Jane Stapleton, a University of New Hampshire researcher who
runs bystander intervention programs at colleges around the country and in
Europe, tells students they’ll need to be creative about outmaneuvering
aggressors. Among the diversions she discusses: suddenly turning on the lights
at a party or turning off the music; accidentally spilling a drink on the guy;
forming a conga line and pulling him away from the woman he’s bothering and
onto the dance floor. One of her favorites came from a young woman who
approached her drunken girlfriend and said, loudly, “Here’s the tampon you
asked for.”
A definite mood killer, says Ms. Stapleton. The goal
is to stop bad behavior before it crosses the line from drunken partying to
sexual assault. “We’re definitely not looking to create Captain Bystander
here,” Ms. Stapleton says. In the best of circumstances, a drunken aggressor
won’t realize he’s been had.
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