Denying Justice to Campus Sexual Assault Survivors Saves Colleges Money

[niyad]

(may betsy receive everything she deserves, as the war on women continues apace)


Denying Justice to Campus Sexual Assault Survivors Saves Colleges Money


Yesterday, an Education Department analysis revealed that Secretary Betsy DeVos’s newly proposed Title IX rules would significantly decrease the number of reports of and investigations into campus sexual misconduct, therefore saving colleges and school districts millions of dollars over the next decade. Under the new rules, investigations into college campus sexual misconduct would drop 39 percent, and investigations into sexual misconducts involving elementary and secondary education institutions would drop 50 percent.

According to a New York Times report, DeVos is proposing new rules that would narrow the definition of sexual harassment, reduce liability for schools and universities, and strengthen protections for students accused of assault, harassment, or rape. Schools would be required to approach all investigations under the presumption that the accused is innocent, placing the burden on the victim to prove they were assaulted. “The Trump administration is sending us back to an ugly time when rape victims suffered in silence in our schools, and perpetrators were able to assault multiple women with impunity,” said Gaylynn Burroughs, Director of Policy and Research at the Feminist Majority Foundation, in a previous statement. This new rules adopt the Supreme Court’s definition of sexual harassment, which is defined as “unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies a person access to the school’s program or activity.”

According to the New York Times report, this new standard would find an institution in violation of the law “only if its response to the sexual harassment is clearly unreasonable in light of known circumstances.” Further, the proposed rule allows schools to decide whether to have an appeals process when addressing sexual assault and allows the use of mediation between the victims and perpetrators, essentially forcing victims to “work it out” with their rapists.

Last year, DeVos rescinded policies and guidance that protected survivors of sexual assault and worked to reduce the high rates of sexual misconduct on school campuses. “Through this action, we are left wondering whether Secretary DeVos takes equal access to education for survivors seriously,” testified Burroughs before Office of Postsecondary Education. “By withdrawing the 2011 and 2014 guidance, this Administration has unfortunately sent the message that women’s education is disposable. They can either put up with sexual violence or get out.” One in five women and one in sixteen men will be sexually assaulted while in college, and 90 percent of survivors will never report the attack.

http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2018/09/11/denying-justice-to-campus-sexual-assault-survivors-saves-colleges-money/

[angela232]

1. Must we create women only schools?

The law already states that a person is innocent until proven guilty but if the law is going "backwards" as far as protecting an alleged victim, women may have no other recourse than to attend female-only schools with female staff - in order to feel safe while trying to get an education. (Then other schools will lose tuition money from women students!)
School is hard enough as it is without having to worry about being abused and then (to add insult to injury) not getting proper legal support.

As it says in the book: "Are Men the Weaker Sex", there are too many men who can't exercise self-control. Therefore, laws need to be in place - to send a message that those who do what they want to whomever they want will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. Otherwise, we may become another India or Saudi Arabia.

[niyad]

2. welcome to du, and thank you for that very thoughtful response.