Students plan petition over sexual violence policy
Group confronts university president about handling of sexual assault allegation
A group of students is set to launch a petition that demands St. Francis Xavier University strengthen its sexual violence policy, saying an apology from the school’s president for its handling of an allegation of sexual assault doesn’t go far enough.
On Saturday, nearly 40 demonstrators from the school and community confronted Kent MacDonald as he addressed potential students at the university’s open house, and they plan to launch the petition today.
The school recently came under fire after The Canadian Press reported that the university reversed its decision to suspend a student it found responsible for an alleged sexual assault — without notifying the man’s accuser — when he appealed.
“Since this has come forward, there’s been a lot of people on social media, and in meetings, who have spoken up, saying, ‘Hey, this happened to me, I also left,”’ said Addy Strickland, a student and activist at the Antigonish, N.S., university.
“So we know it’s definitely a larger issue than the university has made it out to be.”
The woman in this case, whose name is protected by a publication ban, left the university devastated after discovering her alleged assailant was still on campus.
The accused — who has been criminally charged in the alleged incident — withdrew from the school after the story went public, and on Friday, the president posted a public apology on the school website.
In a two-page letter to the campus community, MacDonald said, “I acknowledge and accept the fact that we can do better.”
“In this particular case, there were clear gaps in communication and apparent issues relating to our appeal processes that negatively affected our university community and, in some cases, retraumatized victim/survivors,” he said.
But the apology came as little comfort to St. F.X. student Kaitlin Dryden, who said this particular case is one of many, and the school is only acknowledging it because of the media attention it received.
She said the school has issued similar apologies in the past.
“The university constantly apologizes for their actions,” she said.
“But I don’t think they understand their actions are ruining people’s lives.”