Former co-Women+ officer reacts to GLOW Nightclub’s actions against spiking

Following a recent rise in reports of spiking, nightclubs across the country have been called on to take stronger action.

The Girls Night In campaign announced a nationwide boycott of all clubs to take place every Wednesday from October 27th onwards until clubs around the country took sufficient action against spiking, in which The Sugarhouse and GLOW closed their doors that night.

GLOW then posted on social media to announce the measures they’ll put in place to keep people safe in the club, however, former co-Women+ Officer Charli Clement was unimpressed and didn’t believe this to be “an act of solidarity”.

Many clubs also released a set of goals that they would be working towards in order to help reduce the number of spikings taking place. However, GLOW’s statement has received a great deal of backlash from the public about the nature of their aims.

GLOW’s post on Instagram announced a list of steps they would be taking to improve upon the spiking issue, as well as advice to the public of how to avoid being spiked.

In particular, Lancaster Students’  Union former Co-Women+ officer Charli Clement was in disagreement with their post.

Posting on her Instagram story, Charli declared that GLOW had turned off the comments on their Instagram post due to the public commenting about the business’ lack of professionalism in dealing with spiking cases in their nightclub in the past.

Charli commented asking for a timeline that their steps would be taking, but GLOW were unable to provide this information, and instead requested that she message them privately – which Charli refused to do as she believed that it should be public knowledge.

She also made the statement that GLOW’s steps to avoid spiking placed more emphasis on victims taking action as opposed to holding the offenders accountable for their actions.

Speaking to The Tab Lancaster, Charli said: “The onus of ‘not being spiked’ should never be on victims and marginalised genders. Some advice on how you can take extra steps is okay, but to have a whole slide of expectations on victims and nothing on consequences for spikers is extremely problematic.”

When asked why she believed it was so important for GLOW to provide a timeline for the venue’s steps, Charli told us: “It’s not fair for GLOW to put forward a set of actions they’re taking against spiking without any notion of whether these are current or future actions.

“Some on the list included training, and dedicated members of staff for welfare – when with this training happen, and are they training current members of staff for this dedicated role or do they need to recruit?

“Those of marginalised genders need to know whether these actions are now, in progress or in the future in order to make informed judgements about whether they feel it’s safe, as well as those boycotting being able to decide whether they believe enough action has been taken to stop the boycott.”

We also asked about why she claimed on her Instagram story that GLOW’s closing should not be seen as an act of solidarity, and she told us that for her, their closing seemed more like “window dressing” to conform with other clubs across the country closing.

She went on to say: “There’s no solidarity when they close themselves off to accountability and hearing their customers tell them what they need from the club and it’s management. Sugar are not perfect but they at least used the closure to train staff – if GLOW did that, they’ve not been open about it.”

Charli suggested that GLOW needs to make sure their “additional surveillance” does not “disproportionally affect marginalised groups, particularly the black community.” and that they should apologise for and take action on “instances where women and marginalised genders have been thrown out for being spiked and left without their friends.”

She also proposed that GLOW provide the more simple measures, such as cup covers, in order to diminish spiking numbers.

To finish off, Charli told us: “Without any notion of a timeline or when these things will be in place, and turning off comments not allowing for public accountability, I simply can’t see how it’s a proper commitment.”

We reached out to GLOW Nightclub  for a statement but they did not provide a comment.

Related articles recommended by this author

• LUSU to hold anti-spiking focus group in the Great Hall

• From terrifying to Teletubbies: Here are Lancs Uni’s best Halloween costumes 2021

• ‘We accept that spiking has likely happened on our premises’: LUSU on reported spikings in Sugar