Three years after two students were sexually assaulted at St. Michael’s College School with broomsticks in a locker room while groups of teens cheered and shared videos of the attack on social media, experts say changing the culture around abuse in sports is a work in progress. but there is room for optimism.
On Tuesday, criminal proceedings in the St. Michael’s College School case came to an end when the last of five teens convicted of gang sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon in the November 2018 incident were sentenced to two years of probation. the same sentence received by the other perpetrators after pleading guilty in 2019.
In the 2019 sentencing decision, Ontario Court Judge Brian Weagant noted that there had been a “normalization of bullying and sexual harassment in the school culture” and that “the incidents in this case were a further criminal extension. and more extreme than what was already happening in their school lives. “
What USA Women’s Soccer and the NHL Chicago Blackhawks Consider the high-profile allegations of physical and sexual abuse “We are seeing increased demand for real change, real structural change,” said Jay Johnson, a professor at the University of Manitoba who has been researching hazing and violence in sports. for 25 years. and is an expert witness in a lawsuit about decades of hazing in Canadian youth hockey.
He points to another recent example where a teenager in Ontario Logan mailloux was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens despite being accused in Sweden of sending his teammates a photo of a sexual encounter with a young woman without their consent. The decision was met with immediate criticism, but Mailloux’s actions show that mistreatment of women and girls continues to normalize in team settings, Johnson said.
The greatest public rejection of inappropriate responses and failure to hold those responsible accountable has the ability to improve sports culture from school to professional level, he added.
“This is an opportunity to restart,” Johnson said.
The concern is that high-profile incidents, such as the sexual assaults at St. Michael, will eventually be seen as isolated and the product of a few bad apples rather than a culture that normalizes and even rewards abusive behavior, said Gerald Walton, professor. from the Lakehead University College of Education that investigates sexual violence and bullying in schools.
“The appeal was in the group activity, and people encouraged each other and people enjoyed having power and control over, in this case, a particular child,” he said. “Those things have (an) appeal, not just on an individual level in terms of endorphins in the brain and how fast it can be, but also in social status.”
That’s where schools should focus on prevention and a fundamental cultural shift in how young people understand consent, bodily autonomy and limits, he said. Teachers and coaches must also understand these dynamics and be able to cope with them.
“If students don’t feel like they have a place to go and they don’t feel safe, nothing is going to change,” he said.
The most unusual thing about what happened at St. Michael’s is that it was made public.
The silver lining is that it allowed for public awareness and demands for accountability from those in positions of authority, Walton said.
In the wake of the criminal charges, the school conducted a culture review, which found that there was a bullying problem at the school, but found no history of sexual assault with a broom. The school committed to following the recommendations, including implementing a comprehensive bullying prevention and intervention strategy that includes student education, staff training, clear ways for victims to report and receive support, and a “social contract “for students participating in the soccer team.
In a statement Tuesday, the current president, Father Andrew Leung, said: “The school remains deeply committed to continuing to take concrete steps to ensure that a similar incident does not happen again. The positive steps that have already been taken in this regard have been felt throughout our school community and for the better. “
A civil lawsuit against the school filed by one of the two victims and their parents is ongoing.
It is unclear how the broom attacks involving members of a soccer team began and how they escalated in severity that school year: One teenager said it was not part of a tradition or initiation ritual, but the “random idea” of a friend. Three teenagers said they did not believe what had happened was “so serious” at the time, although the victim squirmed, screamed and tried to escape as the children pinned him to the ground and ripped off his pants before two teenagers used the broom to sexually assault him.
“It was not meant to be harmful. It was just for hazing and nonsense. It became everything I shouldn’t have, ”said one teenager.
Specific education and training on hazing is important because it helps identify and prevent hazing in the early stages before it escalates into violence, rather than rationalizing or minimizing it, said Elizabeth Allan, a professor at the University of Maine and director of Stop hazing, an organization that researches and shares hazing prevention strategies.
It also helps replace hazing with positive ways of teaming up and developing leadership, he said.
The increased public sharing of stories by victims of hazing and abuse has also contributed to a cultural shift, but it remains difficult to step forward, Johnson said.
“There are many human beings who have been through this system and will carry it with them for the rest of their lives,” Johnson said.
Reference-www.thestar.com