K.U.Leuven Vice-Rector of student affairs,Tine Baelman, sent out an e-mail to all student informing that several cases of harassement of female students was reported in the last couple of weeks. Meanwhile, a message not to panic has been sent out by the police, as no ‘serial rapist’ is at work and that most cases involved differen agressors. However, should you be confronted with such a case, what should you do?

First of all: What you should not do, is to walk away, though of course you should not put yourself in a dangerous situation either. However, you could show some civil courage.

So what could you do and what could you say? Here are some hints:

• Think about what could happen and what to say before you go through such a situation. You can test it in undangerously daily situations, for example: two 10- year old boys push another little boy at the busstop. For you the situation is totally not dangerous, nevertheless your help is needed. Go there and tell the guys to stop the fight, boast the victims courage. You will see that it will not only help the victim. It will encourage you, too.
• Stop thinking that somebody else will help, because if everybody thinks alike in such case, no one is going to be helped.
• If you notice a dangerous situation, take your time to estimate the uncertainty of the situation: is this a struggling couple or a sexual harrassement? Are there some more people around or am I the only one? Is anyone drunk?,...
• If you interfere in the situation, there are several possibilities:
• Look for help! In doing so it is important to adress the people around directly (“Hey you with the blue shirt, please come with me to have a look what is happening over there.”)
• Thereby you can create some kind of solidarity between the onlookers. (“I don’t feel very well either, but lets go there and help this girl.”)

Another possibility is to ignore the attacker and to concentrate on the victim. For example: Go to the victim and ask him/her for the way/time to cancel the connection between aggressor and victim or pretend to be an old friend of the victim and use this to pull her/ him away from the attacker while hand-shaking.

Of course you can adress the attacker as well (“Hey mister, stop harrassing this girl”) In this case it is very important to take a deep breath, to stay calm and to be self-confident. Pay attention to the distance between you and the aggressor and do not join him or her in his or her emotions. Use formal words to make it clear to the people around that it is no private struggel. In 60 % of the cases the offender will stop his or her attack.

In any case you have to be careful, it's not the time for heroes. You could endanger others and yourself. If there are any doubts: call the police, that is always a safe thing to do.

Last but not least, report what happend to the police, the K.U.Leuven and/or Meldpunt Discriminatie, depending on the type of harassement you witnessed or have been a victim of. |