New federal guidelines from Betsy DeVos will probably scare a lot of sexual assault victims away from ever reporting what happened to them. On Wednesday, the Education Secretary, she put new regulations into place on how sexual misconduct in education will be investigated and the new regulations protect the accused more than the accuser. New York Times reporter Erica Green has been following this story throughout the process. She writes:
The rules fulfill one of the Trump administration’s major policy goals for Title IX, the 48-year-old federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in programs that receive federal funding, bolstering due-process protections for accused students while relieving schools of some legal liabilities.
Green goes on to say:
They require colleges to hold live hearings during which accusers and accused can be cross-examined to challenge their credibility. The rules also limit the complaints that schools are obligated to investigate to only those filed through a formal process and brought to the attention of officials with the authority to take corrective action, not other authority figures like residential advisers.
Imagine if, in order to report, you knew you’d have to allow yourself to be cross-examined by your rapist. Would you come forward?
Well, that’s what just happened to college students. What do you bet sexual assault “goes down” after this. https://t.co/YSds4q2YfA
— Katie Hill (@KatieHill4CA) May 6, 2020
The National Women’s Law Center remarked, “During a global crisis, they prioritized changing the rules to protect those accused of sexual assault over survivors. That’s unconscionable — we’re taking them to court. #HandsOffIX”
In a statement, Biden said the new rule was an effort by the Trump administration to “shame and silence” survivors of sexual assault.
“It’s wrong,” Biden said. “And, it will be put to a quick end in January 2021, because as president, I’ll be right where I always have been throughout my career — on the side of survivors, who deserve to have their voices heard, their claims taken seriously and investigated, and their rights upheld.”
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