Have you spotted bullying, sexual harassment or racism? It’s everyone’s business to interfere with harassment. Interfering does not make you a spoilsport as the mood has already been spoiled by the person behaving inappropriately. Anyone noticing harassment among the student community can interfere. This can be done alone or together – the more members of the community decide to interfere and take the harassed person’s side, the more enjoyable the student community will become for us all. 

Harassment cannot always be straightforwardly identified as harassment while it’s happening. Yet it’s always better to interfere in situations that appear to be unpleasant to one party. Neither is harassment always directed at an individual. It can also come out as racism or sexism portrayed as jokes or part of the student culture, for example. However, racism, sexism or harassment should never be written off as mere humour. What’s funny to one person might be a continuation of nasty and discriminatory experiences for another. 

Help can be sought in harassment situations, whether you’re the harassed party or the one to witness harassment. Depending on the situation, you can seek assistance from AYY’s harassment contact persons or from the Aalto staff. If harassment occurs at a specific event, you can tell the security personnel about it. Further information /notcool