THUNDER BAY – Some Lakehead University students are questioning their safety following recent reports of sexual violence on campus.
On the evening of Nov. 22 on the second floor of the Lakehead Chancellor Paterson Library bathroom of Lakehead’s University a man followed a woman into a washroom in an attempt to record her with a cell phone. The incident was reported days later.
“What he did is really gross, and that’s a violation of her privacy,” said first-year Native Access Program student Migisi Munroe after learning that a second similar incident had been reported.
The second-known incident was actually reported as taking place in October. While it did involve a student recording another without consent in the library, it did not take place in a washroom.
Munroe said hearing about these incidents have made her feel uneasy on campus.
“(I study) by myself all the time, usually until 9 or 10 at night at the library,” Munroe said. “I probably won’t study alone anymore.”
Munroe said she’s probably going to be a lot more cautious when it comes to going into the washroom for now on, adding that she feels the response from the school in getting the word about these incidents was lacking.
“They should have posted it everywhere, tell people about it and make more announcements.”
Munroe isn't alone in feeling the university's communication lacked volume.
First year business student Helaina Kwandibens said she couldn’t believe what had happened.
“It’s really shocking and it kind of makes me feel gross,” Kwandibens said.
The business student finds herself in the library at least once daily and said she is going to be more guarded when walking around on campus.
“It’s important that everyone is aware about what’s going on,” Kwandibens said, explaining she would have liked to have seen the university send out emails to students about the situation.
Gender Issues Centre coordinator Sherrie-Lee Petrie, who spoke on behalf of the victim Wednesday. said the victim felt she wasn't taken seriously when she first shared her story.
"She said that she was made to feel that her experience wasn't taken as seriously as it should have," Petrie said. "We are disappointed the survivor indicated that they were met with some jokes being made at the expense of their experience."
Petrie added the survivor also feels her voice has not been prioritized and that the university has failed her.
"It certainly is a problem that administration did not deal with this adequately, but as a community we need to be standing by survivors and focus on how to move forward," Petrie said.
"We need to make sure we are coming together to support individuals."
President Brian Stevenson said there certainly could've been some more communication from the university.
"I certainly would have preferred more communication but it's not always the case that you can do that," Stevenson said.
"These are not clear cut issues, you have policies and you also have to talk to the survivors. It's not an automatic process."
Stevenson said more communication may have been a good thing but that's not always the case.
"This is what the investigation that we are trying to review the policies of the office of human rights is trying to tell us what we ought to have done and what we couldn't done better.
He added there's always an opportunity to do things better in these situations.
"This is a new experience for us and I think what we are trying to figure out is if this where to ever happen again how can we manage it and is there any improvements."
Since the first incident, a second student has come forward with a similar incident which happened in October.
Stevenson wouldn't provide any further details on the incident adding that it is under investigation but police say they haven't received a second report.
