In the spring of 2002 at the Chicago regional F.I.R.S.T. Robotics competition, members of team #677 (a team whose high school students are all female) reported being groped while passing through a "high-five tunnel" after receiving an entrepreneurship award.
One of the high school students involved recalls a lack of response on the part of the F.I.R.S.T. officials:
We brought the incident to the attention of FIRST. There was no official apology from FIRST. FIRST "officially" banned the high-five gauntlet from the rest of the ceremony, but teams lined-up anyway during the final ceremony and there was no effort by the announcers to disband them. The team co-captain at the time said later, "As co-captain of the team, I remember meeting Dean Kamen after the fact. All I remember from that conversation is that during the conversation, Kamen glanced at my breasts."[1]
References
- ↑ Private conversation with team co-captain
