Police assault Monash demonstration

By Julie Tisdale

MELBOURNE -- A 200-strong demonstration against sexual violence on campus was broken up by police at Monash University on October 19.

About 40 police moved in on students after they occupied the administration building. Three students were arrested and many were assaulted, one having his nose broken.

The demonstration, organised by Monash's Campaign Against Violence, was part of a long campaign to draw attention to the dangers faced by women students and to demand that the university take measures to improve security.

The administration's first response to the campaign was to produce a leaflet urging women to appear assertive but to run or scream for help if they were attacked. The victim-blaming attitude was even more blatant when the deputy vice chancellor said that a woman raped on campus “set herself up for it” because she was walking at night and talking to a stranger. n

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