DeVos rule changes get over 53,000 comments

[Hermit-The-Prog]

There’s a Quiet #MeToo Movement Unfolding in the Government’s Comments Section

Betsy DeVos wants to change how schools deal with claims of sexual assault and harassment. Survivors are fighting back.

Madison Pauly January 15, 2019

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DeVos has argued that the plan would protect the rights of both survivors and students accused of sexual misconduct. Among other measures, her proposal would narrow the Education Department’s definition of “sexual harassment,” allow administrators to ignore some off-campus incidents as well as complaints made to coaches and professors, and let schools raise the standard of evidence for survivors to prove they were assaulted or harassed. It would apply both to college and K-12 students.

But before the new rules can take effect, the Education Department must go through a process known as “notice and comment”—a 60-day period in which the public is invited to weigh in on proposed regulations. And the government is legally required to read the feedback and consider whether to incorporate it into the final rules.

Few proposals that go through a notice-and-comment period garner more than a handful of comments. DeVos’ plan has so far racked up 53,453. They include notes from a concerned grandparent and a worried high schooler, form letters from activists outraged by the proposal, and arguments against it from teachers, school administrators, and mental-health professionals. A small minority of comments support the proposed rules. And there are a growing number of stories like Lynn’s, by people—both anonymous and named—who cite personal experiences of sexual violence to oppose the regulation.

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https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/01/betsy-devos-title-ix-sexual-assault-harassment-metoo/

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. DeVos has to respond

But this time around, the process is more formal—so if the Department of Education does not respond to comments, they could face a lawsuit, explains Nancy Chi Cantalupo, one of the study’s authors. “There are potential legal consequences,” Cantalupo says. “The agency has to be able to justify to the courts that it read these comments, that it considered these comments in good faith, and that it had a reason for not responding directly to the public.”

[smirkymonkey]

2. I despise that woman!

I can't even say what I really think of her for fear of getting banned.