The Oxford University students demanding their #MeToo moment
Young people claim they need more support than is being offered at this university with some suggesting the college system is to blame
Student protest: Kemi Agunbiade and Clara Riedenstein outside Radcliffe Camera, Oxford
Credit: John Robertson
As schools come under fire for failing to safeguard pupils from sexual abuse, students at Oxford are determined to show universities are no better at upholding their duty of care. “Sometimes it feels as if advice from colleges to victims is to protect the college’s best interests rather than those of the student’s,” says Alessandra Peters, student at Oxford University and former co-chair of It Happens Here (IHH), Oxford Student Union’s anti-sexual violence campaign.
Last modified on Tue 16 Mar 2021 17.54 EDT
Plans to protect women by putting plainclothes police officers in nightclubs are bizarre, frightening and “spectacularly missing the point”, campaigners and charities have said.
The plans were outlined by the government as part of the steps it was taking to improve security and protect women from predatory offenders. Called Project Vigilant, the programme can involve officers attending areas around clubs and bars in plainclothes, along with increased police patrols as people leave at closing time.
Bryony Beynon, the managing director of the Good Night Out Campaign, said that the government’s plan was “pretty frightening”, and that it “feels like an increase in police intrusion into social spaces”.