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Originally Posted by AZTheta
Where the HELL were the advisors? And as for no one speaking up, well, that's endemic. You can train people all you want in bystander behavior. Still going to have these situations.
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I was intrigued to see that sanction being included as I had never seen it before. Usually, the campus "just" makes the chapter take cultural awareness training, but not bystander intervention training.
Depending on how it's presented, I feel that bystander intervention training can have a much better impact than cultural diversity training in this particular circumstance. Here's why I say that: if you don't know that dressing in offensive costumes is offensive, then yeah, it's hard to fix stupid and cultural diversity training will probably go in one ear and out the other. On the other hand, bystander intervention presupposes that you know that something is wrong, but you struggle with how to speak up or communicate your concern. In my opinion, that dilemma can be more readily fixed with training.
A few years ago, I sat for training called "Group Dynamics for High Risk Teams" (such as military, firefighting, police, nuclear plant employees, airline employees, medical/surgical staff, etc). A good portion of the training involved what you would know as bystander training - members of the group speaking up before something goes wrong, even if it means speaking up against your supervisor. I can't tell you how many times in my personal and professional life I have used the skills I was taught in that class to intervene when my supervisor or the group wanted to do something unwise or unsafe.
With the article reporting that 93% of the chapter participated in the taco sale, I have to believe that at least one of the members felt uncomfortable with the idea of costumes and knew it was a bad idea. Had she spoken up, she might have rallied another handful of members who were thinking the same thing and they could have redirected the idea before the incident occurred.