Contact: Jon Andrews
Telephone: 301-801-0608
Email: jandrews@saveservices.org
‘Kangaroo Courts’ on the Loose: SAVE Urges Lawmakers to End Campus Rape Tribunals
WASHINGTON / February 14, 2017 – Recent reports at Baylor, Stanford, and Tufts universities reveal campus disciplinary committees lack competent staff, adhere to flawed policies, and suffer from severe conflict of interest problems. As a result, sexual assault victims and accused students alike are being shortchanged.
In late January, lawsuits were filed by two former female students against Baylor University. The women charged school coaches were inappropriately involved in disciplinary and criminal matters for sexual assault cases, among other allegations. http://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/18569197
Last week, the Editorial Board of the Stanford Review issued a strongly worded verdict on its college’s sexual assault policies: “At Stanford, we have seen firsthand what many students and faculty are recognizing nationally: the reforms have failed. Sexual assault investigations usually fail to secure both relief for victims and civil liberties for the accused.” https://stanfordreview.org/dear-betsy-restore-justice-to-title-ix-c7c72df7616c#.kihodp3vw
On February 9, an exposé strongly critical of the Title IX policies at Tufts University was released. The report charged sexual assault investigators possessed far too much discretionary power and were not held to proper standards of impartiality. The report also revealed that Title IX training materials were being kept secret. http://www.sa4s.org/single-post/2017/02/09/Tufts-University%E2%80%99s-Title-IX-Policies-Inadequately-Protect-Victims
Affirmative consent policies appear to have lost much of their appeal. Last year, 11 states considered affirmative consent bill, but only in Connecticut did lawmakers approve the bill. All the other states – Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia – opted to not enact affirmative consent policies. http://www.saveservices.org/sexual-assault/affirmative-consent/
In Georgia, legislators are now considering a bill that would require the referral of all felony-level allegations of sexual assault to local law enforcement. Sponsored by Rep. Earl Ehrhart, the bill was approved by a key committee two weeks ago. http://watchdog.org/288049/due-process-bill-clears-first-hurdle-georgia/
SAVE has developed a model sexual assault bill titled the Campus Equality, Fairness, and Transparency Act that is designed to encourage the referral of allegations of criminal sexual offenses to criminal justice officials: http://www.saveservices.org/sexual-assault/cefta/
More information on the problems of campus rape adjudications is available here: http://www.saveservices.org/camp/kangaroo-courts/
SAVE (Stop Abusive and Violent Environments) is working for fair and effective solutions to campus sexual assault: www.saveservices.org