Student Dignity and Respect Policy

The terms bullying and harassment are often used interchangeably.

Abuse and harassment because of hostility towards an individual's (actual or perceived) disability, gender, gender identity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation will not be tolerated, and will be treated as a hate crime.

We define harassment based on the legal frameworks provided in the Equality Act 2010 and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

Equality Act 2010, Section 26 - Harassment is defined as unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic (such as race, gender, disability, and so on) that has the purpose or effect of violating a person's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for them.

Protection from Harassment Act 1997, Section 1. This act defines harassment more broadly as a pattern of behaviour that causes a person distress or alarm.

These definitions include 'objective' and 'reasonableness' tests: This considers whether a reasonable person, in the same situation, would view the conduct as harassment. This helps to determine if the behaviour could generally be seen as inappropriate or harmful.

Racism covers unacceptable behaviour in relation to a person's or persons' colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins. Racism can manifest itself through unacceptable language, bullying, harassment or micro-aggressions, that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative attitudes.

Sexual misconduct covers sexual violence, which includes sexual assault and rape, and sexual harassment, which is unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature.

Domestic abuse is defined as any abusive behaviour or pattern of behaviour between those aged 16 or over who are or have been personally connected to each other.

The University acknowledges that sexual misconduct and domestic abuse can impact on individuals of any gender or sexual orientation. However, we recognise that the vast majority of individuals who experience sexual misconduct and domestic violence are women and the vast majority of those who the reports are against are men. The focus of our preventative actions will take account of this reality. But any complaint will be treated equally regardless of all parties' gender or sexual orientation.

Victimisation occurs when someone is treated badly or faces detriment because they complain about unacceptable behaviour or help someone who has experienced unacceptable behaviour.

Examples of unacceptable behaviour include (and this is not an exhaustive list):

1. Verbal abuse or insulting behaviour
2. 'Jokes' that are misogynist, racist, homophobic or transphobic, or jokes about an individual's age, disability, religion or belief or culture*
3. Microaggressions, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative attitudes
4. Unwanted physical contact ranging from touching to serious assault, including unwelcome offers of help and uninvited touching of a disabled person
5. Unsolicited or unwelcome sexual advances, touching, staring or comments
6. Requesting, pressuring or inducing a person to grant sexual favours or submit to sexual attentions by the use of threats or inducements
7. Stalking, for example watching, spying or following a person or forcing contact through any means, including social media
8. Inappropriate or unwanted questioning related to a person’s protected characteristic
9. Display or circulation of suggestive or abusive material (including graffiti)
10. Bullying, coercive or menacing behaviour
11. Ridicule or isolation or exclusion of an individual
12. Deliberately outing a colleague or student in relation to their gender identity or sexual orientation
13. Inappropriate language or content of emails or postings online or through social media
14. Carrying weapons, including replicas
15. Engagement in terrorism/extremism or with networks linked to terrorism/extremism

*Except where this is for legitimate educational reasons to aid learning. The reasons for the use of such material must be clearly discussed and explained to students.

The Equality Act defines harassment as "unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual". Relevant protected characteristics in the Equality Act are: age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. York St John uses the terms 'gender identity and expression' for gender reassignment and 'gender' for sex.

'Sex' is understood as a spectrum and at York St John we recognise this spectrum. For example, it could include intersex, male and female, or other sex identities. However, UK legislation only recognises male and female with a person's legal sex being determined by a doctor, this is framed as assigned gender at birth this is then recorded on the birth certificate. Gender and Sex are often used interchangeably partly in recognition that much of the inequality between women and men is driven by underlying social and power structures rather than by biology. Although the Equality Act protects people from discrimination because of their sex, other UK legislation (such as the regulations requiring employers to publish their gender pay gap) refers to gender.

Trans individuals are also protected under gender reassignment.

The law also covers harassment by perception or by association with an individual or individuals with a protected characteristic, for example, where an individual is harassed because they are friends with someone who is lesbian or gay or because they are perceived to be lesbian or gay.

The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 outlines harassment offences as 'causing alarm or distress' and 'putting people in fear of violence'. The behaviour must happen on more than one occasion by the same person or group to be considered harassment; however, it can be different types of behaviour on each occasion.

Harassment under the Equality Act 2010 and for protected characteristics: For behaviour to qualify as harassment, it must either intend to or actually create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment. Whether conduct is considered harassment depends on the recipient's perception, the context of the incident, and whether it is reasonable to view the conduct as offensive.

Harassment can be in person or online.

A hate crime is any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a person's race or perceived race, religion or perceived religion, sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation, disability or perceived disability and any crime motivated by hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender. Different areas in the UK have included misogyny as a hate crime, this includes both of our campuses in York and London. An act which is not an offence may be treated as a hate incident.

Microaggressions have been defined as: brief, everyday interactions that send denigrating messages to people of colour because they belong to a racially minoritised group. Compared to more overt forms of racism, racial microaggressions are subtle and insidious, often leaving the victim confused, distressed and frustrated and the perpetrator oblivious of the offence they have caused (Rollock, 2012).

Microaggressions may amount to harassment depending on the impact of the individual or they may lead to harassment when repeated or escalated. The concept of microaggressions is also used for other marginalised groups such as disabled people ("does he take sugar").

We believe that 'race' is a social construct without biological merit that has historically been used to categorise different groups of people based on perceived physical differences, and to justify domination and subordination. In the Equality Act, the term 'race' can mean a person's colour, nationality (including citizenship), ethnic or national origins. Race also refers to ethnic and racial groups. This means a group of people who all share the same protected characteristic of ethnicity or race.  A racial group can be made up of 2 or more distinct racial groups, for example Black British people, British Asian people, British Jewish people, Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers.

The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry report (MacPherson)¹ defined racism as "in general terms [consisting] of conduct or words or practices which advantage or disadvantage people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. In its more subtle form it is as damaging as in its overt form". In its description of institutional racism, the report states that it can manifest in behaviour "which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness, and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people"². 

Some religious groups are increasingly racialised, for example Muslims and Sikhs. Unacceptable behaviour against these groups may therefore be regarded as racism.

Examples of racism include:

• Refusing to work with someone or deliberately isolating them because of their race, colour, nationality or ethnic origin.
• Displaying racially offensive material including graffiti, graphics, slogans or logos that have racial undertones (for example, t-shirts or mugs).
• Racist jokes, banter, insinuations, insults and taunts.
• Verbal and physical abuse/attacks on individuals because of their race, colour, nationality or ethnic origin.
• Assaults motivated by race, colour, ethnic or national origins.
• Using language that is offensive or derogatory on the basis of race, or making racist remarks to or about a person.

_{1 - Available at 4262.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)}

_{2 - Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, 6.4 (February 1999)}

Sexual misconduct covers sexual violence, which includes sexual assault and rape, and sexual harassment, which is unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature which has the same effect as harassment.

Sexual harassment includes many things:

• Unwanted pressure for sexual favours.
• Unwanted deliberate touching.
• Unwanted sexual looks or gestures.
• Unwanted letters, texts, telephone calls, or materials of a sexual nature.
• Displaying pictures, photos or drawings of a sexual nature.
• Unwanted sexual teasing, jokes, questions, comments, wolf whistling or cat calls.
• Sexual comments about a person's clothing, anatomy, or looks.
• Telling lies or spreading rumours about a person's personal sex life.
• Actual or attempted rape or sexual assault.

The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 defines Domestic Abuse as any abusive behaviour or pattern of behaviour between those aged 16 or over who are or have been personally connected to each other. 

Behaviour is "abusive" if it consists of any of the following:

• Physical or sexual abuse
• Violent or threatening behaviour
• Controlling or coercive behaviour
• Economic abuse (this means any behaviour that has a substantial adverse effect on someone's ability to acquire, use or maintain money or other property, or obtain goods or service)
• Psychological, emotional or other abuse

It does not matter whether the behaviour consists of a single incident or a course of conduct.

Behaviour may be behaviour from Person A "towards" a person B under the policy despite the fact that it consists of conduct directed at another person (for example, B's child).

• Two people are "personally connected" to each other if any of the following applies:
• They are, or have been, married to each other
• They are, or have been, civil partners of each other
• They have agreed to marry one another (whether or not the agreement has been terminated)
• They have entered into a civil partnership agreement (whether or not the agreement has been terminated)
• They are, or have been, in an intimate personal relationship with each other
• They each have, or there has been a time when they each have had, a parental relationship in relation to the same child
• They are relatives

This definition includes so called 'honour' based violence, female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage, and individuals are not confined to one gender or ethnic group.

The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 identifies stalking as a form of harassment. Suzy Lamplugh Trust defines stalking as "A pattern of fixated and obsessive behaviour which is repeated, persistent, intrusive and causes fear of violence or engenders alarm and distress in the victim".

Stalking behaviour can include:

• Making unwanted communication
• Consistently sending gifts (for example, flowers)
• Damaging property
• Physical or sexual assault

Age

Harassment on the grounds of age may include behaviour based on assumptions about what a person of a particular age can or cannot do, excluding a person from consideration for training or specific activities, referring to a person's age in an appropriate way, and so on. It may also include 'jokes' and name-calling and the expression of age-related stereotypes.

Antisemitism

Being Jewish is a protected characteristic in terms of both a race and a religion, and as such are protected against harassment under the Equality Act. On 9 July 2019, the Executive Board agreed to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism:

"Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities."

Disability

Examples of inappropriate behaviour towards disabled people include verbal and non-verbal abuse.

Verbal abuse includes use of offensive or patronising language, including 'jokes', asking intimate questions about a person's disability, inappropriate assumptions about a disabled person's social life outside work.

Non-verbal abuse includes assuming people with a physical impairment have a mental impairment, the "does he take sugar" effect of not addressing the person directly, exclusion from social events, and uninvited touching.

Gender

The Equality Act defines 'sex' as either male or female. The University uses the term 'gender' to include people with non-binary identities.

The following examples may constitute sex harassment or sexual harassment.

Requesting, pressuring or inducing a person to grant sexual favours or submit to sexual attentions by the use of threats or inducements arising from positions or duties within the University, including academic assessment or internships.

Unsolicited or unwelcome sexual advances, touching, staring or comments where: the behaviour is repeated or continued after it has been made clear that it is unwelcome; or it is part of a pattern of offensive behaviour by the same person; or an assault is involved.

Sexual 'jokes' or stories, comments on a person's appearance or dress, of a sexually suggestive or offensive character and the display or circulation of sexually suggestive or offensive material.

Gender identity

Gender reassignment or transition is a personal, social, and sometimes medical, process by which a person changes their gender from the sex registered at birth. Anyone who takes these steps, or who is perceived as taking these steps, is protected from discrimination under the Equality Act. An individual does not need to be accessing trans healthcare to be protected. So, for example, a person who was assigned female at birth but who identifies and decides to present as a man without undergoing any medical procedures would be covered. Individuals who identify as non-binary or gender-queer or genderfluid are also protected under the provisions of this Dignity and Respect policy and Trans Equality Policy.

Harassment may also include inappropriate acts motivated by perceptions based on stereotypes of trans people, such purposefully ignoring someone's preferred pronoun (he/she/they), denying a trans person or persons access to the appropriate single-sex facilities such as toilets or changing rooms or asking prurient questions about the process of transitioning.

Trans individuals should be free to choose who they tell and when about their transition (planned, ongoing or completed). Some students may be comfortable for some students or lecturers to know and not others and therefore it is not appropriate to assume that others know about a student's trans identity or history. Deliberately outing a colleague or student will also be considered as harassment.

Pregnancy, maternity and parenting

The Equality Act does not offer additional protection against harassment because of pregnancy or maternity. However, individuals who are subject to unacceptable behaviour because of pregnancy, maternity or parenting roles are also protected under the provisions of this Dignity and Respect policy.

Race

See 'Racism'.

Religion and belief

In the Equality Act religion or belief can mean any religion, for example an organised religion like Christianity, Judaism, Islam or Buddhism, or a smaller religion like Rastafarianism or Paganism, as long as it has a clear structure and belief system. The Equality Act also covers lack of religion.

Examples of harassment related to religion may include: making remarks about religions generally and their practices or specifically mocking a person's religious beliefs, making unwanted comments on dress, making it unnecessarily difficult for people to conform to their religious beliefs, exacerbating or causing arguments over religious differences between religious groups or people following particular faiths, gossiping/chatting about a person's religious views or beliefs, excluding a person because of their religious views or beliefs, or treating somebody differently because of their views, sectarian views, beliefs and violence, or displaying symbolism and slogans that are offensive or could be interpreted as offensive.

'Belief' means any religious or philosophical belief and includes a lack of particular belief. The courts have developed criteria for a philosophical belief. For a philosophical belief to be protected under the Act it must:

• Be genuinely held
• Be a belief and not just an opinion or viewpoint based on the present state of information available
• Be about a weighty and substantial aspect of human life and behaviour
• Attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance
• Be worthy of respect in a democratic society, not incompatible with human dignity and not in conflict with fundamental rights of others. For example, Holocaust denial, or the belief in racial superiority are not protected.

Beliefs such as humanism, pacifism, vegetarianism and the belief in man-made climate change are all protected.

Under the Human Rights Act 1998, the right to manifest a particular religion or belief is qualified, which means that it cannot be used to harm the rights and freedoms of others. In the context of the Equality Act, this means that expressing a belief can be regarded as harassment if it meets the definition.

Sexual orientation

The term 'sexual orientation' in the Equality Act covers a sexual orientation towards persons of the same sex, persons of the opposite sex, or persons of either sex. York St John includes sexual orientation towards persons of a different gender, including non-binary.

Harassment includes behaviour that is offensive, frightening or in any way distressing. It may be intentional bullying which is obvious or violent, but it can also be unintentional, subtle and insidious. It may involve nicknames, teasing, name calling or other behaviour which is not with malicious intent, but which is upsetting. It may be about the individual's sexual orientation (real or perceived) or it may be about the sexual orientation (real or perceived) of those with whom the individual associates. Bi-phobia would include 'banter' about being "greedy" or promiscuous. This could amount to bullying or harassment related to sexual orientation.

Lesbian, gay and bi members of the University community should be in control of who they are out to and when. Some may be comfortable for some individuals to know and not others and therefore it is not appropriate to assume that others know about a student's sexual orientation. Deliberately outing a colleague or student will also be considered as harassment.

Policy reference code: 

Version: 12

Document title: Student Dignity and Respect Policy

Author role and department: Student Casework, Governance and Compliance

Approved date: 20 August 2024

Approved by: Executive Board

Equality analysis undertaken: Yes

Amendments since approval

Revisions made 26 June 2024, approved by Executive Board:

• Section 4: Rewording of the first principle to provide clarification around freedom of speech in light of the Freedom of Speech (Higher Education), Act 2023.
• Section 5: Clarification added on Board of Governors scrutinising the University's duty to promote and protect freedom of speech. Clarification on the responsibilities of the Executive Board and SLT.
• Section 6: Examples updated.
• Section 8: Rewording around freedom of speech and how policy applies.
• Section 10: Addition to clarify allegations of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct will be dealt with under the new policy.
• Appendix A: Addition of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedure.
• Appendix C: Harassment - Further detail added regarding gender and sex, harassment, and misogyny.

Revisions made 20 August 2024, approved by Executive Board:

• Section 6: Definition of harassment amended to mirror OfS definitions.
• Section 7: Clarification that the University will provide support, even if investigation threshold is not met and advice on the support available.