Posted on 05/06/2011 12:12:06 PM PDT by markomalley
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is going to bat against the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) over what they see as infringements on college students’ due process and free speech rights.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter sent to colleges and universities in April, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali announced new federal regulations publicly funded schools must employ to address allegations of sexual harassment and sexual violence.
The new standards most notably lower the burden of proof to prosecute.
“[I]n order for a school’s grievance procedures to be consistent with Title IX standards, the school must use a preponderance of the evidence standard (i.e., it is more likely than not that sexual harassment or violence occurred),” Ali wrote.
FIRE reacted to OCR’s guidance to colleges and universities — with a letter of opposition Thursday, explaining the regulations infringe on student’s liberties.
“While it is of course necessary for colleges and universities to address allegations of sexual harassment and sexual violence with all requisite purpose, seriousness, and speed, the rights of those accused cannot be sacrificed simply as a function of the accusation itself,” FIRE’s letter reads.
FIRE’s President, Greg Lukianoff, explained that lowering proof standards will not aid the execution of justice.
“OCR is proceeding from the fallacy that reducing protections for the accused will somehow increase justice,” Greg Lukianoff said. “This is a dangerous and wrongheaded idea that will undermine the accuracy and reliability of the findings of campus courts.”
Will Creeley, FIRE’s director of legal and public advocacy, added that the concerns are not theoretical, that students are already having to prepare defenses to the lower standards.
“OCR has moved past the kind of normal responses we would expect to see, i.e. more training, clearer policies, and has decided instead to ‘level the playing field’ by tilting the scales quite clearly in favor of the accuser at the expense of justice on campus,” Creeley told TheDC. “This is a very real dangerous change that will affect student’s lives. More students will erroneously be found guilty of sexual assault due to these lower standards.”
FIRE also wrote of concerns about the stifling of free speech, namely OCR’s failure to address distinctions between “politically incorrect” expression and sexual harassment.
In Mid-April Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray introduced the The Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (SaVE Act), which would impose regulations that include mandates similar to those the OCR mandates and adds new reporting and training requirements.
OCR did not respond to requests for comment.
There are no words to describe...
Reverse witch hunts.
It’s for the children.
More $$$ in lawyers pockets. What a sham.
Not only that, but how did the universities, much less the DoE, get involved in criminal prosecutions?
Another good reason to totally defund this liberal playpen (especially since each state has a Dept. of Ed. anyway) and stop this nonsense. For that matter, let’s defund the EPA and Dept of Agric. too . . . same reason . . . no need for a national standard . . . that’s why we have 50 states and a Constitution.
Yet more evidence that the so-called Dept. of Education needs to be abolished.
Enough said.
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Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali
So, on the one hand they bring us free sex fist gate, yet on the other they lower the standards of burden of proof...
Something selective is going on. I have the suspicion that the rich will be prosecuted and that Unions will use the poor to prosecute.
Nice bait strategy...
I agree. So many of those scantily dressed girls claim they do not wish to provoke yet they are the first ones to complain when their competition is beat, calling each other sluts.
It’s like blacks being the only ones allowed to call each other by the N word. Our properties and thinking and suspicions are denied, period. Like in Islam, they leave the door open and whip whoever dares look through it.
In my opinion if this stands then a man would have to be a fool and worse to look at, talk to, Date or be within touching distance of a woman while attending any college.
Let’s be honest here, this is the nuclear option in the on-going gender wars here in the United States. It’s no wonder that so many young men are going to the homo-sexual lifestyle.
I thank God that that I am long since out of College and no-longer have to worry about this sort of PC-BS for myself.
IMHO, the Dept. of Education needs to be completely gone immediately.
What do these people do all day ? Sit and write memos like this ? There is no way you could walk the halls there with a stopwatch and make sense of the time the employees spend. NONE of what the do would be missed on Monday morning if one Friday the whole thing was unceremoniously shut down.
There are TONS of laws all over the place relating to these topics, there are DA’s, States, laws, courts, the schools and their myriad policies, it’s such a truly disgusting waste of time and money, as the whole subject is a crime that can get processed like all other crimes through the LE and judicial systems. The last thing we need is to complicate the legal environment EVEN MORE.
The DOE is irrelevant, obsolete and has outlived it’s usefulness, which it never had anyway. IMHO.
The whole point of this stuff is to keep “beta male” average guys from trying to date women.
The Alpha jock/a**holes that women love can leer and grope with impunity while any man the women thinks is “beneath her” will be slammed with the full force of the law.
Saturday Night Live’s two rules on sexual harassment: “Be attractive,” and “Don’t be unattractive.” are more true than ever.
The feminists have been screaming that 1 in 5 college women are sexually assaulted. But the actual statistics don’t show that. So they have to lower the threshold to get the statistics they want.
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