GOOD NEWS: Rights group proposes bill to properly handle campus sexual assault.
In anticipation for reauthorizing the Higher Education Act of 1965, a group dedicated to student rights has offered up model legislation that would make campus sexual assault investigations fairer.
The group, called Stop Abusive and Violent Environments, released the model bill on June 22 and is working to lobby Congress for its adoption. The bill “supports the rights and interests of both the complainant and accused student, and encourages the involvement of local criminal justice authorities,” SAVE wrote. The bill could also be adapted for the state level as well.
“Sexual violence can have a devastating impact on victims. Institutions of higher education need to take into account the legitimate interests and rights of complainants and accused students to assure a fair and transparent adjudication process and to achieve reliable outcomes,” the proposed bill states. “All parties should seek to ensure the campus adjudicatory system follows due process procedures in order to protect the innocent and accurately identify the guilty.”
The bill reins in the ever-expanding definition of sexual assault by limiting it to existing standards. For example, it defines sexual harassment according to a Supreme Court finding (Davis v. Monroe) which says the harassment must be “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive.” In recent years, through “guidance” documents issued by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, colleges and universities have dropped the “objective” part of the definition and allowed anything that anyone sees as offensive (even if most wouldn’t) as enough basis to investigate a student.
The bill also ensures that support services are offered to both the accuser and the accused. In many bills on the issue and at many campuses, an accuser is provided numerous services while the accused must fend for themselves. The obvious reason for this is that pressure from the federal government has forced schools to treat accusers as instant truth-telling victims and the accused as guilty from the start.
1984 was not actually intended as a how-to manual.