Students accused of sexual misconduct get stronger protections under new federal rules

[CentralMass]

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-06/students-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-get-stronger-protections-under-new-federal-rules
"Education Secretary Betsy DeVos unveiled sweeping changes Wednesday to campus sexual misconduct rules that would bolster the rights of the accused and give colleges more flexibility in how they handle Title IX cases."
"DeVos has said the revisions are aimed at restoring fairness and rebalancing the rights of the accuser and accused in the contentious arena of campus sexual assault. Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in education by schools that receive federal funding."

I guess they have to enable them young.

[virgogal]

1. Good.

[smirkymonkey]

4. Good?

What on earth is wrong with you?

[Celerity]

6. +100000

[Jake Stern]

11. You're against due process and the right to confront your accuser as provided by the constitution?

What's wrong with YOU?

[demmiblue]

13. This is far from unusual for this particular poster.

But, yeah...

[demmiblue]

20. Shoo. n/t

[Celerity]

5. how is this possibly good????????

Title IX experts and advocates for survivors of sexual assault warned that the prospect of an adversarial proceeding similar to a criminal trial, complete with cross-examination, would significantly deter the filing of complaints.

“This will likely cause a very dramatic chilling effect on the willingness of people to come forward and report sexual violence and discrimination,” said Brett Sokolow, president of the Assn. of Title IX Administrators.

“Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration are dead set on making schools more dangerous for everyone — even during a global pandemic,” Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center, said in a statement. “We won’t let DeVos succeed in requiring schools to be complicit in harassment, turning Title IX from a law that protects all students into a law that protects abusers and harassers.”

She said her organization would challenge the rules in court. Sokolow said one area of likely litigation would be whether the Department of Education had the authority to adopt rules on due process. “There’s going to be a war over that issue,” he said.

[Jake Stern]

12. I know right?

How dare colleges be forced to abide by constitutional protections such as due process and the right to confront your accuser!

Instead let's stay with the old rules which say that the accused is guilty until proven innocent and that the victim's word is enough to get a student expelled.

[Celerity]

14. sounds like bullshit MRA talking points to me

[Jake Stern]

15. You call it MRA talking points

I call it constitutional protections

[Celerity]

17. disagree profoundly, have a nice evening nt

[smirkymonkey]

16. That's exactly what they are.

Ignore him.

[demmiblue]

22. ...

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[nsd]

19. Yes, good.

A necessary corrective. Concern for victims doesn't mean throwing away due process.

It's too bad this correction is associated with DeVos. I am enormous fan of the Obama administration, but on this they messed up.

[DURHAM D]

2. Are they called the "Kavanaugh Rights"

[exboyfil]

3. Or avoid Star Chambers

The Title IX investigations have, in some cases, been unfair.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. The Title IX process is kind of a shitshow anyway. It looks like the changes actually can provide

some more transparency, but could also end up reinforcing inequalities in some cases.

[Hekate]

8. Betsy DeVos really wanted to do away with protections for sexual assault survivors on campuses...

The way she went on about the unfairness of it all made me wonder: what happened with her brother (Eric Prince) and sons (if any) when they were at college? Given Eric's life since then, I'd say: nothing good.

[bullwinkle428]

9. "Make America Rapey Again"

[hack89]

10. Schools should have nothing to do with investigating and punishing sexual assault

Last edited Wed May 6, 2020, 03:23 PM - Edit history (1)

it should be a police matter.

Sexual harassment yes - that is a proper thing for schools to handle as long as it is done openly and fairly.

[Igel]

23. So the accused should have few rights?

Think back a few decades. White woman accuses black man.

As the accused, it's appropriate for the black man to not be able to know what the accusations are until the investigation is complete? Not have a lawyer? Not be able to question his accuser?

We'd say that to the extent this actually was the case under Jim Crow it was due to white privilege.

Granted, it's not a criminal trial. But having on his transcript that he was chucked from college for sexual assault makes it clear that he can't apply to another college with expectations of enrollment, and can't use his college credit for a job application. And for those that require transcripts, the guy's committing fraud by not informing on himself. And if he's two years out of high school and doesn't fess up to college (which would mean handing over transcripts) he has to explain what he did for two years.

Even if the accuser is wrong, the accuser is right.

Colleges are afraid of the executive branch and take certain steps to make sure they get the money they need--steps which, in many cases, the administrators like because of shared ideology. Then the judicial branch slaps them down for violating constitutional safeguards.

Somebody upthread pointed out that to deny women the protections would reduce the number of charges filed. I guess it works the same for theft complaints, so property theft needs the same advantages for accusers. And hate crimes. And non-sexual assault.