Lawrence seeks sexual harassment training for bar staff

Lawrence city leaders want bar staff to be prepared to respond to predatory behavior, harassment and sexual assault.

Commissioners asked city staff last week to work with drinking establishments and other stakeholders in developing a requirement that drinking establishments receive SafeBar sexual violence and bystander intervention training as a condition of their local license. That local license is in addition to the state liquor license. Commissioner Jennifer Ananda, an attorney and social worker who handles complaints of discrimination and harassment at the University of Kansas in her role as deputy Title IX coordinator and policy specialist, originally proposed that the commission consider requiring the training. She said many alcohol-facilitated sexual assaults start at bars.

“Even when justice is served, whether through an academic system or a justice system, it doesn’t fix that person and it doesn’t change what happened to them,” Ananda said. “So preventing that is really where we get to the core of changing our culture, changing our community and shifting that paradigm in our community.”