The change announced by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos reshapes the way the nation’s schools respond to complaints of sexual misconduct. It is meant to replace policies from the Obama administration that DeVos previously revoked, saying they pressured schools to deny the rights of accused students.
“Today we release a final rule that recognizes we can continue to combat sexual misconduct without abandoning our core values of fairness, presumption of innocence and due process,” she said. “This empowers survivors with more tools than ever before.”..
"It is meant to replace policies from the Obama administration that DeVos previously revoked, saying they pressured schools to deny the rights of accused students."
ReplyDeletePretty troubling for someone who is a father of two daughters.
This was my experience with the existing campus rules and procedures. A formal letter was received from Montgomery College stating the following:
ReplyDeletea. The alleged activities occurred in the perpetrator’s home studio, when the complainant was not registered at the college. [The sexual abuse started in the fall of 2006 and continued until the winter of 2009. The complainant applied and was admitted to Montgomery College in the fall of 2007. The complainant took her first music course at the college in the fall of 2008.]
b. The complaint was filed after the 180-day time period required by the college. [A formal complaint was filed with the college as soon as I became aware in 2012.]
c. The complainant failed to cooperate with the investigator. [A male investigator was assigned to interview the complainant, adding insult to injury. A written timeline of events was promptly provided to the college by the complainant.]
d. The perpetrator denied the allegations in general, and did not specifically respond to the alleged activities. [The college received a formal complaint that had a detailed timeline of the events, along with the perpetrator’s recent email apologizing to the complainant for his actions.]
e. The investigator decided that there was not enough evidence to substantiate the allegations. [The college official was contacted and asked whether the investigator reviewed the adjunct professor’s apologetic email. The college official’s terse reply was a simple: Yes . . .]
Sadly, the college chose to brush off this serious matter using procedural technicalities. The perpetrator is still employed by the college, as an adjunct professor of music, continues to have access to students and uses his position to find potential victims outside the college setting.
https://wtop.com/education/2020/05/md-university-system-concerned-about-new-campus-sexual-assault-rules/
ReplyDeleteSchools can be held accountable for mishandling complaints only if they acted with “deliberate indifference.”
Unlike Montgomery County, which invokes a myriad of arcane loopholes to protect sexual predators, Virginia does not hesitate to prosecute them even if they suggest inappropriate behavior:
ReplyDeletehttps://wtop.com/crime/2020/05/culpeper-high-school-math-teacher-accused-of-soliciting-student/
https://www.rainn.org/statistics/children-and-teens
Delete"According to RAINN, minors who experience sexual assault are four times more likely to develop symptoms of drug abuse, four times more likely to have PTSD as adults are and three times more likely than peers to have major depressive episodes."
https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf Campus Sexual Assault:
DeleteOne in 5 women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college.
More than 90% of sexual assault victims on college campuses do not report the assault.