Discrimination Complaints to Department of Education are Up
This is something that isn’t glaringly related to being a sexual assault survivor from Tufts University, but I caught a little blurb this week that caught my eye. At the San Francisco Examiner the article “Civil rights complaints to Department of Education increase as investigations intensify” shares how the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights received almost 7,000 complaints this fiscal year. This is a significant number because it is the largest increase of complaints in at least ten years (11% from last year)!
The inevitable question that arises is “why?” but all we can do is speculate. I have an inkling that it isn’t that more people are getting their rights violated, but more people are standing up for themselves and is seeking the help of the government. While I have heard so many jokes about how “so easy” it is to sue someone in the United States, the truth of the matter is that being a person of middle-to-low income severely hinders access to resources or possibilities such as suing your school for denying your rights. As a young person of colour, I have seen and heard too many times of someone knowing they were being discriminated against, but letting it slide. It is just often so much harder to fight than to just lick your wounds and move on. However, it seems that more people are seeking new avenues to try and achieve their paths to justice.
One alarming statistic that I saw was that, despite the 7,000 complaints made, the office is only performing 54 compliance reviews. Even considering that perhaps some are pending as the Office for Civil Rights decides whether to whether to open an investigation or not – that is just so few numbers. I know firsthand how hard it is to get the Office for Civil Rights to take you claim. For me, they started off CLEARLY not wanting to even consider reviewing my case. The first phone call I had with them was an attorney basically trying to tell me in every way possible that my rape was not a violation of Title IX. I had to get the help of multiple experts to get any movement from them; when they initially declined my claim (which came quite quickly) they conveniently left out the fact that I could appeal their decision. Luckily, I had Security On Campus let me know that it was possible to appeal this OCR decision. One thing that stuck out to me during one of a few phone calls with OCR is being told “It isn’t a matter of right or wrong,” but rather whether my complaint was strictly falling under their guidelines for what they can and will investigate.
While this article concentrates mostly on K-12 schools being investigated for systemic discrimination, they mention they found out about three universities are under investigation regarding their response to sexual violence. While I can guarantee there are more than just three schools in the entire country that should be under review for their response (or lack thereof), I think this can hopefully be taken as a sign that this could be the beginning of a new era. More victims will come forward and the government will not idly sit by as these people are denied justice. While the system is far from perfect (bureaucracy is not the most justice-friendly system) I hope that the increase of complaints and cases will help the Department of Education to do its part to decrease the pain of marginalized people and hold institutions accountable.
New Policy at Tufts: the Bad, the Worse, and the Ugly
When the new sexual assault policy was revealed for Tufts, I was excited to see the improvements the school had made. They had made a lot of mistakes and even though they never admitted as such, I sought the new policy as a mea culpa of sorts: by going forward with an efficient policy they could show going forward to a new era where rape victims are not fighting an impossible battle after being insulted.
My excitement quickly vanished.
I quickly whipped up a few thoughts that I wanted to share about the policy. While it’s nice that there is now a set, separate process for dealing with sexual assault, there are is a number of ALARMING protocol that is – simply put – a recipe for disaster. Check out the new policies at the Tufts student group’s site here.
So here are two things that threw up immediate RED FLAGS about the new process.
1) COMPLETE lack of oversight. Essentially, the decision rests COMPLETELY in the hands of the dean. This is definitely not a good way to guarantee justice. Clearly with my own experience I am biased and not confident in his ability to properly assess the seriousness of ALL sexual assault claims. However, there is a reason why juries exist. I think there is a necessary step to have more than one person – more than one point of view – to collaborate and really look at the findings. What is the point of having a Fact-Finder (this name is horrible, by the way…so if they don’t think they should punish the student then the rape isn’t a ‘fact’ ??) if the dean can just go completely against their findings? What if the dean has worked with the accused before and is inclined to be more lenient? What if he still believes rape myths? What if all the proper education and training in the world about sexual violence still makes the dean think someone who files a complaint of rape against an ex is ‘crazy?’
2) THEY DESTROY ALL RECORDS IMMEDIATELY. The policy states
After the case has been decided, and all appeals exhausted (see section on Appeals in the Student Judicial Process booklet), all materials created by or reviewed by the Dean and/or the fact-finder will be destroyed, unless the case or elements of the case are in litigation or moving toward litigation, in which case the materials will be preserved until the litigation is resolved.
Why are these being destroyed? Are all other cases’ record destroyed after everything is over? To file a complaint with the Department of Education for a Title IX complaint you have 180 days. To file a Clery Act complaint (which can be relevant in some cases) you have years. This act seems like an attempt to get rid of evidence that could show the school isn’t properly addressing sexual assault. If privacy is an issue, I am sure the university has the money to invest in placing these files in a place where they are there for at least the remainder of the time of both students’ time at Tufts.
Furthermore, what if a student wants to file a complaint against Tufts? It would be an awkward situation (and not a good decision) to notify the school beforehand because you don’t want them to destroy the files. That could create a very complicated situation. What if 30 days later the student gets the courage to take steps to filing a report? 90 days? Destroying all the evidence on the school’s part just seems like a very fishy decision that doesn’t seem to serve the best interest of all parties (students, university) involved.
There are a lot of other things glaringly missing from the policy, but I wanted to start with these. To see what a good sexual assault policy would have, check out SAFER’s page, “What Makes a Better Sexual Assault Policy?”. Read over the policy and decide yourself what Tufts University is lacking in protecting the rights of everyone involved and ensuring there is actually the possibility of justice.
Until next time
New Judicial Process Policy Revealed at Tufts University
This is the first year with a complete, new sexual assault policy. Personally, I think there is still a lot of things about it that alarm me (such as a SINGLE person deciding whether someone should be punished or not), but it is nice to see progress towards proper change.
Just wanted to share that the students of Tufts’ SAFER just had a victory! The complete new sexual assault policy has been made. You can check out their site here. It’s weird to think just two years ago I was being trained among some of these activists and they’ve done such a great job to create progress. I clearly have some personal investment since some of my friends and I helped jumpstart the movement for change. I wish I was able to support the students for longer, but they’re clearly doing a great job.
While it is great there is a new policy, I think this is a great example of how even though an administration may be willing to provide change there can always be improvement. It takes a long time to work towards a better sexual assault policy that students can feel like their rights are protected.
One thing I noticed that made me a bit uneasy is that they have a new confidentiality section.
Any information or written material related to a disciplinary case must be treated as confidential. Disclosure of such information to anyone other than the Dean or the fact-finder, legal counsel, support person or confidential counselor is strictly prohibited and may subject the person responsible for the disclosure to disciplinary action. Individuals with whom a student has shared disciplinary case materials are prohibited from disclosing them to others without the permissionof the Dean of Students or the Judicial Affairs Officer, and any disclosure by such individuals may subject the student who disclosed to them to disciplinary action.A big part of the Center for Public Integrity’s investigative findings that schools have been big on gag orders. While they said that the outcome of the cause will/can be shared with the community, I can see the potential for this confidentiality clause to go wrong. What if the school handled the case improperly? It would be a huge conflict of interest to ask the Dean or Officer for permission to share how *they* messed up in address their rape and is showing the case information to another person, group, organization, etc. to see what those very people did wrong while doing their job.
However, it’s great to know that the SAFER group on campus are in touch with the administration about further improvements. The students have hit the ground running as soon as the semester has started to look over the policy and identify what they would like to see changed. I hope that progress towards the policy they need and deserve continues to go quickly!
Any information or written material related to a disciplinary case must be treated as confidential. Disclosure of such information to anyone other than the Dean or the fact-finder, legal counsel, support person or confidential counselor is strictly prohibited and may subject the person responsible for the disclosure to disciplinary action. Individuals with whom a student has shared disciplinary case materials are prohibited from disclosing them to others without the permissionof the Dean of Students or the Judicial Affairs Officer, and any disclosure by such individuals may subject the student who disclosed to them to disciplinary action.
source: Change Happens
