ANU: John XXIII college students detail ‘hazing’ rituals
As part of a case in which a woman is suing a college over an alleged rape, a court has heard first year students were made to get on their knees while they had goon poured into their mouths in a shameful hazing ritual at the ANU’s John XXIII College.
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First year women were made to get on their knees while they had goon poured into their mouths in a shameful hazing ritual at the ANU’s John XXIII College, a court has heard.
A woman, who can not be named for legal reasons, is suing the college for negligence, and alleges she was raped in an alleyway after an unofficial student function, “pub golf”, where attendees were required to drink a minimum “par” of drinks at bars around Canberra.
The woman claims the college turned a blind eye to heavy drinking, hazing and sexual misconduct.
Another former student who was a “student leader” told the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday she was now “ashamed” for taking part in the “hazing” ritual.
“We’d get the first years on their knees and pour goon into their mouths,” she said.
She said she didn’t pour the goon into the young women’s mouths herself, but was in the room.
If she tried to put a stop to the “hazing” ritual, she said, “I wouldn’t have any friends”.
“I didn’t do anything about it. I turned a blind eye.”
She said during her first orientation week, the aim of most students was “trying to get as drunk as possible”.
At a college event called Out the Back, there was free punch available to students, which, she said, “tasted pretty strong to me”.
By the end of the event, she said people were throwing up on the lawns behind the college.
She said the students who were supposed to stay sober while they were in charge of functions would sometimes “have a drink or two”.
Another student, who also cannot be named, said the first event she went to at the college, a “meet and greet” with people on her floor, saw older male students bring along two bottles of vodka.
She said some Johns students were so drunk from “pre-loading” before an O-week event at a neighbouring college, Burgmann College, that they were not let in.
“A few people who couldn’t get in couldn’t properly show their ID, like, they held it upside down,” she said.
At the start of the year, students were split up into “boys and girls” and given lectures about sexual consent.
The second student told the court a guest speaker hired by the college told the women that if they were about to be sexually assaulted, they should “not aggravate the guy” by saying no, and instead make an excuse to go to the bathroom, “because they guy would assume we were going to do our make up”.
The court heard the college head, Geoff Johnston will give evidence saying he was not happy with the level of drinking.
The trial, before Justice Michael Elkaim, continues.