THE BATTLEFORDS — As sexual violence among children — both as victims and as perpetrators — is on the rise in the Battlefords, Battlefords and Area Assault Centre (BASAC) executive director Amber Stewart is fighting to get their preventative programming back inside Saskatchewan's classrooms after their recent ban.
Nearly a month after she brought that fight to North Battleford, where the city council wrote a letter of support asking the government to allow BASAC back into schools.
Stewart most recently brought her request to the Town of Battleford at their Nov. 20 meeting where she chronicled a rapid increase in violence — including a group of 10- to 11-year-old students threatening to assault female classmates — here in the Battlefords.
“Through investigation, they had seen some things by accessing Pornhub, and that's where we see those behaviours coming," Stewart said, noting that BASAC has seen a dramatic increase in children viewing pornography on the internet.
Stewart also noted that students in Grade 8 in the Battlefords are experiencing a volume of sexual assault, harassment and violence. And though the school divisions are reaching out, seeking support, the government has yet to issue an exemption to the organization as they have for Catholic Family Services.
"We also have a group of nine- to 12-year-old boys, currently banned from a local club for behaviour, including threatening to gang rape the staff," she said.
"This is what we're seeing. An increase in extremely violent sexual behaviour among nine- to 12-year-old boys."
Stewart noted that they do not provide sexual education or programming around gender, are not affiliated with ARC Foundation, Planned Parenthood, or SOGI123, and always have included parental consent for their programming involving students under the age of 16.
In an example of BASAC's programming no longer being taught to students, Stewart explained the “Protect Yourself Rules,” which include telling an adult if someone touches them in an unsafe manner or that hitting and bullying is wrong.
"This is what we actually do."
Their programming around teaching children about consent and that they have the right to say no, is also now being kept out of schools.
“We got lumped in with that, and we don't feel that we should have been. I've even been told that maybe if we changed our name, we would be allowed back in," she said because the word sexual is used in the organization's name.
"Our programming is child sexual abuse prevention education, not sexual health or gender identity ... we don't teach about contraception, we don't teach about STIs, we don't teach about sexual health at all."
Stewart added the organization was founded 43 years ago by Peggy Westwood.
"We have been in this community, doing this work for a long time in a dark corner that no one wanted to talk about because there was such a stigma to sexual violence ... and the city and town have supported us for 43 years.
"The work that we do boils down to community safety."
After Stewart's presentation, council was quick to express their support for both BASAC's work trying to prevent the sexual abuse of children, and writing a letter asking the Ministry of Education to allow BASAC back into the schools.
"It is scary, being a grandparent ... so if children can be taught some skills to equip themselves better to not become a victim or an offender, I think it's a valuable service," Councillor Judy Pruden said.
Councillor Shelly Boutin-Jervais said she supports BASAC, "100 per cent," in comments that were mirrored heavily by councillors.
"Keep fighting the good fight," Councillor Kevin Russell said.
"It's kind of alarming to hear these things. You kind of hear it through the coffee shop that these things are happening, but you don't want to believe it ... It's part of why you guys are so important because the rest of us are kind of in denial and you guys live it every day," Mayor Ames Leslie said.
Later, in comments to the media, though Mayor Ames Leslie wasn't able to give a specific timeline, he hoped they'd write up a letter by the end of the week.
"Any time you hear of an influx of women being treated less than the human beings they are, it's surprising in today's world that this still happens. That women are subjected to these comments and sexualization, it's almost angering at the same time," Leslie said.
"I think it was surprising how immediate the impact of not having a third party available to address these [increases in violence] as soon as they start to be of concern, it frankly, hopefully, something our provincial government can address.
"If third parties are the experts in this, then I think it's the due diligence of our government to recognize that sooner than later ... because frankly our teachers and educator staff are not trained in this, nor should we expect them to be the experts in this subject matter.
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