“No” is a clear and emphatic marker that demands respect for boundaries.
With many youths returning to classes, the importance of saying “no” when ensuring safe spaces in campus—from academic participation to personal relationships—is a life lesson that must be internalized and asserted by young persons, especially as they are vulnerable to abuse from peers or campus authorities, like teachers.
“Yes,” though, also requires revisiting what this word means in an age when many persons’ rights are violated because of normalized assumptions about consent.
Last year, a group of survivors of sexual violence in campuses said that their own monitoring of sexual abuse in campuses reveals that many students do not report violations of their safe spaces from uncertainty and anxiety over what happens to the predators after their exposure.
As reported by Philstar.com on Nov. 28, 2023, the group Enough is Enough (EIE) contested the claim by the Department of Education (DepEd) that only 70 cases of sexual abuse took place in campuses across the nation since 2022.
The same report cited the information released by the DepEd’s Learner Rights and Protection Office that that since its operationalization in 2022, the line agency’s direct hotline for student safety concerns received 70 complaints related to sexual harassment.
The DepEd also reported that during the same period, the hotline received reports of verbal abuse (77 complaints) and physical bullying (66).
Crucial for encouraging survivors to report predators is an environment that protects vulnerable persons, encourages assertiveness in protecting one’s safe spaces, and enables survivors to pursue to its resolution a process to get predators sanctioned and prevented from victimizing others.
Rarely are cases against campus predators pursued because the survivors or witnesses fail to submit a formal affidavit testifying to their experiences, cowed into silence and passivity by a culture that shifts its judgment away from the predators, especially when they are male and in authority, and focuses on the “reputation” of the survivors.
“Studies have shown that survivors of sexual assault struggle to seek justice in formal channels due to fear of retaliation and often experience revictimization when interrogated by authorities about the incident,” reported PhilStar.
Last Aug. 18, Rappler posted online the message that “anything less than a yes is a no.”
Reacting to the post, a netizen commented that “FRIES” is an acrostic to help remember key points: “F” stands for a freely given “yes;” “R” for consent being “reversible” or one can change one’s mind about an act, even if one has done this previously; “I” for full information as essential for saying “yes;” “E” for “enthusiastic,” implying that if a person shows worry and hesitancy, then the act cannot be consensual; and “S” for “specific,” meaning that a person consents to a specific act but not to other acts.
Crucial for regulating that campuses remain safe spaces are teachers, who are also first responders in situations that potentially threaten youths.
Aside from responding to youths threatened or coerced by their peers, teachers can use academics to introduce self-assertiveness and negotiation skills. For instance, securing the informed consent of a person prior to participation in a study is an important ethical consideration.
Consent must be informed. The rules that apply in ethical and quality research may be applied in navigating personal relationships.
Informed consent requires that a person must know what he or she is getting into before consent is given.
Often the age of a person requires that an adult, specifically a parent or a guardian, is present to decide what is in the best interest of the minor.
Schools must equip the young with life lessons that help them uphold their rights and respect others’ safe spaces.