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The Lucknow Sentinel, 1994-05-25, Page 3Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, May 25, 1994 — Page 3 Sexual assault - not only urban phenomena by Shelley McPhee Haist It's happening in•the communities that we call home. It's happening,in our schools. It's happening to our children. It's violence and sexual aggres- sion, and it's not just a large urban phenomena, says Dr. Fred Mat- thews. Dr. Matthews, a community psychologist from Toronto, has spent his career studying violence and sexual, aggression, from the North West Temtories to South America. In the last decade he has seen the patterns of violence move from large urban centres to small communities, from remote norther settlements to downtown Toronto. Dr. Matthews was in. Clinton on May 28 to. lead a workshop on Sexual Assault - A Community Issue. The seminar was sponsored by SWAN - Stop. Woman -Abuse Now, and the Ontario Women's Directorate. Itwas held to bring educators, parents, teenagers, social workers, ,counsellors arid' com- munity representatives together to talk about sexual violence in die local community, and particularly in the schools. "There's a lot of sexual assault going on in the schools and we're not talking about' it," says Dr. Mat- thews. . Statistics Canada reports that' youth violence and the seriousness of offenses'is increasing. There arc more incidents involving knives, homemade weapons, more group sexual assaults and racial violence. "There are enough redflags to show that 'the seriousness has es- calated; Dr. Matthews says., Boy's, play It begins in part with the message that young boys learn - the message, about women, about sex, about what they can get away with. • Dr. Matthews says that we must move beyond the "boys will.be. boys" explanation of youth actions. . The typical sexual offender com= mits an average of 3.60 offenses in his lifetime. Often these offenses being around the, age of. 10 or 11.. Twenty-five per cent of the sexual offenders in Canada are teenagers.. "We can't,prosecute kids under the age of '12 even though a great deal of sexual .offenses are hap - LISTINGS WANTED PAUL ZINN • 528.2411 WARREN ZINN 528-3710 6.65 ACRES - Brick home, 20 x 28 garage, 3 bedrooms Kiriloss. • $109,900, . WILLOUGHBY ST. - Spacious, well -maintained 2 bedroom home, base• ment family room.'089,900. PARADISE LAKE - budding Idt - $50, 000. KINLOUGH - 100 acre farm, frame home and barn $89,900' RAISED BUNGALOW - 3+1 bdrm bsmt . family room with wood stove. Detached garage. Elgin St. $115,000. STORE FRONT • Superb corid 2 bdrm apt above, basmt , garage, central air KINLOUGH - ungalow with garage Needs da9,900. . $49,900 - 3 bedroom Campbell St. .good starter. $68,000 - 3 bdrm bungalow with LR abd FR, large kitchen • 555,000 - 3 bdrm , near public school DUNGANNON - 3 bdrm renovated house. garage $72,900 ST. HELENS - 3 bedroom mobile ori 1 5 acres, new, well, septic 4 ACRES Ashfield, 3 bdrm brick borne 2 barns shed, $99.000 . 3 BDRM. bungalow near Dungannon $114.000 Building L of $11 000. BRICK - 1 1.2 storey 4 bedrooms, gar age Havelock St $85 000 BUtLDING LOT 198'' X 165' near Public School RQSS ST. spacious 4 hdrm brick with garage and fireplace pening in schools. We minimize these of kind of offenses. "They commit ' this violence because they think they can get away with it," he says. "Boys under the age of 12 get a clear message about the accep-, tab'iliy of'sexual assault," Dr. Mat- thews says. It often begins with sexual harassment - teasing a girl about her looks, or snapping her bra strap. There's sexing, or rushing, where a group of boys will move in on a girl as a group and touch her body. Often these actions are called kid's play, Dr. Matthews says, and the pattern for violence continues. He asked the audience. how they would like to go to work each day and face that kind of . sexual harassment - to have to pay somebody a dollar to use the bath- room, to hear comments about your body, to know that the person sit- ting next to you carries a knife? "As adults we'd go to our boss and want action, but kids are ,scared to talk, and they don't know who to go to," Dr. Matthews says. He cited a survey of 850 students - only 30 per cent said that they feel safe in their school sometimes or never. Seventy percent reported a moderate amount of violence, and 50 per cent of the offenses are not reported. At one time, Dr. Matthews says, educators often claimed 'that there was no violence in their schools, but now they're seeing•the statistics and they are aware. - "As adults we get 'preoccupied 'with paying the bills and 'looking after the administration and we lose our . perception about the world of young kids," says Dr. Matthews. "Young kids lives are being shaped. and molded and -we're not paying enough attention ,to it." It's a community issue he says. It • means that 'educators must be pro- ' active in- addressing the problems, parents must take -a role, , police must be involved, victims must be heard; and offenses mustbe dealt with seriously. While many education.. systems have introduced conflict resolution programs, Dr. Matthews said that these only address part of the problem. • 0 0 \r 1 4 J 6/ "Too many of these kids won't mediate or talk or deal with programs. They don't give a damn about programs or the Young Of- fenders Acts. You have to identify the serious offenders and you have to draw the line." Understanding the pattern of youth violence and victimization begins at a young age, Dr. Mat- thews says: It's founded in the' female/male stereotypes and a num- ber of contributing factors, from racial backgrounds to family situations, to poor nutrition and poverty. "Most young men learn sex from pornography, and women learn it from the men," Dr. Matthews says. "We need good sex education, we're a sex -negative society. We still use sex to tease and titillate and sell cars. He showed slides of sex in adver- tising - from 'a naked infant girl. used to advertise python gloves, to young girls made up in leather and bondage to sell Italian leather. "Images in our culture are like a wallpaper," Dr. Matthews says, and young people are molding their isee Violence; page 6 Among the more than 50 people who attended the day long session on. Violence and Sexual -Assault '- A Community Wellness Issue were (left to right) CHSS Peer Mentor Erin Keys, Blanche Savage of the Women's . Shelter. and Counselling Service of Huron, CHSS Peer Mentors Carie Kotesier and Christy Scott, and workshop leader Dr. Fred Matthews, (Shelly McPhee Haist photo) 91/4, Of44 LUCKNOW DISTRICT COMMUNITY CENTRE Sunda. 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