Santa Fe College's task force against sexual harassment is preparing to tackle the issue of catcalls, but initiatives may not see light until December.
Ashleigh Bennett, chair of the task force and Student Government vice president, said it plans to host an awareness event in February and to set up an incident phone and email hotline.
In October, Bennett said she hoped to see the task force handing out informational fliers by November. That time line has been pushed back to December.
Bennett said it will probably be mostly funded by Student Government. The task force must submit a proposal to SG before it can get funding, but Bennett said she anticipates a budget between $1,000 and $4,000.
Students are taking the lead with the task force, which was formed in October, because college administration wants to take a peer-to-peer approach, Bennett said.
Federal and state laws about sexual harassment include provisions requiring schools to maintain their own sexual harassment policies.
If a student is caught in an act of verbal harassment, Bennett said, the college advisement department will decide the punishment.
If it's physical harassment, the college police could get involved.
Ed Book, SFC police chief, said his department will be following SG's lead. He said the police department would be involved, but he wasn't sure what the extent of that involvement would be.
The task force was founded after a SFC professor brought the issue of catcalling to SG in October.
