We cannot be surprised that Betsy DeVos has expressed her intent to protect the rights of accused rapists. The woman she put in charge of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, Candace Jackson, claims that she is a survivor of a campus assault but she is obsessed with the rights of accused rapists.
DeVos will not protect other groups that suffer genuine harm, such as students defrauded by unscrupulous for-profit colleges. She will not help transgender students who are bullied. Segregation is of no concern to her. She has dismissed thousands of complaints about discrimination against students with disabilities.
Young women who suffer the misfortune of being raped on campus should make sure they have witnesses or forget about reporting it. If they are raped by another student off-campus, tough luck.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Who needs the Taliban when we have our own home grown zealot ensuring that women will enjoy institutionalized second class status? Her policies always side with those with more money, power and influence. She is the wrong person for the position she holds, and it is exactly why she was appointed.
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She’s wretched.
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DeVos protects rapists…her boss, the Orange one, is a rapist. She stands up for what is important in her life.
She is totally incompetent just like the Orange one.
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Kavanaugh is a DeVos kind of judge. In addition to Fox and Sinclair Broadcasting running promotional messages for him, the AP quoted pro-Kavanaugh voices 50% more often in its Supreme Court coverage.(Media Matters)
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Trump loves Kavanaugh because he believes the president is above the law while in office. It might interfere with his golf game or tweeting to face criminal or civil charges.
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Kavanaugh believes REPUBLICAN Presidents are above the law.
Kavanaugh believes Democrats should be impeached for misleading about the specific sexual details of their affairs.
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Maybe I am missing something. I really thought under state and federal laws that a person accused of a crime has the right to a defense in the courts with the aide of an attorney. Why does Dumb DeVos think she has any right in getting involved with the courts of law? Guess DeVos is following Trump’s lead when it comes to an understanding of the laws of this country.
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“Why does Dumb DeVos think she has any right in getting involved with the courts of law?”
Yes, of course anyone accused of a crime by the state is allowed to have legal representation but DeVos is not “getting involved with the courts of law” in this ruling. The ruling covers what universities/colleges do when there is an accusation of rape and/or sexual misconduct. From my reading of the article it has nothing to do with what the courts may or may not do.
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Yes. I just posted below. This is like DeVos saying that universities can no longer punish students accused of cheating without giving those students all kinds of special rights. Except DeVos is fine with the “rights” of other students being supposedly violated in a campus procedure. As long as they aren’t accused of rape, campus procedure to suspend or expel them is fine.
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For the Kavanaugh hearings, protestors dressed as handmaids from the tv program, Handmaiden’s Tale.
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There is something odd about the special privilege that DeVos insists on giving to ONLY campus rapists.
Remember, DeVos isn’t concerned about protecting accused rapists from being jailed without a trial. This has NOTHING to do with the criminal justice system. This is about treating students who violate the rule against rape the same way the students who violate the rules against beating up another students, damaging student property, or cheating are treated.
DeVos says she wants to protect accused rapists from being treated the way other students accused of campus violations are treated. Rapists should have rights that no other student has.
Raping another student is a violation of campus regulations. Whenever a student is caught breaking one of those campus rules — which includes cheating and damaging campus property and other rules — they are punished by the campus. Sometimes that punishment means suspension or expulsion.
However, according to DeVos, only rapists are given special treatment if they violate the campus rule against sexual assault. Other violations can get your kicked out without the university bringing charges in a court of law that are proven by a jury. But if you rape, don’t worry, you have special privileges that forbids the university to treat you like the students who violate other rules.
If DeVos is so concerned about “rights”, why isn’t she demanding that ALL students accused of any campus violations have these rights. But she isn’t. Just rapists.
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I don’t read the changes in the policy to be anything near what you are suggesting about a “special privilege” for rapists. Now is it smart (ha ha) for DeVos to frame the issue the way it appears she has? I think we know the answer to that.
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(I am a victim of sexual assault). I find myself in support of a thorough review of the procedures. ALL people accused of crimes, are entitled to the presumption of innocence. I believe sincerely, that women (and men) who are victims of sexual assault, can be supported, and their claims of injury/assault can be investigated thoroughly.
I also believe that individuals accused of sexually-based offenses, are entitled to the fullest protection of the law, and due process. Please remember the case in North Carolina, where the lacrosse team was falsely accused. see
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/duke-lacrosse-rape-espn-30-for-30_us_56e07e33e4b065e2e3d486f7
Our legal system is a balance of protecting the victims, and dispensing justice for the accused. It is not an easy balance.
Can we just agree, that the procedures need a careful and honest review, and if necessary, some honest changes, that balance the rights of the victim, with the rights of the accused?
(Thanks for respecting my anonymity)
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The alleged rapists are still protected by the US Constitution no matter what a mob thinks or what the media reports.
There is no need to change the protections already offered by the US Constitution to something that punished the alleged victim.
If an alleged victim lies and is caught ling in court, then the alleged victim of rape will end up punished.
But no matter what Ditsy Betsy does with her abuse of the US Constitution, she can’t chance the opinions of two mobs that prejudges someone based on what they hear and read.
In today’s world with a Trumpish troll ridden internet, there will be one mob that will terrorize the alleged victim of rape and another mob condemning the alleged rapist.
However, the alleged victims of rape must know it is safe for them to end up in court and not be crucified by the court for being a victim that spoke out against an alleged rapist.
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Actually, the Duke lacrosse team incident shows exactly why this rule should be in place.
FYI — the lacrosse team WAS prosecuted in the court of law. But it got a pass for all the violations of university regulations that it broke. In fact, they should have been punished by the university for breaking all sorts of university regulations. Instead, all of that was overlooked because the law doesn’t care about all that, which is fine.
What should have happened is that the lacrosse team got punished for all the violations by the university — which does not have to meet the court of law standards — and any prosecution by the law should be in addition to that.
A few years ago, Harvard University rescinded the admissions of a bunch of early admission students who were posting nasty racist memes on Facebook. Should that have been allowed?
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^^^Just to be clear, I mean that the university allowed the courts to handle the issues of the Duke lacrosse team.
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I’ve never understood why a university or college should have anything to do with rape or sexual misconduct that hasn’t occurred on the property of said school. Now, if a student comes to the school and says that he/she doesn’t feel safe because of someone who committed a violent or aggressive act against him/her, even if off campus, also attends, then I can see the school investigating. But to give universities and colleges this blanket ability to investigate what should be legal matters under the jurisdiction of law enforcement and the courts seems to have been a stretch to begin with and a broad overreach of legal authority.
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It is against university regulations for a student to rape another student. It is against university regulations for a student to trash his dorm room or to cheat. When students are accused of any of those violations of university rules, they go through campus procedures and may be suspended or expelled.
Why shouldn’t accused rapists go through the same procedure as the roommate accused of going through his roommate’s food supply and eating all of it?
Those accused go through a campus procedure — not a legal procedure.
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I never even came close to hinting that the university shouldn’t investigate the breaking of its policies and rules for anyone much less one accused of rape. Please, you’ve done this too many times NYCpsp, putting words into my mouth. It doesn’t cut it as a valid argument/discussion technique. And you have done so in the past with quite a few others. I wish you’d understand just how appalling it is to do so.
And no, the same process shouldn’t be the same for the food snatcher and a sexual assaulter/rapist/violent SOB. The process needs to be a lot stricter, more evidential oriented process for the latter.
But the process should first be, for any violent/aggressive behavior through the legal system and if necessary, secondarily even concurrently, through the university process. I have no problem with that but I’d much rather see a rapist put behind bars than to just be kicked out of a school-not that both couldn’t be the result.
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Whoa! Stealing a couple of bags of Cheetos, is not the same thing as committing forcible rape! Just being accused of sexual assault, can rip a person’s whole life apart.
Individuals accused of forcible rape, should have to face the law, and trial, and after conviction, many years in prison.
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Duane,
Please cite where I “put words in your mouth”. As you have done so many times, you have accused me of doing something I did not do.
I am merely pointing out that DeVos is giving students accused of violating campus prohibitions against sexual assault with special privileges that those accused of violating other university regulations do not have.
I would appreciate the direct quote of me putting words in your mouth, or an apology from you, Duane.
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Stealing your roommate’s cookies is not a crime. Repeated, it might be right for campus discipline.
Raping another student is a crime. It should be reported to the police.
Frat houses are infamous for heavy drinking and a rape culture. Read John Hechinger’s book, “True Gentlemen.”
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I’ve never understood why colleges don’t crack down hard on underage drinking at frat houses. This does not seem logistically difficult at all, and it could be done with cooperation of local police.
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“Whoa! Stealing a couple of bags of Cheetos, is not the same thing as committing forcible rape! ”
My point is that the university can punish — even expel — a student for stealing a couple of bags of Cheetos without having to go to trial and have him convicted for stealing.
It seems odd that a student can sexually assault a student and take her cheetos, but only be punished for stealing the cheetos because the accusations of the woman saying the man stole her cheetos are supposedly more believable than the accusations of a woman saying a man raped her. And supposedly rapists must be given the benefit of the doubt that cheetos stealers don’t deserve.
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“I’ve never understood why colleges don’t crack down hard on underage drinking at frat houses. This does not seem logistically difficult at all, and it could be done with cooperation of local police.”
FLERP! – in your ideal scenario, would the college only punish students who have been prosecuted and found guilty of underage drinking in a court of law? Would they only punish a student if they were convicted in court of serving another student alcohol?
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“Candace Jackson, claims that she is a survivor of a campus assault but she is obsessed with the rights of accused rapists.”
I think she is a victim of what’s known as Stockholm Syndrome.
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The discussion is untehered from the law Devos is undermining through proposed “guidance.”
Under Title IX, discrimination on the basis of sex can include sexual harassment, rape, and sexual assault. A college or university that receives federal funds may be held legally responsible when it knows about and ignores sexual harassment or assault in its programs or activities.
Title IX and Sexual Assault | American Civil Liberties Union
https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/title-ix-and-sexual-assault
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