No Place for Hate Crime - National Union of Students

No Place for Hate
Experiences of reporting
Respondents who reported incident(s) to either an
official at their college, university or students’ union
and/or the police were asked to comment on their
experience of reporting. It was evident that positive
experiences held several common characteristics – the
reporting authority:
• responded quickly
•
•
took the incident seriously
displayed understanding and sympathy for the
victim
• fostered trust with the victim
•
where possible, provided regular communication
with the victim.
Positive experience
“[I got a] fantastic response – an outside agency
was invited in to do a workshop about homophobia
to the student in the class that did the verbal abuse.”
“The member of staff was one that I trusted and
was concerned over my behaviour in class. When
I reported the incident I was offered support and
some time off for when I felt unwell.”
Mixed experience
“I got a lot of support from the sabs [sabbatical
officers] in my union, but very little from my place
of work from my line managers and mixed support
from the advice centre. There are major structural
problems with the way complaints are handled and
with the handling of the employee welfare during the
process.”
Negative experience
“I got no help from them. I was told that at student
council there is no rule that students cannot swear
at other members and that he said the other things
would be subjective.”
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