Students have caused a stir following a circulating video shared amongst social media message threads. The said video shows a student in the computer lab, pleasuring himself while watching pornography. The student has been suspended while the university looks into the act which has been labelled as “disgusting” by the perpetrators’ peers.
The reactions to the video have varied from “sick and disgusting” to a call for a wellness check by the university health team. Stuff reported on the incident, speaking with a third year spokesperson–prompting the student to mention a police call being required, the student saying they need to be arrested for the act.
One of the more important takeaways from this incident is a potential investigation into the mental health services and how we can better support the students. There’s no details surrounding the identity, nor the circumstances around what’d happened–so we can only speculate on what’s happened. However the university has responded earlier last week to reiterate the available services to the students affected by the incident–or just seeing the video.
We decided that reaching out to a mental health nurse on the situation would help us gauge how they usually handle these situations.
Nexus: What would be your next steps? Do you think the student should face legal ramifications? [Leading question, we know]
Nurse: I believe the student needs to be brought in for an evaluation. I don’t know them, nor do I know the circumstances around the incident but from what I can see I would say he needs support and would need a representative to help him understand the severity of the situation before evaluating next steps for him. Once assessed, then decide on how to best respond.
We won’t be following the story any further, as there won’t be anymore updates from us moving forward. The situation is being followed by the University, with a look into the internet security and monitoring that’s used in the public wifi network and shared computer spaces in the Library and common spaces.
