DeVos may KO Bam’s regs on college rape
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced on Thursday that she intends to review the Obamaera policies on campus sexual assault to better ensure due process for those accused.
DeVos made the announcement in a speech at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., where she called the Obama administration’s effort to make colleges set up quasi-legal systems to deal with assaults “failed.”
“Survivors aren’t well-served when they are retraumatized with appeal after appeal because the failed system failed the accused,” DeVos said. “And no student should be forced to sue their way to due process.”
The Obama administration, under the Title IX federal law that prohibits sexual discrimination, forced schools in 2011 to take steps to address sexual assaults on campuses.
The move was hailed by victims advocates for drawing attention to rape on campuses, but critics say the colleges were too quick to kick out students accused of misconduct without due process.
DeVos said she aims to redefine the regulations through a formal
rule-making process where the Department of Education will hear input from all sides of the issue.
“Every survivor of sexual misconduct must be taken seriously,” DeVos said. “Every student accused of sexual misconduct must know that guilt is not predetermined.”
Victims-advocate organizations blasted the decision as stripping away protections for sexual-assault victims.
“Secretary DeVos’ announcement today betrays our students, plain and simple,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who pledged to do “everything in my power” to fight for sexual-assault victims. “DeVos has shown that she does not take the rights of survivors seriously.”
But the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonprofit that promotes civil liberties on college campuses, backed up DeVos by releasing a study this week rating 53 colleges on ensuring due process.
The study found that 39 of 53 colleges do not presume the innocence of students. The group gave Columbia University a “C” grade and New York University an “F” on their sexual-misconduct policies.