Mids responding well to harassment program

[unhappycamper]

Mids responding well to harassment program
By Brian Witte - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Sep 24, 2007 22:09:21 EDT

WASHINGTON — The first midshipmen to take part in a new sexual harassment prevention program involving peer training at the Naval Academy responded positively to the program, an academy official said Monday.

The initiative is called the Sexual Harassment and Assault Prevention Education Program (SHAPE). It was designed to incorporate midshipmen into the teaching process, because peers have been found to communicate better with people their own age on the subject.

Cmdr. Ricks Polk, the academy’s sexual assault response coordinator, said 32 midshipmen have been trained to teach the program. About 900 of 1,200 first-year students, also known as plebes, have been gone through the first session of the initiative. The other 300 will get the training in the next two weeks.

“We found out that midshipmen aren’t as resistant to the education as we thought they were going to be,” Polk said. “In fact, they were more interactive than we anticipated.”

In a report to the academy’s Board of Visitors, Polk said the service academy was prepared “take on a more confrontational approach” to make midshipmen take the lessons to heart, but that wasn’t necessary.

Polk said “closing the discussion down was more challenging for us than it was to get them to interact on the discussion.”

~snip~

The initiative focuses on explaining details about what constitutes rape and the psychological impacts of the crime. It also will include discussions about dating, consent, the role alcohol plays in relationships and the legal aspects of sexual assault.


Rest of article at:http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/09/ap_usnasexualharassment_070924/



uhc comment:It's hard to believe that the military academies need to tell future commanders "Rape is bad."

It's nice to know "that midshipmen aren’t as resistant to the education as we thought they were going to be."

Gimmeafuckinbreak.

[fasttense]

1. That headline is just awful. n/t