“They suspended me because I pushed the guy who is harassing me and touching me. »
“We slammed my bra and grabbed my butt. The director said to me: “It is up to you to dress appropriately.” »
“They raped me and filmed me. I was 14 years old. »
“I had to be around my attacker all year. »
Posted at 9:00 a.m.
Four testimonials that can be found, among others, on the social networks of the collective The voice of young people counts. Four cases that sadly illustrate the broad spectrum of sexual violence that young people can suffer within the walls of their school.
Sometimes as early as primary.
Take a moment to remember what you saw or experienced in the hallways of your establishment, in an extracurricular tournament, on the bus… We like to believe that times change, but they don’t change enough.
It is so that future generations will no longer have to suffer the violence of another, because they have witnessed unacceptable acts or because they have been their victims, that some twenty women aged 15 21 years old are now part of the collective The voice of young people count.
PHOTO ZOYANNE CÔTÉ, PROVIDED BY THE COLLECTIVE THE VOICE OF YOUTH COUNTS
Members of the collective The voice of young people counts
The group was born almost five years ago, in the wake of the #metoo denunciation movement, to highlight what it calls a “#school metoo”.
On January 18, three of its representatives spoke before the Committee on Culture and Education, within the framework of Bill 9 on the National Student Ombudsman. Their request ? The creation of a law aimed at preventing and combating sexual violence in primary and secondary schools in the province.
I discussed it with six members of the collective.
They are called Kenza, Oumy, Youveline, Mickaella, Keteline, Sha’Nyce. And since their voice counts, allow me to give them all the space, for a moment…
“It’s not normal not to be safe at school; we spend more time there than at home! It’s because of situations like this that some people lack motivation in school or stop going to class altogether,” says Sha’Nyce.
Sometimes teachers know that someone is not well, but they don’t take the first steps. It is not up to the victims to seek help!
Sha’Nyce
“Sometimes there is only one social worker for 1,500 students. Yes, the service is there, but it is not accessible,” recalls Youveline.
“Most people want to help, but they are poorly trained. I would like there to be clear protocols and that we talk about them from the training of future teachers, ”underlines Oumy.
“There should also be better sex education. We don’t talk enough about healthy relationships, pleasure or respect for partners. You have to hear about consent to know whether ours is respected or not,” Kenza thinks.
“I would like people who commit violent acts to have consequences commensurate with their actions,” says Mickaella.
“It’s the school that decides what consequence will have the person who acts… And the consequence is not necessarily equal to his behavior. With a law, we would know clearly what must happen. There would no longer be any opinion at stake,” believes Keteline.
Clear.
I read the brief presented by the collective last week to the Committee on Culture and Education. Unsurprisingly, he upset me. One passage particularly struck me.
“According to Statistics Canada (2014), 55% of victims of sexual assault in Canada are minors, even though they represent only 20% of the population. […] These are criminal acts with a highly traumatic potential that require immediate, specialized and integrated interventions. »
You not only have to know how to react appropriately, but you also have to do it as quickly as possible. Hence the importance of being able to rely on trained personnel and clear policies.
“We want a network of specialized resources to be deployed around young people,” summarizes Mélanie Lemay, co-coordinator of the collective La voix des jeunes compte. That the government stop being always in reaction and that it does prevention. »
Now, is a law ensuring these different aspects possible?
One already exists, in fact. Law P-22.1 applies to higher education institutions. Why not imagine one for the primary and secondary levels?
Some schools are already looking into it, after all…
In 2018, the Montreal School Board adopted intervention protocols for sexual violence. This is one of the great prides of the collective, whose denunciations have influenced this change.
“It is not normal that it is girls who carry the file of sexual violence in schools, laments however Clorianne Augustin, also co-coordinator of the collective. It’s the state that should go ahead with this…”
Moreover, last October, the united deputy Christine Labrie proposed the bill noh 394. This would combat sexual violence from preschool. What’s been happening since?
Too little, believe the activists.
The subject is so confronting that we may prefer to look elsewhere…
However, the girls will not let go. They want to meet the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, and let him hear all the voices they carry in their guts.
I don’t know if the government realizes this, but we are between 15 and 21 years old. We go to school, we work, we are supposed to enjoy our youth, but we are there to fight for adults to do their job!
kenza
“In this context, I wonder: who are the adults? Is it them or is it us? added Sha’Nyce.
I didn’t know how to answer him.
If I could go back, I would tell him that one thing was certain, his accomplices and they had nothing of the naivety proper to youth. That their involvement, so important, had visibly dynamited their innocence. If their own experience had not already done so… And so, yes, we had collectively failed in our task as adults.