NUACHTÁN SAOR IN AISCE VOL.19 Issue 12. 10 APR 2018
Student Independent News
Students vote to stand together against sexual violence at USI Congress 2018 By Martha Brennan USI’s 2018 Congress saw hundreds of policy motions voted on last week– on everything from mental health
to union policies to repealing the 8th amendment. The most notable debates over the four days included equality for transgender and non-binary students, the Palestinian conflict and
USI President Michael Kerrigan speaks at USI Congress 2018
the repeal discussions. Lines of students gathered at opposite sides of the podium to voice their opinions on the various motions of the week and fiery debates often ensued. However when the topic of abusive relationships and sexual violence came up no one stood on the opposing side of the room. Instead what seemed like an endless line of students quickly formed at the left side of the room to urge the passing of the motion to support anyone who had experienced sexual violence. The delegates were a mix of female, male and non-binary students. They all attended different universities and grew up in different places. They were of differing ethnic backgrounds and religions. Some wore pink, some wore black, some had brightly colored hair and others wore tracksuits and runners. They all had one thing in common: they had been directly affected by the matters in the motion proposed and felt it was time to have their voices heard.
Hearts broke around the room as delegates relayed their very personal stories, the first time many of the speakers told their stories at all and their wishes of remaining anonymous have been respected. Some delegates spent years in abusive relationships not knowing how to get out. Others spoke of horrific acts of violence that they had to devastatingly experience, such as being raped in a nightclub bathroom or being sexually abused by someone they trusted. One male student from a rural background spoke about his own suffering from domestic violence. A delegate from DIT announced some shocking statistics to the room, such as how 30% of people in Ireland were affected by sexual violence and harassment and how only 8% of cases are reported to the Gardaí. Delegates bravely stood up to remind the room that they were not just a statistic. “I am not a number. I am human, and I will not be silenced,” one said.
UCC carried out a survey in their university last year that showed 1 in 7 of their students had been affected by sexual violence. “We need to make damn sure that things start to change,” CIT Students’ Union Vice President for Welfare Stephanie Fogarty told the room when she urged the passing of the motion. NUI Galway delegate Cameron Keighron and incoming NUI Galway Students’ Union Welfare Officer Clare Austick also spoke to the room on the motion. Cameron urged the need to teach about consent when students first enter university, while Clare told the floor that she wanted to tell anyone affected by the issues “You are strong, you are valuable, and you matter,” she said. Many delegates spoke of the recent trial of Ulster rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding. They said that as members of their college Student Unions’ they wanted to urge any student affected to come to them because “you will be believed.”
“It transcends gender”: NUI Galway researcher welcomes consent education overhaul By Sorcha O’Connor Doctoral Researcher at NUI Galway School of Psychology and Consent Programme facilitator Elaine Byrnes has welcomed the move by Education Minister Richard Bruton to review Relationship and Sexual Education (RSE) in Irish second-level schools. Ms Byrnes told SIN her experience piloting a six-week module to TY students in colleague Richie Sadlier’s alma mater has indicated that this shake-up must go beyond a mere review of the current approach to RSE for teens.
“We need to overhaul RSE as it is delivered now. What Richie and I are doing is piloting a six-week programme in his alma mater. That goes far beyond what is currently offered by RSE and for us the feedback on that has been really positive … both from the boys and their parents, and from the school,” she explained. Ms Byrnes expressed that she thought it would be a “challenge” to expect teachers to deliver such RSE modules in schools and that in her experience, the relationship between facilitator and students is very different to the teacher relationship.
She outlined how challenging traditional gender roles is significant in the conversation on consent, saying there appears to still be an attitude that the onus is on males to get consent while females are perceived as the “gatekeeper” or more passive. Ms Byrnes emphasised that consent is mutual, with respect being of paramount importance. “For me, consent is mutual and bidirectional and that is something that surprises people when you say it to them because we are so societally attuned to that traditional script where males are perceived as predatory and females perceived as passive
- and it is 2018, how are we still adhering to those traditional scripts or traditional gender roles?” she said. “That is what we challenge, and we instil in the boys that all communication of consent reflects is respect, respect for ourselves and respect for others, and respect for our boundaries and understanding and identifying someone else’s boundaries and respecting those.” Ms Byrnes explained that this programme was not tailored to boys and said she would be having the same conversation about consent with girls if she was in a girls’ school. “It transcends gender, it transcends
sexual orientation, it transcends identity, it is not a gendered issue. How I would approach a sexual health module in a girls’ school would be exactly the same as I approach it in the boys’ school, we just happen to be piloting it in this one school at the moment,” she said. “It is very interactive and peer-lead,” she added. Meanwhile, she indicated that the introduction of a new approach to RSE at second-level should not negate the necessity for such courses at third-level. “We could look at third-level consent workshops as a refresher for what people have done at second-level,” she said.