A course on recognising sexual assault or harassment and how to safely intervene teaches students about right and wrong [1], according to teachers who offer it.
Professor Louise Crowley, a law lecturer at UCC, rolled out her bystander intervention programme for transition year students.
Over the past month, Prof Crowley has trained 140 teachers throughout Ireland to deliver the course, which teaches students how to recognise and safely intervene if they see an incident of sexual assault or harassment.
At Maria Immaculata Community College in Dunmanway, Co Cork, school chaplain Elaine O’Sullivan and Sinead Meade, the first year head, have both been trained to deliver the course.
“I think we teach them about right and wrong. We teach them about dignity and respect. It is all about helping them to intervene when they witness wrongdoing in a safe way. I thought that was very powerful,” Ms Meade said.
“I suppose what we feel here is that we have to prepare them for life.