If you were a witness to sexual misconduct, would you take action to stop it?

That's a question Howard Community College, with the help of the Columbia-based nonprofit HopeWorks, hopes to help faculty, staff and students answer in the affirmative.

During “Becoming an Active Bystander,” members of the college community will learn their options for intervening in a difficult situation on campus without putting themselves at risk. The training session will be offered at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in the college's Duncan Hall, led by a representative from HopeWorks, formerly known as the Domestic Violence Center.

The “bystander effect,” also known as bystander apathy, occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation. Sometimes a person's lack of action is simply a matter of not knowing what to do.

“There are positive steps any bystander can take to intervene in a violent, abusive or unhealthy situation,” said Cindy Peterka, vice president of student services.

The community college recently signed a memorandum of understanding with HopeWorks for training in domestic violence and bystander intervention.

“The college has decided to be proactive” in its training, said Peterka, who is also the school's co-coordinator for Title IX, the provision that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.

Title IX regulations have broadened since its 1972 inception to include a school's obligation to prevent “any unwanted and unwelcome sexual behavior that significantly interferes with a student's access to educational opportunities,” according to the Title IX website.

In April 2015, a letter to all educational institutionsfromthe U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights re-emphasized that, Peterka said.

“We have been training our students for some time to know what resources are available to them, and we also provide training for faculty and staff, who are considered mandatory reporters” of incidents, she said.

“Title IX requirements make us review what we're doing and whether we can refine that to make our campus even safer,” Peterka said.

Title IX data show that eight in 10 students experience some form of sexual harassment during their school years, and more than 25 percent experience it often.

Tuesday's session has a goal of empowering members of the college community to become active responders when they see or know of an abusive situation, not passive observers who are afraid to get involved.

“A lot of people don't have the courage to step in and try to resolve a situation,” said Stephanie Romano, a HopeWorks victims' advocate who will lead the training.

“We want everyone to feel comfortable in becoming an active bystander, because someone's life may depend upon it,” she said.

Romano will outline strategies, such as locating someone who is better equipped to respond to the situation, and interrupting the misconduct with a distraction.

As part of orientation at Howard Community College, students are informed who their Title IX coordinators are and that they are charged with enforcing gender equity, said Llatetra Esters, interim director of student conduct.

Students are also told they can report misconduct directly to the federal Office of Civil Rights if they choose, she said.

“I tell the students this at new-student orientations, and their eyes get as big as saucers because they're not expecting this conversation,” Esters said.

The college is also working on a memorandum of understanding with the Howard County Police Department, she said.

“Large numbers of students [across the country] have learned how to report sexual assaults on campus,” she said. These incidents “mainly come from residential campuses, where partying, alcohol and date-rape drugs are more common.”

Peterka said representatives of the One Love Foundation — founded in 2010 in memory of Yeardley Love, a University of Virginia senior and Cockeysville resident who was murdered by an ex-boyfriend — have come to Howard Community College several times to discuss intervening in domestic violence situations.

Their presentations included the screening of “Escalation,” a film that educates viewers on relationship violence.

“The point of that movie is that many of the [victim's] friends knew about the violence, but they never thought it would come to murder, and no one had empowered them to come forward” with what they knew, she said.

The college has also screened the 2015 documentary film “The Hunting Ground,” which Peterka said is “the story of two women who claimed they were not provided sufficient support and relief by their colleges [in sexual assault cases] and who contacted the federal Office of Human Rights to demand protection.”

Romano said there's been a significant cultural shift regarding reporting of sexual misconduct in recent years.

“There's been a shift toward focusing on bystander intervention,” she said. “People are beginning ... to act on the idea that if you see something, say something.”

janeneholzberg76@gmail.com