Workshop on bystander intervention comes to Dalhousie as sexual assault remains top of mind
Posted Mar 6, 2017 09:46:40 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – Sexual assault is top of mind for many in Halifax and across the country in the days after a judge found a Halifax taxi driver not guilty of the crime.
The Dalhousie Student Union, in partnership with school organizations and the Avalon Sexual Assault Centre, will host a workshop Monday evening focused on bystander intervention.
“It’s really important to educate students about consent and sexual assault because they’re right in the prime age where they’re most likely to experience that,” said Katie Douglas, Dalhousie Student Union’s Women’s Community Representative. “It’s also important to educate people about what to do because they might even be friends with someone that’s planning to sexually assault someone.”
The workshop will focus on answering questions like:
- What can you do if a friend is planning to sexually assault someone
- How you can support someone who has experienced sexual assault
- How to intervene in a case of sexual assault, or how to check if something unwanted is happening
Although the workshop is not in response to the controversial decision to acquit a local taxi driver of sexual assault, Douglas says she has had questions about the case from her peers in recent days.
“I’m definitely hoping this workshop will help alleviate student’s concerns and questions about what to do in the wake of that incident,” she said.
Douglas says in working with Avalon Sexual Assault Centre in the past, she has learned the centre’s representatives are well prepared to engage in other topics and adapt to questions students may have.
The workshop will happen in room 302 of the Dalhousie Student Union Building and will run from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
