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Dept. of Education Investigating Rape - Investigates Racism; Why DOE ?
Topic Started: Apr 9 2011, 07:44 PM (340 Views)
Mason
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The Dept. of Education is investigating racism claims and civil rights complaints in school systems - saying the DOE has their investigators on it. Why not the DOJ?

I saw this article and the accompanying photo says that the Dept. of Education is "investigating" sexual assault claims at Yake University.


Why is sexual assault on campus tolerated?

April 08, 2011|By Toby Simon, Special to CNN

Universities in the United States rarely expel students for sexual assault, according to an investigation by the federal government. And in the 42 years since it began admitting women, Yale University has not been an exception.

Because of the way universities handle sexual misconduct, it is often the victim who drops out of school. In fact, a survey I conducted of female students transferring into Brown University in the early 1990s revealed that one of the top reasons women may transfer colleges is because they've been sexually assaulted on their campus.

What's new here is that Yale received a 26-page Title IX complaint March 31, filed by 16 students and alumni, charging that its campus is a sexually hostile environment. The federal Department of Education has reportedly launched an investigation. One of the incidents the group described that was particularly offensive involved men who were pledging a fraternity; they gathered in a public spot on campus and started chanting, "No means yes, yes means anal."

The Obama administration, which had been working on sexual assault issues for some time, released a report Monday telling colleges and universities that they need to do a better job preventing and investigating sexual violence.

This isn't something they didn't know. More than 20 years ago, as an associate dean of student life at an Ivy League university, I worked with students to educate the college community about sexual violence, and was part of a national conversation with other campuses that were committed to change.

A dirty secret many of these schools guard is that they often engage in "sweetheart deals" for men who have been found responsible for a sexual assault. These men are allowed to withdraw from the campus without any notation on their transcripts of having been found guilty of a sexual misconduct violation, and are sometimes assisted by the university in their applications to other institutions. If a notation exists, it is often a vague "student conduct" violation.

I have seen improvements in two decades time. In the 1980s, female students who disclosed a sexual assault to the dean's office were sometimes told that their experiences sounded "like a little romance gone wrong." During that era, students organized to protest what they saw as a hostile environment and through their activism, some important changes to campus sexual assault policies took place.

At my university, students also developed a peer-led intervention theater piece, which addressed nonconsensual sexual encounters. Today, 21 years later, that skit lives on at hundreds of campuses.

So there has been change.

But not enough. A National Institute of Justice study in 1997 put the number of college women reporting a rape or attempted rape while at college at between 20% and 25%, but campuses remain reluctant to deal with the issue head on. (The figure for such assault on women in the general population is about one in six.) Some 25% percent of American college males admitted to sexual coercion of some form, but there's little outrage.

The questions we need to be asking are: What factors contribute to a campus climate that enables offensive and often illegal behavior perpetrated by predominantly male students? Why don't more university presidents make bold statements to incoming students and their families about their institution's policy on sexual assault and harassment?

What's needed is primary prevention, but how best to do that is up for debate. In addition to peer education, one approach that does work is "bystander education," an attempt to stop sexual violence by teaching all students -- men and women -- that they have a responsibility to step in and try to stop something they see that could lead to sexual assault. Many sexual assaults are preventable if people take the time to intervene.

Engaging campus leadership in these efforts is challenging. Simply put, sexual assault awareness campaigns are not good for university fundraising.

So we need to continue to talk about this issue in the context of civility and doing the right thing. The biggest threat to a student's safety is her peers, not strangers lurking in bushes. But it is in her peers in which she'll find her greatest hope as well.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-08/opinion/simon.yale.sexual.misconduct_1_sexual-assault-sexual-violence-sexual-misconduct?_s=PM:OPINION


CNN and Toby Simon had no interest in the Michael Burch Rape and Assault at Duke.



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Bill Anderson
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If there is anything that more demonstrates the schizophrenic nature of the modern university's attitude toward student sex, I'd like to see it. On the one hand, there are "sexual violence" campaigns going on all the time with rallies, marches, and incessant propaganda that beats on 24/7.

On the other hand, universities hand out condoms like candy, have organizations like "Healthy Devils" that openly encourage gratuitous sex (as long as people use rubbers and dams) and promote obscene things like the "Sex Workers Show." They aggressively portray sex as little more than something that they SHOULD be doing as much as possible with whomever they wish, and then wring their little hands when kids get plied with alcohol and get into all sorts of trouble.

Sorry, folks. That dog won't hunt. One cannot openly promote the Continuing Sexual Revolution AND simultaneously go into a tizzy when the natural consequences of the Sexual Revolution appear.

Further complicating things is that universities get federal money and lots of it in dealing with issues of "sexual violence," from counselors to advocates. These places literally compete with each other to see who can report the highest numbers of sexual assault (as the higher the numbers, the more federal money) while decrying the results.

I doubt that one administrator at Duke can articulate the issues I have noted. They are caught in the vice of promoting gratuitous sex and decrying its results at the same time.

:bill:
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jewelcove

I think this week there was a sexual assault awarness campaign going on.

My family and I were on 3 college campuses this week and 2 had people stopping my 16 year old to give him info on sexual assaults. One had a large (50 feet by 50 feet) art exhibit in the center of the campus, highlighting sexual assault, to increase student awareness of the problem. It takes time to organize something like that, especially on several campuses at once.

It seems interesting that this issue came up at Yale at the same time the other schools were trying to draw attention to the issue too.
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cks
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Bill Anderson
Apr 10 2011, 07:34 AM
If there is anything that more demonstrates the schizophrenic nature of the modern university's attitude toward student sex, I'd like to see it. On the one hand, there are "sexual violence" campaigns going on all the time with rallies, marches, and incessant propaganda that beats on 24/7.

On the other hand, universities hand out condoms like candy, have organizations like "Healthy Devils" that openly encourage gratuitous sex (as long as people use rubbers and dams) and promote obscene things like the "Sex Workers Show." They aggressively portray sex as little more than something that they SHOULD be doing as much as possible with whomever they wish, and then wring their little hands when kids get plied with alcohol and get into all sorts of trouble.

Sorry, folks. That dog won't hunt. One cannot openly promote the Continuing Sexual Revolution AND simultaneously go into a tizzy when the natural consequences of the Sexual Revolution appear.

Further complicating things is that universities get federal money and lots of it in dealing with issues of "sexual violence," from counselors to advocates. These places literally compete with each other to see who can report the highest numbers of sexual assault (as the higher the numbers, the more federal money) while decrying the results.

I doubt that one administrator at Duke can articulate the issues I have noted. They are caught in the vice of promoting gratuitous sex and decrying its results at the same time.

:bill:
I agree with you wholeheartedly.

On of the things that I struggled with when my own children went off to school was the coed dorm issue. It was bad enough (to my mind) when the coed nature of dorms was every other floor consisting of a single sex. Too often now it is the case that floors themselves are coed. And it has lately been reported that some schools are assigning coed roommates.

The atmosphere of college campuses have always been sexually charged, to some extent......as one has young men and women, free from the constraints of home, experimenting and coming to terms with their sexuality. When universities promote a no holds barred approach (such as the sex workers show put on at Duke or courses in which sex toys are demonstrated) then should there be any surprise that there will be problems?

I am no prude - and I am very realistic about what can and does occur. Add in the mix of alcohol and there is the possibility for all sorts of mischief some of which can have serious consequences for all involved. One can only hope that one instills in one's own children a good sense of self and a respect for one's body....as I use to quote my religion teacher's injunction to my own children "your body is a temple of the Lord"....and the hope that they will surround themselves with friends who are like minded.
Edited by cks, Apr 10 2011, 11:01 AM.
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Mason
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But, Notice the Dept of Ed. is investigating rape claims, racism claims, and taking their marching orders from the NAACP.

Is this New? It certainly looks odd to me, why isn't the DOJ investigating these claims?

The Dept. of Education Civil Rights Investigators were in Raleigh (the Wake Schools) for some time demanding info because of a complaint by Reverend Barber (NC NAACP).


http://www2.nbc17.com/news/2011/mar/16/federal-civil-rights-investigators-visit-wake-coun-ar-868388/



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Edited by Mason, Apr 10 2011, 12:45 PM.
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