fresh blaspheme for $40 Canadian

Like a lot of people, the holidays sometimes get me feeling a little down. This year, however, I found a cure. I simply tell myself this and suddenly everything is candy canes and gummy bears. "There are many reasons why I love Canada - the people can be nice, the beer is cold half the time, and yes, Sharon, much like myself, loves puke." Here is a little blaspheme for you today.

With exams ending for all students abroad. Schools within our federal government are in for another exhausting debacle with the way the students are preparing to rejoice. Apparently, those who are to handle a stripper scandal is turning unreal. What happened was a freshmen wanted to celebrate their buddy's birthday by hiring a stripper, but they realized they had very little cash and they didn’t know any strippers.One of their friends said, no problem bros, there’s some girls down the hall who strip on the side. Don’t get me wrong, I love sex as much as the next person but the following is ludicrous.

Sure enough they did strip on the side and they marched down the hall and did a nice bump and grind for the boys for allegedly $40 Canadian. All would have been a fine little tale if it hadn’t been for a few dozen pictures that were snapped.

The other day I noticed a traffic bump on one of our users pages on Buzznet and lo and behold were the pictures and I was all, oh that’s smart, someone decided to put them on Buzznet. We're cool with the nude body, good for them this way nobody will have their email boxes filled up or be cursed with potential virus. No way did I expect the sort of traffic that site is now getting due to the Toronto Star story about this Saugeen Stripper. In over a day, 25,000 hits. I must say that I'm proud for this being handled in an adult manner.

Toronto Star
LOUISE BROWN
EDUCATION REPORTER

Canadian universities have no business, it seems, in the bedrooms of the campus dorm.Yet thanks to the Internet, everyone else can take a peek.

The University of Western Ontario is investigating an incident in which a female first-year student performed a full striptease and lap dance last week for several males in a residence bedroom, with graphic photos soon sent out over the Internet.A Google search on 'saugeen stripper' reveals several x-rated photos.

The incident raises questions about how far a university can go in protecting students, particularly younger ones from themselves.But because the young woman apparently performed willingly in the privacy of a residence room and no one filed a complaint, the school says it likely has no cause for discipline.

"We certainly regret this has happened; it's not something the university condones and we are very disappointed in these students, but rooms in residence are considered to be students' homes, and what goes on between consenting adults in the privacy of their homes is considered to be their business," said Susan Grindrod, Western's vice-president of housing.

"What's different in this case is that these pictures are going all over the world. With the Internet and personal blogs, pictures can be circulated very quickly, and I'm not sure how we would regulate students' blogs and websites even if we wanted to," said Grindrod. As soon as the raunchy images came to the attention of the administration, officials approached the young woman to ask if she had been forced to strip or tricked into being photographed without her knowledge. She said she had not.

"We were immediately proactive because we wanted to know if there had been any coercion and she told us she was a consenting participant and she was aware that pictures were being taken," said Grindrod."If there had been any coercion, there absolutely would have been repercussions. We do plan to talk to the other (male) students involved and continue to review the situation. It's still early in the game for us to have figured out how to proceed."University dorms have codes of conduct that forbid students from breaking the law. Many take a zero-tolerance approach to students taking drugs and underage drinking, for example.

Western has a policy that forbids the circulation of "objectionable" material such as racist, homophobic or pornographic images, either written or electronic, with extreme cases leading to the student being asked to leave residence.Yet most universities warn today's highly involved baby boomer parents that campus dorm supervisors will not serve as party police or morality monitors for their children, but will enter a student's room only if there is reason to believe a law is being broken or someone is in danger.

"We're not the alcohol police and we're not sex police, and I'm not sure we would want to be," said Grindrod. "And we recognize that many young people in first year may try out new things that can lead to errors in judgment. I'm not sure some of these misbehaviours haven't gone on in the past. It's just that today, the images can get sent around the world."

I actually feel badly for all students involved in these sorts of incidents. Allowing oneself to become the source of anothers gratification at ones own cost. It's a very sad situation. For some, the passivness taking place in this is rarely thought on by many. I, myself, am guilty of not mentioning it as much as I should, and am, truth be told, extremely disappointed that I was unable to participate.