Betsy DeVos is back in the news and per usual she is making another mess at the Department of Ediucation. DeVos already has changed the rules to make it more difficult for the victims of sexual harassment in schools to achieve a fair hearing. . Now DeVos is on her high horse to do the same for educational institutions. She is all set to put in place less stringent rules covering the responsibilities of colleges and k-12 schools when overseeing sexual claims and sexual assault charges of students in their charge. She apparently thinks that the accused and schools deserve more protections than the victims.
Of course, it is understandable why higher education institutions and k-12 schools are lobbying heavily (and spending lots of money) for these rules to be changed. Strict adherence to the present rules on sexual harassment cases requires more personnel, higher costs and constant due diligence to ensure that the victims in these cases are treated fairly. Educational institutions would rather not have their feet held to the fire. DeVos’s new measures will make life much easier for them.
Devos’s new rules provide huge loopholes for schools to escape jurisdiction and to say that the case must instead be turned over to the police. It will likewise make it more difficult for victims to make a case for institutional negligence. In this New York Times article, the author provides a number of examples of what happens to the victims when school authorities are given an out for overseeing cases involving their students.
It would be interesting to know what DeVos thinks of the Dr. Larry Nassar case at Michigan State University. (MSU). He was accused ultimately by one-hundred and fifty-five young women of sexual assault. Here is an unprecedented example of a huge bureaucracy looking the other way for years.. After news of the accusations became public, the spotlight turned to those at the university who had either heard from the victims themselves or heard the rumors and did not act on themm leaving Nassar free to carry on with this abuse.
The President of the University at the time, Lou Anna Simon, resigned her position in the middle of the controversy. However she did not leave the University. Like many bureaucratic institutions who protect the higher ups, MSU quietly gave her another job. (Probably very high paying as well.) Just two weeks ago, however Simon was charged with 3 counts of giving false testimony to an officer of the law re the Nassar case. Now the University has given her a leave of absence.
This case points out easy it is for a huge bureaucracy to escape necessary oversight and leave victims hanging. People who hear about an abuse and do nothing, or engage in a cover-up to protect the school should be held legally responsible. It will be interesting to see what happens to Simon and others who abdicated their responsibilities to protect their students.
What this case at MSU should clearly point out to Betsy DeVos is all the unsavory things that can happen when schools are not held strictly accountable. Victims will suffer in silence rather than to make a report to an unsympathetic institution which is not stringently obligated to protect them. And President Simon, along with others who worried more about the reputation of the University and engaged in a cover-up deserve whatever penalties they are given.
As for DeVos, she is both incompetent and malevolent – and that as one can see, is a dangerous combination. It will be a happy day for all the students in the country and those of us in the Resistance when she is no longer Secretary of Education.
There will be a 60 day open period for public comment. Will send along the details to give you an opportunity to send in your comments when they are provided.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/27/opinion/betsy-devos-title-ix-schools-students.html