Dealing with Bullying, Harassment and Crime
Canterbury, and elsewhere in the County of Kent, are great places to live and study but, like any other town or city, there are a few individuals who commit crimes and have negative and prejudiced views about others (including students). These few individuals can make life difficult for everyone else, as their criminal and anti-social behaviour can include such things as:
• verbal abuse or insults -
offensive leaflets and posters, abusive gestures, dumping of
rubbish through letterboxes, shouting offensive language at
passers-by in the street
• threat of attack - including offensive letters, abusive or
obscene telephone calls, groups hanging around to intimidate,
and unfounded malicious complaints
• physical attacks - such as assault, damage to property,
offensive graffiti, neighbour disputes or arson
The University, the Kent Police and local Councils all have policies and procedures in place to tackle crime, antisocial behaviour and prejudice, as well as providing services for people to report incidents. We all take these reports very seriously.
Where someone feels they are being targeted by others, and has a criminal offence committed against them because of their:
• race, colour, ethnic origin,
nationality or national origins
• religion or belief
• gender or gender identity
• sexual orientation
• disability
this is collectively known as ‘hate
crime’ or ‘bias-motivated crime’.
The University, local Councils and the Police believe that any
type of hate crime or
harassment is unacceptable. In
order to help tackle such offences, it is important that anyone
who is a victim of hate crime reports what has happened to them.
By doing this, you will help us to make our local community
safer for all those who live, work and study here.
Furthermore, the University finds any type of bullying
unacceptable and has procedures to help address this.
Reporting crimes and dealing with bullying and harassment are
detailed below.
How to Report Crime
You will find all the information you need from the Kent Police – they have specific ‘Report a Crime’ web pages, which provide all necessary telephone numbers but also allow for online reporting.
The police have specific
information on
reporting hate crime, and details of local police stations
are also provided by Kent
Police – just click on the map for your local area and find
all the details there. If your (or someone else’s) life is
threatened, if people are injured and need attention, if a crime
is in progress or if the offenders are still nearby – use the
emergency services number and call 999.
This number should only be used in these circumstances and when
immediate help is needed, otherwise call
101. The Kent Police
have also provided
some useful
information to show how committed they are to addressing
hate crime and to explain more about the reporting process.
Accessibility
All Kent Police telephone numbers
are accessible through Typetalk. People using Textphones to make
a call should dial 18001 followed
by the full telephone number (01622 690690).
If you are deaf/hearing - or
speech-impaired, you can text Kent Police - start the
message with the word "police" then leave a space and write your
message including what and where the problem is. Send your text
to 60066 (the Kent Police
communications centre) and we will reply with a message. If you
don't receive a message quickly, please try one of the other
methods of communication on this page. (NB this service is ONLY
for the deaf/hearing- or speech-impaired).
The University has its own
Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) based in Canterbury.
She is regularly on the North Holmes Road site and the Student
Support Services can arrange for her to meet with students if
they have concerns they wish to discuss. PCSOs do wear uniforms
but our PCSO will come in civilian clothes to meet students if
they feel more comfortable with this. You can contact the
Student Support Services in confidence via the
i-zone or on
01227 782222. Out-of-hours support
is available from the
Resident Tutors.
Where students want to make the university and/or police aware of any bias-motivated incidents (such as racial abuse from people in passing cars), but do not want to formally report it, there is a specific Incident Reporting form available and this can be used to pass on vital information to raise awareness of incidents and to target appropriate action. OR call the dedicated reporting hotlines shown below (click on the images to enlarge).
Students can also report incidents in writing to Kent Police Headquarters, Sutton Road, Maidstone, Kent ME15 9BZ.
Please
report ALL incidents of crime, and especially hate
crimes, either to the police or informally to the University –
that way we can tackle to problem and make our community a safer
and better place for everyone!
Help, support and more information
There are a number of organisations which provide help and support to anyone who is the victim of hate crime.
Help is available from the
University’s Student Support Services – contact us via the
i-zone or on 01227
782222. Your Students’ Union can also be of assistance and you
can contact them on 01227 782518 or via
email.
Harassment and Bullying
Harassment
and bullying is unwanted conduct that has either the
purpose or effect of:
• violating another person’s dignity, or
• creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading,
humiliating or offensive environment for that person.
This may be because of someone’s gender, gender identity or gender reassignment status, sexual orientation, race (which also includes colour, nationality, national origin or ethnic origin), disability, religion or belief (or absence of a religious belief), age, or marital status.
In some cases, an incident might be classed as bullying/harassment and a hate crime.
Sexual harassment can also be defined separately as unwanted verbal, visual, or physical conduct of a sexual nature, or other conduct based on sex, which affects a person’s working or learning conditions or creates a hostile or humiliating working or studying environment for that person.
Bullying and harassment by others at the university is not acceptable. If this is done by staff, then students should use the University’s Complaints Procedures in the first instance and, depending on the nature of the complaint (and the outcome the student is seeking), this could become a staff disciplinary matter. When the perpetrator is a student, then this is dealt with under the University’s Student Disciplinary Procedures, and can lead to severe sanctions, even expulsion.
The Student Disciplinary Procedures include the following within the definition of misconduct: ‘harassment of any kind, including sexual or racial harassment of any student, member of staff or other employee of the University or any authorised visitor to the University, including that committed by electronic or other remote means’; as well as ‘violent, indecent, disorderly, threatening or offensive behaviour or language whilst on University premises or engaged in any University activity, including that committed by electronic means using email from a University account or other account accessed via the University network’.
This can include bullying and
harassment of staff and other students via social networking
sites eg,
or
by email and SMS messaging. Please remember that bullying and
harassment might also be a breach of the law and could lead to
police involvement where the behaviour constitutes a criminal
offence.
What to do if you are being harassed or bullied
The University takes these matters very seriously and works closely with the police in incidents where a criminal offence is committed. There is a useful quick guide as well as further information and advice on what to do if you feel that someone is of bullying or harassing you. You should contact the Student Support Services via the i-zone or on 01227 782222 if you need to talk to someone in confidence about this. Out-of-hours support is available from the Resident Tutors. If you decide you do want to take further action under the University’s policies, then the Student Support Services, together with the Students’ Union, will be able to advise and support you throughout the process.
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