Sexual violence policy and protocol at Sheridan is up for review

2019-11-07 Tarun Paul Singh Sheridan News 53

Sheridan’s Sexual Assault and Sexual Violence Policy and Protocol is up for review. Dr. Janet Morrison, president of Sheridan College, says, “We as a community feel obligated to revisit the notion of safety, security and support.” She added, “Sheridan is committed to creating an environment that is free from gender-based violence and we task ourselves to be the leader.”

Sheridan President Janet Morrison discussing solutions to sexual violence.

Sunand Sharma, the associate dean of Campus Citizenship, is a co-chair of the task force. He says that its role is to be “responsible for assessing the college sexual violence policies.”

In its 2015 publication “It’s Never Okay: An Action Plan to Stop Sexual Violence and Harassment,” the Ontario government suggested creating the sexual violence task force in every college and university. In March 2015, Sheridan College created a college-wide task force to strengthen Sheridan’s commitment towards building a safe community and reducing sexual violence.

Sheridan educational poster about consent.

“The task force is also responsible for assessing the effectiveness of the current programs and services that we have on the campus that are geared towards sexual violence,” Sharma continued. It will provide recommendations on the additional steps that Sheridan will take in order to provide a safe environment for all.

Leah State, the manager of Sheridan Wellness and Counselling and an active member of the task force, described attending one of this year’s meetings: “The excellent thing about this [the meetings] is that it brings stakeholders from around the campus including students.”

People attending a meeting of the task force on Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Reflecting on the impact of the task force Sharma said, “Since 2015, students have been a part of it, we are just repopulating the task force with new students.”

Rayven, a peer from the social service department of Sheridan, referring to who attended the meeting said that there is a “stigma while talking about this topic” and the renewed task force has to take this into consideration when they are reviewing protocols.

About Tarun Paul Singh 6 Articles
Tarun Paul Singh worked in Sheridan Media as a chase producer and newsflash host. Main interest are news reporting, writing and covering legal news and investigative journalism.
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53 Comments

  3. ayyyye, ive been waiting for someone to address this important issue! thank you Tarunpaul, this is well written

  21. Very informative article, very well written and easy to understand. Got to know things which we did not know about Sheridan earlier. We wish good luck to the task force In achieving it goal.

  22. Well written and throughly researched article. Writers like you have great future ahead Tarun.

  24. Good to know that Sheridan is looking at this issue. Thanks for bringing this to light, Tarunpaul!

  30. The report will be giving an extra push to many. Need of the hour .Great job done
    Highly appreciated. 👍👍

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