Campaign to end sexual violence

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: THEVIOLENCESTOPSHERE.CA
Don't Be That Guy is urging people to end rape.

Statistically, alcohol is the number- one date-rape drug. Alcohol is a common element in society today. It's advertised everywhere, and everyone can get it easily. However, the danger of alcohol is known only in the obvious factors like drinking and driving or alcohol poisoning, and not what happens all too often in the club scene.

Sexual violence, harassment and assault occur most often when the victim is in a close relationship to the perpetrator. Seventy per cent of sexual assaults are committed by someone known to the victim, and not all victims are female; one in seven young men under the age of 18 will be sexually assaulted. Though a new campaign spreading across Canadian universities and colleges is called Don't Be That Guy, it is not designed to speak out against violence on women, but all forms of sexual violence.

Partnered with the I Know Someone campaign at Western University, the goal behind Don't Be That Guy is to promote positive behaviour when under the influence of alcohol, and to teach bystander skills to safely intervene when necessary. No one deserves to be sexually assaulted, and no one asks to be.

As coordinator of the I Know Someone Campaign at Western, Jess Rueger has a passion for the cause. In an effort to keep sexual violence out of Western, "the University Students' Council funds this campaign as a support service so that students can receive peer support" when it comes to sexual violence among students.

According to the website, the I Know Someone campaign is "based on the knowledge that everyone knows someone, whether a victim or a perpetrator of sexual violence, so everyone has a role to play in ending it."

Reuger added, "The campaign has three main goals: to increase awareness about the continuum of sexual violence, to teach bystander skills to safely and to effectively intervene when necessary and to empower students to recognize their role in ending sexual violence."

Brock University and Niagara College have jumped on board to help prevent sexual violence, and here's what you can do as a Fanshawe student:

- Go to sacl.ca/iknowsomeone and get the facts

- Talk to your friends about the issue and link them to the site

- Don't be a helpless bystander