You are here:

Harassment

For students and staff

Harassment is behaviour that offends, intimidates, insults or humiliates someone because it relates to personal characteristics, such as race, sexual orientation, gender, age or disability.

A single incident can amount to harassment – the behaviour doesn’t have to occur more than once.

Harassment includes:

telling insulting jokes
sending explicit or sexually suggestive emails or texts
displaying racially offensive posters
displaying pornographic posters
making derogatory comments or taunts
asking intrusive questions about someone’s personal life or sex life.

The LGBTIQA+ community faces more discrimination, harassment and violence than average. We all need to be aware of this and understand which behaviours are considered harassment and bullying of LGBTIQA+ students and staff, and call them out where possible and safe to do so. These inappropriate behaviours take many forms and include:
- deliberately and repeatedly deadnaming a trans person (referring to them by their birth name)
- asking a trans person for their ‘real’ (previous) name
- intentionally not using a person’s pronouns (the ones they identify with)
- comments and questions about a person’s sex life, such as referring to the ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in a same-sex relationship
- questioning gender-diverse people about their personal gender affirmation surgery.
We understand you can make a mistake and unintentionally use a person’s incorrect name and pronouns, particularly right after their gender affirmation when the changes are new and possibly unknown. Under these circumstances, such a mistake is not considered bullying or harassment. But, once aware of the mistake, a quick apology, followed by the use of their correct name and pronouns, is an appropriate response.

What to do

If you feel safe and comfortable enough to do so, tell the person harassing you that you find their remarks or behaviour offensive and inappropriate.

If the situation becomes threatening or potentially dangerous, call:

Monash Security on 03 9905 3333 (for immediate help on campus)
000 (for immediate help on or off campus).

If you experience, see or hear about any harassment, we encourage you to make a report online to the Safer Community Unit.

Getting support

More help and advice

Bullying and harassment information sheet (pdf, 0.1 mb): Read about what harassment is, what you can do about it and where you can go for help and support.
Bullying and harassment information booklet (pdf, 0.4 mb): Get information about different forms of bullying and harassment, your reporting options, when it's unlawful and what to do if you know someone who’s experienced it.