As our Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos is supposed to help improve school systems for everyone, especially those in marginalized positions in a system wrought with injustice. However, the changes she recently proposed to Title IX, the federal law that protects against sexual discrimination and misconduct in education, demonstrate a clear lack of support for those the law is trying to support.
Before the Obama administration’s crackdown on campus sexual assault, horror stories of
universities silencing victims and letting the accused off with minimal punishment were common. One need only watch the powerful documentary The Hunting Ground, which tells the stories of several sexual assault victims who faced a lack of support both from their peers and their universities. In some cases schools actively tried to sweep reports under the rug in an effort to maintain their image.
Obama-era regulations like the “Dear Colleague” letter pressured schools to emphasize supporting victims if there is a “preponderance of evidence” in sexual assault reports. The accused is then held responsible if 50.1% of the evidence supports the victim’s case. This was a massive victory against the patriarchal standards that kept many women from reporting and protected schools who frequently chose not to conduct sexual assault investigations.
While some have criticized this progress as targeting the accused and allowing for false reports and mistaken identities to potentially ruin an innocent person’s life, the truth of the matter is that a very small number of sexual assault allegations are false, and even those rarely end in actual charges against the accused. According to the FBI, only 2% of all sexual assault allegations are found to be false. On top of that, according to RAINN, only roughly 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are actually reported, and of that 310, only 6 of the accused will face charges. Among college women, only 20% of sexual assaults are reported. These statistics show that we have a serious lack of support when it comes to victims of sexual assault.
Betsy Devos’ proposed changes would essentially roll back all of the Obama administration’s progress and perpetuate the fear and stigma around reporting. She has proposed more protections for the accused and a higher legal standard when filing against universities. The New York Times reported that under her proposed changes, the definition of sexual harassment would change to mean “unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies a person access to the school’s education program or activity.”
This language is implicitly victim-shaming, as it would make victims have to decide whether or not their abuse was truly “severe”. This overtly discourages people from reporting and adds to the stigma and shame around experiencing sexual assault on campus. Similarly, the heightened legal standard required to prosecute universities who cover up or don’t investigate sexual misconduct means that many institutions will be able to get away with sweeping assault under the rug, and victims won’t be able to protect themselves against it.
While it may seem like common sense to support students coping with the trauma of sexual assault, Betsy Devos disagrees. These proposed changes are a clear indication of the Trump administration’s loyalties and perpetuate the culture of victim-silencing that is already so prevalent in our society. One must question whether a man who was elected president while facing 19 accusations of sexual assault should be allowed to make changes to laws that protect victims of the same crime.