,"height":546,"mimeType":"image/jpeg"},"twitterCard":"summary_large_image"},"tagData":{"tags":["enterprise","featured","Iyengar","MeToo","sexual abuse","sexual misconduct","the-california-report-featured","yoga"]}},"disqusIdentifier":"11690316 https://ww2.kqed.org/news/?p=11690316","disqusUrl":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2018/09/07/metoo-unmasks-the-open-secret-of-sexual-abuse-in-yoga/","disqusTitle":"#MeToo Unmasks the Open Secret of Sexual Abuse in Yoga","audioUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/tcrmag/2018/09/YogaInvestigationTCRMAG.mp3","audioTrackLength":873,"path":"/news/11690316/metoo-unmasks-the-open-secret-of-sexual-abuse-in-yoga","audioDuration":887000,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Reader advisory: Some accounts of sexual abuse in this story contain explicit details and strong language that some may find upsetting or objectionable.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>nn West was performing an advanced backbend at a yoga workshop when her teacher came over and stroked her breasts and nipples, she said. He did it, she said, in a way “that could only be described as a caress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'We are, I believe, just beginning to see the impact on the yoga community of this #MeToo moment. \u003c/strong>There is a long history of sexual misconduct and of abuse-of-power situations in the yoga community.'\u003ccite> Shannon Roche, chief operating officer of Yoga Alliance\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Her classmates were rolling back and forth -- no one could have seen the alleged groping by the teacher, West said. “I was amazed, shocked,\" she added. \"I came out of the pose. He quickly got up and walked away and then didn't bother me for the rest of the class.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West shared her story in response to a KQED callout for #MeToo accounts in the Bay Area yoga world. An ensuing investigation revealed a range of allegations by seven women against five teachers: from inappropriate massage to a violating touch in class, from drugging to unlawful sex with a minor. KQED found that the yoga community is struggling to rein in this sexual misconduct and abuse in its ranks. Some experts believe the lack of oversight of teachers and schools is adding to the problems of an industry experiencing explosive growth, where touch and trust are a fundamental part of the practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The women are telling their stories amid a global outcry and reckoning over sexual misconduct and abuse -- the #MeToo movement -- at the highest levels of political office and in many industries, such as film, media and food. The growing number of accounts has forced many businesses and sectors to examine their codes of conduct, reporting processes and handling of bad actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In yoga, experts and leaders say, that soul-searching is only beginning.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11634433/i-dont-feel-safe-at-work-your-metoo-stories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">'I Don't Feel Safe At Work': Your #MeToo Stories\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>West, 50, said initially she was in denial about the November 2013 incident in San Diego -- she felt “psychologically shackled” to Iyengar yoga and kept attending classes with San Francisco-based Manouso Manos. Later, she was afraid to come forward with the allegation: afraid she’d be shunned by the Iyengar community for accusing a famous instructor and afraid it would hurt her livelihood as a yoga teacher of nearly two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that changed in 2015, when West alleged she saw Manos verbally abuse two students in class (which he denied through a spokesman). Though it wasn’t sexual abuse, seeing the experience of the other students was a wake-up call for her to finally distance herself from that world, she said. Then, in 2016, she read a 1991 news article that compelled her to go public: It said Manos had groped students in the 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Flood of #MeToo Stories in Yoga\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">\"W\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>e are, I believe, just beginning to see the impact on the yoga community of this #MeToo moment,” said Shannon Roche, chief operating officer of Yoga Alliance, \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/About_Us/Our_History\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a voluntary registry\u003c/a> believed to be the industry’s largest credentialing body. “There is a long history of sexual misconduct and of abuse-of-power situations in the yoga community. We also know that, like many other communities, yoga has many times tried to keep those stories in the family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/search/projectid:40564-Yoga-and-MeToo\">Read More Documents in KQED's Investigation\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Some of those stories became public in December 2017 when a well-known yoga teacher and activist, Rachel Brathen, also known as Yoga Girl, released \u003ca href=\"http://rachelbrathen.com/metoo-yoga-stories/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than 300 accounts\u003c/a> she received in response to a callout for #MeToo incidents. They included rape, groping, inappropriate touching, assault and harassment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody knows that there are all these allegations out there. Why are these men still gracing the covers of yoga magazines? Why are they still headlining festivals? Why are they still out there leading teacher trainings, telling young women how to enter this practice?” Brathen told KQED. “It's very, very infuriating.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To date, Brathen has received between 500 and 1,000 #MeToo stories worldwide. The most stories she got from the U.S. were about incidents that happened in California, while New York was second.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In nearly half of the accounts, an attacker wasn’t named; but in those that did, some named the same teacher, said Brathen. Following legal advice, she removed details that could ID the accused.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"instagramLink","attributes":{"named":{"instagramId":"BcXH1GXFrfr"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The #MeToo stories “shattered the yoga world,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/yoga-girl-rachel-brathen-collects-more-than-300-metoo-yoga-stories-the-community-responds?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=story1&utm_campaign=myyj_12192017\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote\u003c/a> Yoga Journal. Roche said the accounts were “heartbreaking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A thread through many of them was “that teachers would take advantage of the inherent power dynamic in the teacher-student relationship,” she said, leaving students feeling “exploited and taken advantage of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some cases of sexual abuse involving high-profile yoga teachers have gone public, such as that of \u003ca href=\"https://30for30podcasts.com/bikram/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bikram Choudhury\u003c/a>, founder of the California-based Bikram Yoga empire who was accused by multiple women of rape (he was never charged), according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-bikram-yoga-warrant-20170524-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Associated Press\u003c/a>, and that of the now-deceased \u003ca href=\"https://thewalrus.ca/yogas-culture-of-sexual-abuse-nine-women-tell-their-stories/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Krishna Pattabhi Jois\u003c/a>, who popularized Ashtanga yoga and was accused by nine women of sexual assault. Many others remain shrouded in secrecy and so-called whisper networks.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'[Yoga's] been a bit\u003c/strong> of a hunting ground.'\u003ccite> Matthew Remski, a yoga teacher, trainer and culture critic\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Yoga Alliance, formed in the late 1990s, issued a new sexual misconduct policy and procedures for handling these cases earlier this year, but the group declined to share the number of such complaints it had previously received.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's (yoga) been a bit of a hunting ground,” said Matthew Remski, a yoga teacher, trainer and culture critic who has written about sexual abuse in the community. “Because of the dominance hierarchies, the pedagogy, the implied consent -- the general sense that the practitioner is there to have their body perfected or to perfect their body and that they are going to submit or surrender to the instructions so that can be so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those have been dominant themes,” he added. “And you know, sexual assault is about power -- it's not about sex.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Anyone Can Be a Teacher’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>he yoga industry has experienced dramatic growth in the U.S.: Over 36 million people practiced nationwide in 2016, skyrocketing from 16.5 million in 2004, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/Portals/0/2016%20Yoga%20in%20America%20Study%20RESULTS.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yoga in America Study\u003c/a>. Yoga was a $16 billion industry in 2016, shooting up from $10 billion in 2012.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yoga Alliance said as of Aug. 31, it had nearly 92,000 registered yoga teachers -- surging from 9,700 in 2004 -- and 6,355 registered yoga schools, jumping from 280 that same year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690327\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 597px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11690327\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.29-AM-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"597\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.29-AM-qut.jpg 597w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.29-AM-qut-160x118.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.29-AM-qut-240x177.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.29-AM-qut-375x277.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.29-AM-qut-520x384.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot from Yoga Alliance’s social credentialing web page. \u003ccite>(Yoga Alliance)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But that growth has not been accompanied by much oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yoga teachers aren’t licensed in the U.S. (In some states like Oklahoma, instructors of teacher training programs have their qualifications approved as part of a school’s licensure). No state agency, such as a \u003ca href=\"http://www.mbc.ca.gov/CONSUMERS/COMPLAINTS/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">medical board\u003c/a>, oversees instructors, disciplines or investigates them, or defines their practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roche said that, to her knowledge, there is no federal regulation of yoga.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anyone can be a yoga teacher. Anybody could just open a studio and start teaching yoga. They don't have to have any credentials whatsoever. They could have read a book on yoga,” said Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D. and physical therapist, who has been teaching yoga in the Bay Area since 1972.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is no accountability, professional accountability of yoga teachers in the United States,” she added. “All you need to be a yoga teacher in the United States of America is students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690328\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 350px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690328\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.38-AM-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"257\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.38-AM-qut.jpg 594w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.38-AM-qut-160x118.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.38-AM-qut-240x177.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.38-AM-qut-375x276.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-11.15.38-AM-qut-520x383.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot from Yoga Alliance’s social credentialing web page. Yoga teacher training programs help studios turn a profit, said Gary Kissiah, a lawyer, yoga philosophy teacher and author. “Many studios have teacher training programs now and it's almost essential for their economic survival. A lot of studios break even and it's the yoga teacher training programs that really put them over the line into profitability so that's hugely important,” he said. \u003ccite>(Yoga Alliance)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Laura Camp, owner of Flying Studios in Oakland, said the yoga industry was in its adolescence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's almost like, I'm going to say, snake-oil salesmen -- you know, before medicine was codified in the Old West -- and people could just put a shingle up and say I do this,” Camp said. “The seminal crisis of this industry right now is sexual abuse and that has to stop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oversight does exist in a few states. Minnesota, Oklahoma, Washington and Wisconsin actively regulate yoga teacher training programs, according to Yoga Alliance and a KQED analysis. California typically regulates schools that offer such programs as part of a broader portfolio of study -- currently, that number stands at about 15, according to the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://app.dca.ca.gov/bppe/view-voc-names.asp?program_keyword=yoga+&city=&Submit=Search\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier Yoga Alliance leadership \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/Learn/Article_Archive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fought state regulatory efforts\u003c/a>, persevering in at least 11 states. The group said in 2016 that it \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/Portals/0/YA%20Position%20Paper%20on%20Govt%20Regulation_Board%20Approved%20June%203%202016.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">opposed\u003c/a> licensing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Potential harms of government oversight include the burden of fees and rules on the industry’s many small businesses, Yoga Alliance said. And though licensing may serve “as a form of quality assurance,” defining what a yoga teacher must teach would exclude some practices and “stifle creativity,” the group said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked if this stance reflected the position of the new Yoga Alliance leadership, which came onboard in May 2017, the group said it was refining its stance but generally opposed regulation specifically targeting the practice or teaching of yoga.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leading yoga experts were split on government oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Regulation and oversight would have consequences for people who have been truly doing not just unethical behavior but what is actually illegal behavior with their student,” said Lasater, whose credentials include C-IAYT (IAYT certified yoga therapist) and E-RYT-500 (experienced registered yoga teacher, 500 hours of training). “A lack of credentialing creates an arena where almost anything goes, from dangerous adjustments, to teachers with little or no training, to the possibility of major boundary crossings -- sexual, physical and emotional.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'It doesn't matter\u003c/strong> if you have a certificate to teach yoga if ... you cannot be prevented from teaching.'\u003ccite> Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D., physical therapist and yoga teacher\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Roche said she didn’t think a lack of government oversight had left the door open to sexual misconduct, but thought Yoga Alliance not having a scope of practice and an updated code of conduct in place -- it’s working on both now -- did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In its earlier years, Yoga Alliance maybe did fall a little bit short,” she said. “I don't think anybody envisioned that it would become ... in lieu of government regulation, the self-regulating body for the industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some dispute that it is: Adhering to any Yoga Alliance standards, codes, \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/Become_a_Member/Member_Overview/Standards\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">guidelines\u003c/a> for teacher training programs -- even registering with the group -- is voluntary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn't matter if you have a certificate to teach yoga if ... you cannot be prevented from teaching,” Lasater said. “You see what a mess it is? It's a mess.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many studios and teachers elect to opt out of the Yoga Alliance world, said \u003ca href=\"http://garykissiah.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gary Kissiah\u003c/a>, a lawyer, yoga philosophy teacher and author. “Teachers can certainly open yoga studios and teachers can teach without having any association with Yoga Alliance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kissiah, who in January \u003ca href=\"http://garykissiah.com/general/lets-clean-up-our-yoga-community-now-take-a-stand-stop-the-crap/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published a guide\u003c/a> for studios on dealing with sexual misconduct, said he was skeptical that government regulation could solve the problem and felt effective change would come from the ground up. A first step: educating students about what is proper conduct by teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"These teachers basically conned them into thinking it’s part of their spiritual development, a part of the spiritual practice, a part of the tradition -- all these sorts of things,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kissiah wrote in his guide that yoga could be lost if “we allow it to collapse into ethical and sexual scandals, watered-down physical education classes and commercial exploitation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this fire just keeps burning out of control, at some point, the states are going to say we need to step in here and do something,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘I Wish I Had Come Forward. ... He’s Still Doing This’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">C\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>harlotte Bell attended a yoga workshop for back pain in San Francisco in February 1988 at the Iyengar Yoga Institute. She said it included a who’s who of teachers, Manos among them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bell, then 32, was doing a variation of downward dog: In the pose, a practitioner’s chest is parallel to the floor -- with their legs shooting straight down from their hips -- and their hands on the wall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when, Bell said, Manos groped her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He came up to me from behind, put his hands on my collarbone and swept his hands over my whole front body right over my breasts,” she said. “I was stunned at first. It was like, ‘What? Did he really just do that?’ And then immediately -- because I was this starry-eyed newer student and he's this well-known and well-respected teacher -- immediately I started doubting it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Manos did not recognize nor was he familiar with Bell, his spokesman said. No complaint was ever filed, he said, and Manos denied that any adjustment he may have made was inappropriate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690359\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690359\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-800x531.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-800x531.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-1200x797.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-1180x784.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-960x638.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-240x159.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-375x249.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut-520x345.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/bell-qut.jpg 1429w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charlotte Bell demonstrating downward dog pose at the wall. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Charlotte Bell)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bell said she buried the incident, but in fall 1989 she heard rumors about other sexual misconduct allegations against Manos -- some that became the subject of a 1991 \u003ca href=\"https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/ad65794f-8422-4f28-9a69-2259a6f5ad3c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">expose in West\u003c/a>, a now-defunct magazine then published by the (San Jose) Mercury News.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allegations had first surfaced against Manos in 1987. He told a representative of the \u003ca href=\"https://iyisf.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco\u003c/a> that it wouldn’t happen again, wrote reporter Bob Frost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More allegations were reported in 1989 and the institute suspended him from teaching in October of that year, Frost wrote. (Frost said there were no corrections to the article in which he quoted Manos as saying: “Though there are inaccuracies in the statements made in this article I do recognize the gravity of the subject matter.”) No criminal charges were filed against Manos, Frost wrote. KQED didn’t find any civil or criminal charges either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>B.K.S. Iyengar, who is “universally acknowledged as the modern master of yoga,” according to the \u003ca href=\"https://iynaus.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States\u003c/a> (IYNAUS), asked the community to forgive Manos, Frost wrote. In October 1990, the S.F. institute’s board of directors voted to reinstate him, Frost wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesman for Manos said the West article was inaccurate, saying Manos wasn’t suspended but voluntarily left (he said he didn’t know the reason for his departure) and didn’t seek reinstatement but was invited to return. He also said Manos denied past and current allegations of sexual misconduct. He didn’t know why Manos hadn’t sought a correction to Frost’s article if he believed there were inaccuracies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lasater, who said she was on the board of directors at the time, told KQED she resigned from it after the vote. She said she personally knew of up to five allegations against Manos -- and that she was in a room where he admitted to the sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had a board member’s responsibility to keep our students safe,” she said. “I wasn’t convinced ... that this wasn’t going to happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11667323/in-california-trying-to-end-the-silence-in-the-wake-of-metoo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In California, Trying to End the Silence in the Wake of #MeToo\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>West filed a police report in March 2018; the San Diego Police Department said it determined the incident to be a misdemeanor. The case was not forwarded to the city attorney for prosecution because it fell outside the statute of limitations, police said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West also filed a complaint against Manos with IYNAUS, in which she included corroborating statements from four people who she’d told over the years about the alleged incident. When KQED asked Manos for comment about West’s allegations, his representative shared his May 15 statement to IYNAUS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have devoted 42 years of my life to teaching and educating tens of thousands of students in a professional and ethical manner,” he wrote. “I categorically deny Ms. West’s allegations, but still feel horrible that a student of mine has these feelings.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Manos said West was a student over many years: “It does not make sense to me why she would continue to take my classes if she supposedly felt uncomfortable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am shocked that any adjustment I may have provided to Ms. West in a classroom filled with 50 students has been characterized by her as an ‘assault’ of a sexual nature,” he said, noting that he asks students if he can touch them before making any hands-on adjustments. “That is a very serious accusation and one I do not take lightly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'I am shocked \u003c/strong>that any adjustment I may have provided...in a classroom filled with 50 students has been characterized by her as an ‘assault’ of a sexual nature.'\u003ccite> Manouso Manos, yoga teacher accused of assault\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Bell, 63, a yoga teacher and writer/editor who lives in Salt Lake City, said she wrote about the alleged groping in \u003ca href=\"https://www.huggermugger.com/blog/2013/teacher-student-relationship-2/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2013\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://catalystmagazine.net/yoga-teacher-student-relationship/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2017\u003c/a>. But she never named Manos, thinking he’d taken responsibility and wasn’t doing it anymore, nor did she file a police report or complaint with a yoga body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn't come forward until now -- until I found out that indeed he was still doing this and the incident was strikingly similar to what happened to me,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bell said another person in the yoga community connected her to West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Damn, I wish I had come forward” sooner, she said. “When I heard her story, I felt like, wow, he's still doing this, and maybe I could have helped. So I felt bad ... that I didn’t say anything all those years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West wasn’t upset with Bell for not saying anything -- but she was upset with the national Iyengar yoga association (IYNAUS).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They knew that he'd been at this\" for decades, West said. “We weren't forewarned that essentially this predator was in our midst and we weren't able to make an informed decision as to whether or not we were even going to walk into his class. ... Why didn't we all know about this?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A third woman told KQED Manos slipped his hands inside her bra and massaged her breasts while she was in a resting pose during a 1986 class in New York – an account shared in the Frost article. She wrote California Iyengar yoga leaders in 1990 after she learned Manos would attend an upcoming convention in San Diego despite the sexual misconduct allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonnie Anthony, chair of the convention’s coordinating committee, replied in a \u003ca href=\"https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/263a106c-e0f6-404d-8e41-ba0862ec07be\">May 7, 1990, letter\u003c/a>, saying she was “willing to give him this one more chance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was our recommendation to Mr. Iyengar (and he agreed) to keep Manouso in a low profile at the Convention,” Anthony wrote. “Manouso has a problem, much like alcoholism. He has openly admitted it to Mr. Iyengar and to others and is in therapy, along with his wife, Rita.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED contacted Anthony, sharing with her the May 7 letter plus one the woman sent in response dated May 27 and an earlier one to Lasater from April 18, 1990. Anthony replied: \"The matter re: Manouso was settled many years ago and I have nothing additional to add to the record.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Manos' spokesman denied the 1986 allegation and said he doesn't have anything to say about the letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>IYNAUS declined to answer KQED’s questions about its current Manos investigation or past allegations involving him, citing confidentiality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about the San Francisco Iyengar institute’s handling of the previous allegations against Manos, Brian Hogencamp, president of the Iyengar Yoga Association of Northern California, said he did not know or have additional information to make a comment. Manos is not a teacher at the S.F. institute; he plays an unpaid, external, advisory role to the teachers of one program, Hogencamp said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Donna Farhi, a yoga instructor since 1982 who was on the board of Yoga Journal in the late 1980s, said by email that the publication got letters around that time from several women, unknown to each other and from different states, alleging Manos had “sexually molested” them in class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We made the decision not to feature him in the magazine, or to allow his name to appear in any advertising that might be purchased by someone hosting him,” said Farhi, who is helping Yoga Alliance draft a code of conduct for teachers and is an author of five books, including one on ethics for yoga teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farhi said she knew of West’s and Bell’s allegations, and they showed how students could be abused in class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When students are in positions where they can’t even see each other, it’s almost impossible for these women to get substantive evidence from others that these incidents did indeed happen,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>'We’re Not the Yoga Police'\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">W\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hen sexual misconduct or abuse does happen in yoga, people don’t have many ways to report it -- except for going to the police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kinoyoga.com/metoo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">In a December 2017 post\u003c/a> sharing her #MeToo experience of being sexually assaulted by a teacher, international yoga instructor Kino MacGregor said she reported the attack to Yoga Alliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They replied with a standardized email saying that they could take no action. It made me so mad because it felt like there was no accountability in the yoga world,” she wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'We’re not\u003c/strong> becoming the yoga police.'\u003ccite> Shannon Roche, chief operating officer of Yoga Alliance\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Roche said it was awful to see Yoga Alliance being called out in that story, but added, “I'm glad she did.” The group separated policies for handling sexual misconduct from other grievances; Roche said they needed to be treated with more sensitivity and care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are not law enforcement, unfortunately,” she added, echoing a line in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/About_Yoga/Article_Archive/Shannon_Roche_Addresses_Sexual_Misconduct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">video\u003c/a> to the membership in which she said, “We’re not becoming the yoga police.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don't have the same resources that they do, and so we won't be able to take the same kind of action that law enforcement would,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The national Iyengar yoga association, which formed in 1991, investigates complaints of ethical violations, including sexual misconduct, said Manju Vachher, chair of the group’s ethics committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The committee recommends sanctions to the executive council, if necessary, Vachher said. Information is shared with the parties involved and occasionally with the executive council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your interest in exploring how the yoga community is responding to the ‘Me Too Movement’ is important,” Vachher said in an email. “I am not able to do an interview or discuss any cases due to the confidentiality issues. During and after any investigative process, we uphold strict standards of privacy for all parties ...”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vachher declined to answer questions about the number of complaints made against Manos to IYNAUS since the late 1980s allegations arose and how many teachers the group has sanctioned over sexual misconduct complaints (and what the sanctions are for such violations).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West doesn’t think the committee can be an independent arbiter of Manos, who is on the association’s senior council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They're just one arm of an organization -- the same organization giving him these accolades and awards,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>'He Felt That I Needed to Feel More Into My Body’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>fter moving to Oakland from L.A. in 2016, Deisha Smith had left some business problems behind and was looking to make friends in her new home. She thought yoga teacher training would be one way to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, Smith said things felt great: Her mentor at \u003ca href=\"http://www.piedmontyoga.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Piedmont Yoga\u003c/a> in Berkeley and Oakland, Zubin Shroff, dubbed her the “minister of joy” for sharing uplifting news items. After her one-on-one sessions began with Shroff in fall 2016, however, things took a turn: She said he had her meet him at his West Berkeley condo, where they discussed personal things about her life -- rarely yoga. Finding the experience odd, she eventually stopped going.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/438664/what-happens-when-metoo-stories-reignite-old-trauma\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What Happens When #MeToo Stories Reignite Old Trauma\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>After a short break, Smith said, Shroff reached out, saying they should restart the sessions. And, she should let him give her a massage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He felt that I needed to feel more into my body and that would involve him doing massage. Shiatsu massage. I've never had shiatsu massage,” said Smith, 40, who works in financing and funding for small businesses. “I didn't even look it up -- but that's how trusting I was of the situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith said the sessions in February and March 2017 were “all massage that got increasingly uncomfortable,” on a futon mattress. Unlike before, there was no conversation. They were both clothed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In the fifth (final) session, he spent the majority of the time massaging my butt and groin,” she said in a June 2017 statement to the Berkeley Police Department. “He literally massaged my butt and innermost part of my groin, as close as he could possibly be without physically touching my actual vagina.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She thought the shiatsu was “extremely weird and uncomfortable, but just part of the procedure,” she said in her police statement. “He was my instructor so the last thing I expected was for him to do anything inappropriate.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about Smith’s allegation, Shroff said in an email that he did not touch anyone inappropriately. In that same correspondence dated March 1, Shroff said he was no longer the studio’s director and noted it was “the end of a prolonged transition phase” where he had “been stepping back from directing the studio and teaching.” (Piedmont Yoga is a storied Bay Area yoga institution that has a checkered past with one of its founders, Rodney Yee, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/fashion/weddings/07Vows.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">marrying\u003c/a> a \u003ca href=\"http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/12023/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">student\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.self.com/story/yoga-sex-scandals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">having sexual relationships\u003c/a> with \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Yoga-guru-in-compromising-position-Celebrity-2836809.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">other students\u003c/a>, according to various media reports.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith wasn’t the only student getting massage from Shroff: Sarah Shimazaki said she had about 10 shiatsu sessions at Shroff’s condo starting in March 2017, paying about $40 for each one. She said the shiatsu was a “positive” experience that helped her where talk therapy hadn’t, and Shroff never touched her inappropriately.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11642818/sexual-abuse-in-the-yoga-community-share-your-story\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sexual Abuse in the Yoga Community: Share Your Story\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Another student, who didn’t want to be identified, said Shroff told her during a one-on-one session at his condo in December 2016 that he offered shiatsu “at no cost” to students. She declined and said she later wondered, “ ‘Why is he offering me a free massage?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought he was creeping on the people he was attracted to or the people who somehow appeared to be vulnerable,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith reported the massage to two teachers in the program and to the police. One of the teachers, Leslie Howard, told police she didn’t know Shroff was offering massage to students, nor had she heard of him providing massage sessions to any other students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she asked him about the massage, Howard said Shroff told her: “I totally get it, I won't do this anymore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My thought, my feeling about Zubin is his heart is in the right place,” Howard said. “He has let so many people who can't afford yoga programs do the program for little to no money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Howard also said that when she asked Smith if Shroff had touched her inappropriately, Smith said “no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shroff was a \u003ca href=\"http://www.ohashiatsu.org/us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">certified ohashiatsu consultant\u003c/a> from 2011-13, according to the New York-based Ohashi International Ltd, which also said he graduated from the institute’s six-level curriculum program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Shroff didn’t have a license to perform massage in Berkeley, said Matthai Chakko, assistant to the city manager. Nor was he certified with the California Massage Therapy Council (which said such ohashiatsu credentials would not qualify someone to get certification with the organization).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California doesn’t have state licensing for massage, but the vast majority of its cities and counties have massage therapy ordinances. While certification with CAMTC is voluntary, cities are required by state law to accept it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley authorities opened a code enforcement case regarding Shroff’s lack of massage and business licenses. In late June, Shroff was sent a notice of violation, which serves as a warning to encourage compliance, Chakko said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the scheduled site inspection this week at his Berkeley condo, Mr. Shroff stated he has relinquished his part-ownership with Piedmont Yoga and no longer conducts any business within the City. Code Enforcement verified that his unit is vacant and actively listed for sale,” Chakko wrote on July 20.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The case is now closed,” Chakko said. “Should new information arise, or if we find future violations with his involvement, we will pick up where we left off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chakko said Shroff wasn’t penalized over the zoning violation, noting it was the city’s initial contact and the goal is to bring people into voluntary compliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11691888/yoga-and-metoo-i-trusted-yoga-so-i-trusted-him\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn more about this investigation on The Bay\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101867191/reports-of-sexual-misconduct-expose-lack-of-oversight-in-yoga-industry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum discusses KQED’s findings about sexual abuse in the yoga community.\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Berkeley police forwarded Smith’s case with a charge of misdemeanor sexual battery to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, which declined to prosecute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Howard recalled Smith as a student who didn’t participate as much in the beginning of the program but got more engaged over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She did a stellar job in her student teaching class. ... I was just like, ‘Wow,’” Howard said. But when Howard went to Shroff to advocate for Smith at one point, she said he told her Smith wasn’t “participating in his class at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shimazaki said Shroff told her about the police investigation in June 2017; the next month, she said, he spoke with her and others about transferring the business to them. In early August 2018, Shimazaki said Shroff would be transferring the business to her and another student, though it wasn’t yet complete; she said he would assist as an adviser. On Friday, she said she wouldn’t be taking over. Shroff didn’t reply to an inquiry last week about who owned the business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The transfer had nothing to do with Smith’s allegation, Shroff said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith closes her police statement saying: “I do not want this to happen to anyone else. It was as though he was taking advantage of his role as the instructor to engage in the inappropriate massage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘We Cannot Rely on Karma Alone’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">S\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ome people become dedicated to yoga “at a time of a lot of disruption in their life,” making it imperative that studios offer a safe space for students to practice, said Sarah Herrington, program administrator for \u003ca href=\"https://bellarmine.lmu.edu/yoga/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the yoga studies program\u003c/a> at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To help do that, Roche said Yoga Alliance was recommending studios \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/timesup-metoo-ending-sexual-abuse-in-the-yoga-community\">set up reporting processes\u003c/a>. That’s what Kissiah, the lawyer and yoga philosophy teacher, thinks will make an impact -- but right now is “absolutely lacking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Studios should have a code of conduct and a hotline or an email address where students can contact an independent ethics committee, he said. “That recommendation is really nothing other than applying what's very common in corporate America to the world of yoga studios.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What most studios have done is either nothing or they have referred to the ethical code in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/5-reasons-know-patanjalis-yoga-sutra\">Yoga Sutras\u003c/a>,” which is general and doesn't provide “guidance in the modern context,” he said. “Often what happens is one of these situations arises and there's this huge panic because they simply don't have the structure or the means to deal with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrington urged studios to post a code of ethics and have a place to report abuse. “We cannot rely on karma alone,” she \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/07/opinion/yoga-code-of-ethics-bikram-choudhury.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote in a 2017 New York Times op-ed\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690335\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690335\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/deisha-qut-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deisha Smith alleges her yoga mentor groped her during a teacher training program in the East Bay. \u003ccite>(Samantha Shanahan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Smith, such a reporting process didn’t exist -- and it’s part of the reason she wanted to share her story: to push for this kind of change. Her alleged assailant also was the head of the studio, complicating her reporting of his behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shroff said mediation was offered and he would have attended; Smith said she was initially interested but changed her mind due to her experience in college after she was raped. She said she didn't get anything from mediation then and questioned if the teachers would take on the person paying them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>West had the same concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt if I went against Manos I would be going against a big organization ... against the Iyengar family themselves” because of his close ties to B.K.S. Iyengar, the founder of Iyengar, West said. “There will be a sense of betrayal. ... that I'm betraying Iyengar yoga and I'm betraying the Iyengar family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘It Was a Bloodbath’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">S\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ome people in the yoga community have taken a hard stand on dealing with sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Camp, owner of Flying Studios in Oakland, has twice fired teachers over sexual harassment allegations, which almost put her out of business -- both times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a huge backlash and a huge loss of income and a huge loss of community,” she said after the first dismissal. “Open letter on my Facebook about how I needed to hire this person back or these students would never come back. It was a bloodbath. And then it happened again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lisa Maria, a yoga instructor in the Bay Area who has written about sexual misconduct in the community, said studios have removed teachers from the schedule following complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In my experience, this seems to be getting better,” Maria said. “People are much more willing to talk about it now, and I think people are seeing responses from studios about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SoulPlay Festivals, which organizes events around yoga, dance, personal growth and more, stresses \u003ca href=\"http://soulplay.co/festival/safety\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">safety, touch and consent\u003c/a> at its gatherings: Presenters offer frequent reminders about it, the group has an online form to report misconduct, and staff are on site to handle allegations, said Romi Elan, founder and CEO of SoulPlay Festivals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It's that feeling of safety ... is what allows people to open up, open themselves up to having a very profound and deep experience,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690329\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 480px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690329 size-complete_open_graph\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-480x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-480x1200.jpg 480w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-160x400.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-800x2000.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-1020x2550.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-1180x2950.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-960x2400.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-240x600.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-375x938.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut-520x1300.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SoulPlay-Infographic_1-14-18-qut.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SoulPlay, which organizes events around yoga, dance, personal growth and more, stresses safety and consent at its gatherings. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of SoulPlay)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Other studios and groups haven’t adopted such strategies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes studio owners won't do anything about teachers accused of sexual misconduct because they’re a popular instructor, said Lasater. Or if they do fire them, “then the teacher just goes down the road and teaches somewhere else,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yoga teachers can reinvent themselves over and over and over again because of the ability to move from place to place,” Lisa Maria said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some students have left their studio -- or even given up the practice of yoga -- after misconduct or abuse. The latter was the case for some of the women who responded to KQED’s callout for #MeToo stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrington said she stopped attending classes taught by her favorite teacher after he began sending her sexually explicit messages on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Often what happens is that the student disappears and goes to another community. You lose your community. Because if somebody is running the show, and they're doing the misuse of power, where are you going to go?” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only thing that can stop a teacher who is sexually abusing students is if the studio owner takes action or if the victim goes the legal route, said Lasater. “They (the victim) have to be the one that shoulders all the burden,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet there’s not much that law enforcement can do: Most sex assault cases don’t make it into the criminal courts, said Kristen Houser, a spokeswoman at the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge for prosecutors in pursuing these cases can be convincing jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime occurred, especially when there aren’t other witnesses -- if it happened one on one, which could trigger a “he said/she said” scenario, said Mary Ashley, an assistant district attorney in San Bernardino County whose work has included sexual battery cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen,” she said. Even if “a jury says, ‘Well, I kind of believe her but I don't totally disbelieve him,’ the law at least criminally will say you have to give favor to the defendant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘This Happened to Me, and I’m a Teacher’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">L\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>eaving yoga has been a heartbreaking consideration for Eka Ekong, a yoga teacher in Marin County, over the last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It began, she said, with an unwelcome remark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ekong, 42, of San Rafael, was taking a class in November 2017 at the studio where she worked. She’d just taken her sweatshirt off when the teacher, Allan Nett looked at her, she recalled, and said: “This is what I get to look at the whole time.” (Nett denied saying that, noting he said, “Now I can see you” -- meaning it would help him give her correct adjustments. He said he had no intention of objectifying her body or being sexual.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The comment unnerved Ekong, she said, but she continued with the practice -- though later, she said, he adjusted her legs while she was in the lunge pose of Warrior 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He came behind me and put his hands on my legs close to my genitals and he abruptly pulled my legs apart,” she said. “I came out of the pose. I tried to kind of neutralize or equalize because I could feel something was off.” (Nett said given his stature -- 5-foot-3, 120 pounds -- and that at the time he was awaiting an open heart operation, he didn’t have the strength, energy or size to “abruptly” pull her legs apart.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Something was off: According to medical records, Ekong's doctor found she’d sustained a leg/groin injury, suffering bruising and soft tissue injuries. A week after the alleged assault, her doctor wrote, she had “significant swelling and several very tender areas where the instructor’s hands were placed as well as the surrounding tissues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nett, 72, said he asks permission from students before he touches them, and Ekong said she had given him the OK earlier in the class to make adjustments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I put one hand just above the knee on the inner thigh and the other hand above the knee on the outer thigh ... to demonstrate and have the student feel the rotation that the pose requires to bring the hips into alignment,” he said. “So I've got hands above her knee -- one hand on the inside, one hand on the outside -- and I've got a good grip there and I'm starting to roll that thigh backwards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he “thought that she understood the action that I was asking for in the pose as she came up. There was not any kind of indication that she injured herself or that there was injury going on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/series/beyondmetoo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">KQED's Series: Beyond #MeToo\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>As of today, Ekong said she still can’t practice yoga. She said she goes weekly to physical and trauma therapies, and sees her doctor every few weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are some days my body just hurts,” she said. “And really basic things are not so basic.” Like putting on shoes. Walking. Straightening her legs. It has also been hard to sit, including cross-legged -- one of the most common poses in yoga.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The emotional wounds run deep, too, for Ekong, who began practicing in 1999 and teaching in 2006.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day, my close friends, students and peers, they ask me, how are you healing? I don’t know what to tell them,” she wrote to the national Iyengar yoga association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How do I tell them at some moments I’m OK and then I’m in tears. How do I explain that this morning I was so angry that I wanted to scream out loud, that I wonder if I’ll ever be able to practice yoga asana again or feel safe as a student in the yoga studio? That I wonder daily if I still want to be a teacher and part of a larger systemic issue that elevates the teacher and lessens the wisdom of the student,” she continued in the letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know if it involves teaching, but yoga will always be a part of my life. But I can’t say what that looks like,” she said. “There’s some part of me that has been taken away that I’m still trying to find again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nett, an instructor of more than 25 years who hasn’t been teaching recently due to his surgery, said he was let go from the studio, which KQED isn’t naming due to Ekong’s concern that it’s her place of employment. The studio said it could not comment on specific employee matters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All I can say is, 'Gee whiz, I'm sorry that you got injured in my class.’ But I think there's more to this story than anybody's ever going to know,” he said in an hour-long phone call with KQED, adding that he felt there were enough “little inconsistencies” in Ekong’s description of the injuries that “I really question the truth of it all.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As she has described it, I find it difficult to accept that she was injured. It was possibly a pre-existing weakness, combined with the strong posture of Warrior II that strained,” he said. But he also noted: “There's certainly some truth in it and I'm not saying that she was not injured.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About five years ago, Nett said one of his students complained about inappropriate touch (not of a sexual nature; she just didn’t want to be touched) to a studio owner in Oakland: “I took it to heart,” he said, and modified his behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Touch is an important part of learning, Nett said: “By moving a muscle manually the body understands it, and you don't have to think about it.\" But he has decided to stop offering adjustments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has been traumatic. And I'm sure it's traumatic for her,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immediately after the incident, Ekong withdrew from her friends and yoga community. She said she felt like she was wearing a scarlet letter “A,” was somehow to blame for what happened, and that her studio was no longer her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fekaette.ekong.5%2Fposts%2F10155956900267272&width=500\" width=\"600\" height=\"290\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, she knew she had to speak out. She contacted the studio, Central Marin police and the national Iyengar yoga association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s important that you know this is happening, because if this happened to me and I’m a teacher, imagine what’s really happening and people aren’t saying anything,” she recalled telling the studio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and Nett said IYNAUS is reviewing her complaint (the group declined to comment about the case, citing confidentiality).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Central Marin police said in an email that there was no mention of sexual assault when Ekong’s report was made, and since it “was not criminal in nature,” it did not meet the criteria for referral to the DA. The matter, police said, was left to the studio to handle; Ekong said she intends to file a supplemental report to police.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Most Victims Don’t Report’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">H\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>oward, one of the teachers in the Piedmont Yoga training program, wanted to know why Deisha Smith hadn’t told her about the alleged inappropriate touch by director Zubin Shroff when she reported the massage and when Howard said she had specifically asked about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was completely uncomfortable and I was still dealing with the fact that he did not vaginally insert me. He 'just touched me,'” Smith said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of the women who contacted KQED with their stories didn’t report right away to law enforcement or others what happened -- or only partially reported it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such behavior isn’t unusual: When sexual misconduct is reported, partial or delayed reporting -- or inconsistencies in such reports -- are “the norm and it should be expected,” said Houser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Through our eyes, that bolsters the validity of complaints,” she added. Few people make prompt complaints, include all of the details, and consistently tell it the same way. “That's not how traumatic events are processed and stored in our bodies and in our brains.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men in the U.S. reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime, only one in 10 women -- and one in 20 men -- filed an official complaint or report to an authority figure, including a police report, according to a January 2018 \u003ca href=\"http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Full-Report-2018-National-Study-on-Sexual-Harassment-and-Assault.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stop Street Harassment online survey\u003c/a> of 2,000 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most victims don't report, or hold off doing so, for a variety of reasons. But they “all fall under the large umbrella of: They don’t trust the rest of us to respond appropriately,” said Houser.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'I trusted yoga so I trusted him.\u003c/strong> I shouldn't have made that connection.'\u003ccite> a teenager, who says her yoga teacher had sex with her\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Those reasons, she said, include fear of being disbelieved, blamed or having their privacy violated through gossip. Some people fear repercussions in their home life or their social circles, which often include the assailant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People often keep it to themselves, not to mention it's a very confusing thing when somebody that you know and trust violates that trust,” Houser said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked what was holding people back from reporting abuse in yoga, Brathen said: “I think the biggest piece is fear of being alienated from this community that means so much to us.” That community built through yoga, she said, is “sacred” and such an “important part of the practice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘I Trusted Yoga So I Trusted Him’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">“A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>re you 18 years old? Holy shit.” That was the first message a Bay Area teenager said that her yoga teacher sent to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was then 17, in the summer before her first year in college; he was twice her age. She said she had a crush on him and thought he liked her, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next few months, she said her teacher groomed her to have sex with him: In a number of text messages, he said he had something to tell her, but to do that, they had to meet in person and in private. (The teenager, who didn’t want to be identified out of concerns for her privacy and safety, shared the Facebook and text messages with KQED).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690342\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 424px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11690342\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_Bother_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.15.15-PM-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"424\" height=\"278\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_Bother_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.15.15-PM-qut.jpg 424w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_Bother_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.15.15-PM-qut-160x105.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_Bother_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.15.15-PM-qut-240x157.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_Bother_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.15.15-PM-qut-375x246.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He wanted to meet me alone so he could explain why everything had to be so secretive and he would always say it will all make sense once we get to chat in person,” she said. “I am a kid but I'm not dumb. And I knew the obvious reasons, which were that you don't want people to think that you fuck your students and I'm really young.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of his text messages read: “I know I sound like some kind of criminal or something but it would be great if we could hang out in a place that is not so public.” Another one read: “Any place that is low key so we aren’t seen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690343\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 601px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11690343\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_secretbar_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.10.44-PM-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"601\" height=\"498\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_secretbar_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.10.44-PM-qut.jpg 601w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_secretbar_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.10.44-PM-qut-160x133.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_secretbar_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.10.44-PM-qut-240x199.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_secretbar_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.10.44-PM-qut-375x311.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_secretbar_Screen-Shot-2018-08-22-at-5.10.44-PM-qut-520x431.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 601px) 100vw, 601px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Early on, she expressed reservations about connecting outside the classroom. She’d blossomed in yoga: It helped ease her anxiety and made her feel safe, capable and independent. “I was convinced that I wanted to be a yoga teacher. It was my whole thing,” she said. “I considered it a big defining part of who I was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he assured her, in text messages, that she could keep coming to classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690355\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690355\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-800x714.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"714\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-800x714.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-160x143.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-1020x910.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-1200x1071.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-1180x1053.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-960x856.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-240x214.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-375x335.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut-520x464.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_class2__Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-4.36.55-PM-qut.jpg 1224w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, they did meet outside the studio -- a week before her 18th birthday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690348\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690348\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut-800x218.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"136\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut-800x218.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut-160x44.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut-240x65.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut-375x102.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut-520x142.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_drink_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.04.47-PM-qut.jpg 902w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690349\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690349\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut-800x232.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"145\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut-800x232.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut-160x46.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut-240x70.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut-375x109.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut-520x151.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_pajamaparty_Screen-Shot-2018-08-26-at-5.05.50-PM-qut.jpg 904w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She said he invited her to a bar in a quiet Bay Area community, where he bought her several drinks (she had a fake ID), and then he took her to a hotel, where they smoked hashish. She recalled being “very intoxicated and a little woozy” before they had sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a nearly two-hour interview with KQED, the teacher said he didn’t have sex with her and that he left her with two of his friends in the hotel room whom he declined to identify; the police report said it was clear from the text messages that the pair did have a sexual relationship, “however brief,” and no mention was made of his friends. The teen said he didn’t have friends with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690356\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690356\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_police_Screen-Shot-2018-08-30-at-2.08.17-PM-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_police_Screen-Shot-2018-08-30-at-2.08.17-PM-qut.jpg 605w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_police_Screen-Shot-2018-08-30-at-2.08.17-PM-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_police_Screen-Shot-2018-08-30-at-2.08.17-PM-qut-240x159.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_police_Screen-Shot-2018-08-30-at-2.08.17-PM-qut-375x249.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_police_Screen-Shot-2018-08-30-at-2.08.17-PM-qut-520x345.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The teacher also said the teenager told him she was 18; she said her birthday -- including year -- was listed on Facebook, and though she at one point told him in a SMS that she was 18, she said she thought he knew her real age and they were both “going to pretend” she was 18. The police also noted that she had not told him her real age but said she was 18.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690364\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690364\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_18_Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-12.23.59-PM-qut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_18_Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-12.23.59-PM-qut.jpg 617w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_18_Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-12.23.59-PM-qut-160x87.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_18_Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-12.23.59-PM-qut-240x131.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_18_Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-12.23.59-PM-qut-375x205.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/SMS_18_Screen-Shot-2018-09-04-at-12.23.59-PM-qut-520x284.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Text messages that a Bay Area teen says were exchanged between her and her yoga teacher. Her comments are in green; his in gray. \u003ccite>(KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After their encounter, she said he left the hotel a short time later but it took months for her to realize what had happened: “I was basically sexually abused and manipulated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I felt dumb for thinking that because he was my yoga teacher and because he was so much older than me -- because he was my spiritual counselor in some ways -- that he wouldn't take advantage of me,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I trusted yoga so I trusted him,” she said. “I shouldn't have made that connection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she came back home from college to the Bay Area, she planned to tell her mom -- only to find out she had gone through her phone and seen the messages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teen’s mom said she called some studios where he taught to report the teacher; he said one let him go and he assumed it was because of the mother’s calls. Another studio owner said they let him go because of the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teacher said it had been “one really long hard struggle” after the teen -- who he called “just a fuckin’ girl” -- went to the police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll just say that her mom tried really hard to make my life extremely hard and she succeeded,” he said. “I’ve lost a lot of sleep over this and been hurt ... I’ve had to ask some people for support.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>Have a tip or information to share? You can contact reporter Miranda Leitsinger on the encrypted communications app Signal (650-888-2765) or by email: mleitsinger@kqed.org\u003c/h3>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The teenager decided to come forward with her story after learning that a second student, Leah Tumerman, 36, had accused the teacher of threatening earlier this year that he and his partner should “Bill Cosby her.” Tumerman told police she understood this to mean “he would drug and rape me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tumerman, a longtime student of the teacher, said she became scared of him and his change in personality. The pair had gotten into a conversation about food over text message, and the discussion somehow took a turn, she said. The teacher denied making the comment but said they did argue about food. Tumerman, an artist from Richmond, filed a police report for documentation purposes only.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The teen’s case was forwarded to the DA’s office, which declined to prosecute.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘You Have to Face the Shame of Your Complicity’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp> number of women have come forward in recent months to share their accounts of alleged abuse by their yoga teachers -- triggering a growing conversation in the community about sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, Yoga Alliance issued \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/About_Yoga/Article_Archive/Yoga_Alliance_Statement_on_Sexual_Misconduct_in_Our_Community\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a statement\u003c/a> on sexual misconduct in the yoga community. In January, it released Roche’s video and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/Sexual_Misconduct_Resources/Unity_in_Yoga_with_RAINN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">podcast\u003c/a> on the topic, and weeks later published \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/About_Us/Policies/Sexual_Misconduct_Disciplinary_Procedure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sexual misconduct disciplinary procedures\u003c/a> and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.yogaalliance.org/About_Us/Policies/Policy_Prohibiting_Sexual_Misconduct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">policy\u003c/a> on its website. In early September, the group said it could “confirm that we have suspended and revoked credentials under our new policy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In this #MeToo moment, we too must act,” Roche, of Yoga Alliance, said in the video. “There’s a deeply troubling pattern of misconduct within our community, a pattern that touches almost every tradition in modern yoga. To definitively turn the page on that history, we must openly acknowledge the issue of sexual misconduct in yoga.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remski, the yoga teacher and culture critic, said Roche’s message to the yoga community heralded a “sea change moment.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"instagramLink","attributes":{"named":{"instagramId":"BmCL66zlrlz"},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“It puts the entire culture on notice that this is a thing. It's not dirty laundry anymore. It's totally out in the open,” he said. “With one sentence, she implicated the entire culture as having enabled this and that's what hasn't been done yet. ... Nobody has looked at it as a systemic problem -- because when you look at it as a systemic problem, you have to face the shame of your complicity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lasater said she was very supportive of Yoga Alliance’s efforts but felt the community still has a long way to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If teachers don't have true consequences, what is going to cause them to change their behavior?” she said. “Nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brathen, or Yoga Girl, said she was “torn” over Yoga Alliance’s initial solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am still very unclear as to what action will be taken at the end of the day,” she said. “If the worst thing that can happen to you as a perpetrator is that your name gets taken off the website, I don't think that that's going to do a whole lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early August, Brathen published her second series of #MeToo stories. She wrote how tough it was to expel the alleged sexual harassers and abusers from the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Stone, a Token: The New Conversation on Touch Consent\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690330\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690330\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/Tokens_yoga-qut-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Touch consent tokens at Yoga Tree near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Miranda Leitsinger/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">L\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>asater and other yoga leaders said they felt students -- particularly women -- were going to be a part of the solution. One sign already? The “touch consent” cards, chips and tokens popping up in studios across the country. Years ago, the first version of those were painted stones, paper clips, even a leaf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students would place such an object on top or below their mat to signal if a teacher could touch them, said Remski.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690326\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 500px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11690326\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-160x213.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-900x1200.jpg 900w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-1180x1573.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-960x1280.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-240x320.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-375x500.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut-520x693.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/09/BB-qut.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yoga teacher Bayley Blackney leads a workshop on touch in Capitola on March 24, 2018. \u003ccite>(Miranda Leitsinger/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The yoga room has been a space of implied consent. And that is no longer the case. The politics, the techniques, the methods of consent are now fully part of yoga discourse,” Remski said. “It undoes something profound in the last 100 years of yoga pedagogy, which is the notion that the teachers should decide what the student needs or what they should do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The growing use of the tokens has broader implications, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\u003ca href=\"https://video.kqed.org/show/metoo-now-what/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#MeToo, Now What?\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“The #MeToo movement also signifies a solidification of the change in leadership in modern yoga from men to women because those tokens ... are the latest generation of what women started using about 10 or 12 years ago in small studios,” he said. “It's a grass-roots idea that has worked its way up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teachers now typically ask students at the beginning of class to let them know if they want adjustments or not, and some instructors are holding workshops on touch and consent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bayley Blackney hosted such a gathering at a studio in Capitola in late March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Touch is something that I’m so passionate about. It’s love language and I am very, very passionate about creating a safe touch,” she said. “Now is the time to really offer this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘I Lost a Large Chunk of My Life’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>nger. Anxiety. Depression. Discomfort. Distrust. Empowerment. Exhaustion. Fear. Guilt. Frustration. Insomnia. Isolation. Self-doubt. Tears. Triggering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The women that KQED interviewed experienced all of this and more as they grappled with what they said their teachers did to them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes I'm really angry because I feel like I lost a large chunk of my life living in a cloud that I didn't realize I was in until I got out of it,” Smith said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She has experienced panic attacks, anxiety and days where she couldn’t get out of bed. Thirty-one percent of women and 20 percent of men felt anxiety or depression after experiencing sexual harassment and assault, according to Stop Street Harassment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith still doesn’t have her teacher certificate, although Shroff said in a July 17 email that she’d met the requirements. Smith said she has an outstanding payment that she can’t bring herself to pay because she'd regret \"paying to be abused.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the teen, she said it’s been a hard reckoning for her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was fresh out of high school and I slept with someone literally twice my age -- like halfway between me and my parents,” she said. “It took my innocence away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tumerman, who alleged the same teacher involved in the teen’s case had threatened to “Bill Cosby” her, hasn’t returned to yoga. Her last time was in his class, after the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\u003cstrong>'Yoga isn't a safe space\u003c/strong> for me anymore. And it used to be ... What had been my life is now no longer my life.'\u003ccite> Ann West\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“I was still processing the change, my new understanding of my teacher,” she said in explaining why she attended the class. “I practiced with my eyes closed the entire time. ... I couldn't look at him. The sound of his voice was making me shake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did my practice and I rolled up my mat and left the room. And I haven't seen him since,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ekong said: “My life is forever changed.” She has decided to leave the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not home. I can’t heal here,” she said. \"I don't want to worry about running into him or students asking when are you going to come back to teach.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for West, she said she has removed herself to the “outskirts” of the Iyengar yoga community and attends classes only with the one teacher she can trust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yoga isn't a safe space for me anymore. And it used to be,” she said. “I would take workshops and go to conventions and travel to India. And none of that is happening anymore. I have no interest in it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What had been my life is now no longer my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Edited by David Weir and Patricia Yollin\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/news/11690316/metoo-unmasks-the-open-secret-of-sexual-abuse-in-yoga","authors":["11310"],"programs":["news_72"],"categories":["news_457","news_6188","news_8"],"tags":["news_24284","news_19542","news_24067","news_21804","news_2700","news_20618","news_17041","news_21362"],"featImg":"news_11690331","label":"news_72","isLoading":false,"hasAllInfo":true}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","info":"Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.","airtime":"SUN 2pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.possible.fm/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"Possible"},"link":"/radio/program/possible","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"}},"1a":{"id":"1a","title":"1A","info":"1A is home to the national conversation. 1A brings on great guests and frames the best debate in ways that make you think, share and engage.","airtime":"MON-THU 11pm-12am","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/1a.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://the1a.org/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/1a","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=1188724250&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/1A-p947376/","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510316/podcast.xml"}},"all-things-considered":{"id":"all-things-considered","title":"All Things Considered","info":"Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. Michel Martin hosts on the weekends.","airtime":"MON-FRI 1pm-2pm, 4:30pm-6:30pm\u003cbr />SAT-SUN 5pm-6pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/All-Things-Considered-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/all-things-considered"},"american-suburb-podcast":{"id":"american-suburb-podcast","title":"American Suburb: The Podcast","tagline":"The flip side of gentrification, told through one town","info":"Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/American-Suburb-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"/news/series/american-suburb-podcast","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"13"},"link":"/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=1287748328","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/American-Suburb-p1086805/","rss":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/feed/podcast","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMzMDExODgxNjA5"}},"baycurious":{"id":"baycurious","title":"Bay Curious","tagline":"Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time","info":"KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","imageAlt":"\"KQED Bay Curious","officialWebsiteLink":"/news/series/baycurious","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"4"},"link":"/podcasts/baycurious","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406","npr":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious","rss":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/category/bay-curious-podcast/feed/podcast","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvbmV3cy9jYXRlZ29yeS9iYXktY3VyaW91cy1wb2RjYXN0L2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdA","stitcher":"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/bay-curious","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/6O76IdmhixfijmhTZLIJ8k"}},"bbc-world-service":{"id":"bbc-world-service","title":"BBC World Service","info":"The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.","airtime":"MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service","meta":{"site":"news","source":"BBC World Service"},"link":"/radio/program/bbc-world-service","subscribe":{"apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/","rss":"https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"}},"code-switch-life-kit":{"id":"code-switch-life-kit","title":"Code Switch / Life Kit","info":"\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />","airtime":"SUN 9pm-10pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","meta":{"site":"radio","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/1112190608?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/3bExJ9JQpkwNhoHvaIIuyV","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"}},"commonwealth-club":{"id":"commonwealth-club","title":"Commonwealth Club of California Podcast","info":"The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. 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It is produced in partnership with WNYC.","imageSrc":"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png","officialWebsiteLink":"http://freakonomics.com/","airtime":"SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm","meta":{"site":"radio","source":"WNYC"},"link":"/radio/program/freakonomics-radio","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/","rss":"https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"}},"fresh-air":{"id":"fresh-air","title":"Fresh Air","info":"Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.","airtime":"MON-FRI 7pm-8pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Fresh-Air-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","officialWebsiteLink":"https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/","meta":{"site":"radio","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/fresh-air","subscribe":{"npr":"https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b","apple":"https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","tuneIn":"https://tunein.com/radio/Fresh-Air-p17/","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"}},"here-and-now":{"id":"here-and-now","title":"Here & Now","info":"A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. 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