USA TODAY International Edition
‘Overwhelming fear’: DeVos rule draws fire
Proposal lets schools off the hook, critics charge
Morgan McCaul knows what impact Betsy DeVos’ proposed overhaul of campus sexual assault investigations would have on victims.
In mid-January, McCaul went to a podium in a mid-Michigan courtroom and faced Larry Nassar, the former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor who sexually assaulted her and hundreds of other female athletes over decades. It was incredibly stressful and traumatic, she says. But Nassar, or his lawyers, couldn’t question McCaul.
“I truly can’t imagine the overwhelming fear that facing him with the possibility of interrogation would bring,” she told the Detroit Free Press Friday morning. “Every shred of emotion and anxiety that I felt seeing my abuser at his sentencing was under ideal circumstances. I got tremendously lucky.”
So when she looks at the proposed rules put forth Friday by the Department of Education, she says she knows what’s behind the changes. The new guidelines, which now enter a 60-day comment period, would narrow the definition of what sexual harassment is on campus and reinforce “due process” rights for students accused.
“I believe the new Title IX procedures defined by the Department of Education accomplish exactly what they set out to do: impose further strain on survivors of sexual assault and alleviate institutions of their responsibility to protect students and their safety,” McCaul said.
The new rules aren’t likely to be adopted until 2019 at the earliest, so they wouldn’t take full effect until 2020.
DeVos’ proposal creates three categories for harassment, including “unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the school’s education program”; harassment in exchange for something, like a school employee’s tying an educational benefit to a person’s sexual conduct; and sexual assault.
The proposal limits who must respond to sexual assault complaints: Title IX coordinators at schools or an official authorized to take action. Schools would be required to respond only if the alleged incident occurred on campus or in areas overseen by the school, leaving out, for example, study abroad programs.
Key to the proposed changes are requirements that universities hold live hearings on accusations and allow representatives for the accused and accuser to cross-examine the other party.
McCaul’s comments were echoed by groups and victims’ rights advocates from across the country.
“This rule abdicates the responsibility to protect every student’s right to safety on campus. It tells academic institutions that they needn’t bother helping to protect students; they won’t be liable,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten in a statement. “These changes once again demonstrate that students are not DeVos’ priority.”