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Court Case of student, Raquel Sánchez bullied at college by TRAs

Binch

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[this is a crowd funding event, im copy pasting]

Bullying and Harassment Permitted by Bristol University

Bullying and Harassment Permitted by Bristol University

My name is Raquel Rosario Sánchez. I have been bullied and harassed by students at Bristol University for my feminist principles for over two years. The University has failed to protect me. My case seeks to ensure what is happening to me does not happen to other students.

I am a feminist writer, campaigner and researcher from the Dominican Republic. I was accepted on a PhD course at the University of Bristol, starting in January 2018. My academic specialism is in ending violence against girls and women. My PhD work focuses on online communities for men who pay for xes.

By the time I arrived in the UK, on November 2017, I was already a recognised feminist writer who published regularly both in English and in Spanish. It was on that basis that feminist political campaign Woman’s Place UK asked me to chair its upcoming meeting in Bristol, scheduled for 8 February 2018. I invite you to please take a look at some of my writing, research and campaigning on women and girls rights.

My Story

Woman’s Place UK exists to protect women’s xes-based rights, as they are enshrined in the Equality Act 2010, and is falsely described as an anti-trans organisation. Because I was associated with it, as soon as the event was announced, a number of trans activist students at the University of Bristol started bullying, harassing and targeting me at various events, both inside and outside university campus. The first incident took place in January 2018. The last one (so far) in March 2020. I’ve done everything I can to try to get the University of Bristol to stop it – but they’ve refused to take any steps to help me, even failing to properly follow their own procedures.

When I came from the Dominican Republic, on a scholarship, to be at the Centre for Gender and Violence Research, my life felt like a dream come true. Over the next two years, this dream became a nightmare. I have been subject to intense hate, vitriol and bigotry. This took the form of mainly online abuse by a range of people, some of whose names and identities were obscured, others of whom I could identify as being students at the University. Among them, people have incited their social media followers to throw eggs and milkshakes at me. I’ve read that I should be punched and turfed out of England. Trans activists have called for my deportation. I’ve been called ****, scum, trash, nasty, bigot, heinous and sickening, during periodic campaigns of vilification targeting every feminist event I’ve participated in.

But when I raised this with the University of Bristol, their immediate response was to question me.

I read the University’s policies, which clearly stated that what was happening to me was unacceptable, and filed a student complaint against the students targeting me. In April 2018, the University of Bristol opened disciplinary procedures against one student, who identifies as trans. The charges were (among others) “bullying, harassment and unacceptable behaviour.” The student got legal representation, and the process prolonged for about a year and a half. Meanwhile, they escalated their behaviour, mounting even more campaigns targeting me at various feminists events, inside and outside the University of Bristol.

The University started three separate Disciplinary Hearings only to close them immediately. They argued there were security concerns posed by the threat of their own balaclava-clad students who would protest each hearing. When I was due to give evidence on 15 June 2018, trans activists students distributed a pamphlet titled ‘Why We Fight The **** War’ in which students were encouraged to yell ‘SCUM SCUM SCUM’ and ‘You’re sh!t and you know you are’. The University never managed to question the trans student they were allegedly investigating. They did allow the trans student’s barrister to cross-examine me in front of my bully. The University lawyer and the Disciplinary Committee also questioned me. I was asked about my feminist ideas and made to ‘explain myself’ for having the temerity to chair a meeting on women’s rights. To this day, I am the only one who has had to answer any questions.

I filed my student complaint on 1 February 2018. The University of Bristol closed down the disciplinary procedures on 27 June 2019 “for reasons unrelated to the merits of the case”, providing no further explanation. The University dismissed my student complaint on 19 December 2019. Throughout, the University insisted that it was paramount that I, along with my supervisors at the Centre for Gender and Violence Research, maintained confidentiality when faced with constant bullying. Almost two years later, they turned around and denied that any bullying took place. When they dismissed my student complaint in December 2019, the University argued that the purpose of confidentiality was to protect the bully. That meant that all along, I had to watch myself be publicly bullied and harassed by throngs of privileged, British students who were making a sport out of bullying an immigrant who had just arrived in the UK. The impact of this both on my health and my academic performance was severe.

In the Autumn of 2019, I spoke about what had been happening to me for the first time and my story was featured both in The Sunday Times and the BBC’s Radio 4 Today Programme. At that point, the University of Bristol pressured me to suspend my studies on the basis that I was not making sufficient academic progress.

I am deeply grateful to the Dominican Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology which has decided to fund me for another year, despite the considerable impact the bullying and this institutional process have had on my academic performance. I am equally grateful to the Centre for Gender and Violence Research at the University of Bristol which has shown me nothing but kindness and solidarity throughout this ordeal. The Head of the Centre for Gender and Violence Research has issued a public statement detailing the facts of this internal matter and condemning the University of Bristol’s handling of the process. You can read the public statement here.

Unsurprisingly, trans activist students continue to target me, attempting to cancel feminist meetings I organise inside the University of Bristol, as recently as March 2020. This is not a healthy or humane learning environment for any student. The University’s actions are not only in contravention of their own institutional policies, but are also illegal.The CaseI believe that the University’s failure to protect me is because they have a policy of not properly applying its disciplinary procedures against students who identify as trans rights activists. I am now preparing litigation against the University of Bristol for its failure to properly protect me from the bullying and harassment I have suffered. The legal breaches I am alleging are indirect xes discrimination (because most people who suffer this intimidation from trans activists are women, and therefore it is women who primarily suffer because of the University’s policy), unlawful victimisation under the Equality Act 2010, among others.

With this aim, I have instructed Peter Daly at Slater and Gordon to represent me. The immediate first step is to prepare a detailed Letter Before Claim and then, once we are in receipt of the University’s response to that letter, draft the claim itself.I am told that cases such as this can cost in excess of £50,000. In order to get the case off the ground, I am initially seeking to raise £10,000, which will cover the initial costs I have incurred, the Letter Before Claim, the lodging of the claim itself and the initial stages of the litigation. Following that, I will need to pay for the case itself, and also raise money to ensure that I can pay the University’s costs in case I am not successful. There is no such thing as a guaranteed success in litigation, and although I have been told that my case is strong, there is a possibility that I might lose. I am litigating against a huge organisation with near enough limitless resources.

Your support is crucial!

We were ready to launch this case just before the COVID-19 health crisis hit. I understand that these are challenging circumstances for all of us. Please feel free to donate to efforts to alleviate the effects of the crisis, which are undoubtedly more urgent. If you can contribute, I’d appreciate whatever you can donate to help fund my case. Please share this page among your network of colleagues, friends and family. My case is about how an elite university treats its students when nobody is watching and they believe that they’ll face no consequences. Therefore, this an academic issue. I would appreciate the support of everyone concerned about the intimidatory climate fomented by aggressive student activists, and the academic institutions which enable them.

Raquel Rosario Sánchez
 

joujou

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I want all the TRAs that roam this forum frequently to let us know what they think about this case!
For once tell us right here and right now how you all can justify the bullying and harassing of a black female student who's only "crime" was to study and focus on female issues! There are many more cases like this, many don't even make it to the news.
But y'all don't care because all you do is perform an act to get some kind of online woke points and the silly feeling of superiority because you really live in the illusion that you are on the "right side of history". Because you rather once again sh!t on women and their hard fought for rights for some men in dresses and some feelings that somehow are only valid if a man utters them. Because we all know you don't care about women feelings- those are irrational to you, contrary to the feelings of men in dresses. How come might I ask? When will you realize you are supporting a very conservative mens rights movement?

Women have to suffer real live consequences for standing up for their rights, for only daring to talk about their rights! They get harassed, they have to quit work, they lose their livelihoods - all of this only because they dared to stand up for women rights.
Sounds just like a conservatives wet dream right?
But this time it's the so called left that goes after women in a way that reminds me so much of the people they swear they hate. Just like the science ignoring far right the TRAs only care about their ideology and how to form society around it. Sadly they are more successful as performative politics are on the rise.
We women already suffer real live consequences because of the TRA! This is not and never was simply about toilets and where one could take a piss. Many told you on here years ago. Many could see where this was headed.
Now look!
A young black female student has to beg for money to try to get some justice and try to protect herself from further harassment simply because she dares to have a different view on something that is at the very least debatable!

What a world to live in... it is surreal!
 

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