Reviving Due Process on Campus

Wall Street Journal ^ | November 20, 2018

[reaganaut1]

For those awaiting a restoration of rational discourse in American politics, well, you’ll have to keep waiting. No other conclusion is possible after seeing the reaction to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s long-awaited regulatory proposals last week on handling accusations of sexual abuse on campus.

From California Democrat Maxine Waters: “Betsy DeVos, you won’t get away with what you are doing. We are organizing to put an end to your destruction of civil rights protections for students.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden said on Facebook that the proposal “would return us to the days when schools swept rape and assault under the rug and survivors were shamed into silence.”

The centerpiece of the proposed regulations is—hold your fire—restoring the right of cross-examination, one of the oldest and most hallowed elements of due process.

The Obama Department of Education, responding to legitimate concerns about sexual abuse on campus, issued guidelines that went overboard, casting away many basic protections for the accused. The result has subjected victims and the accused to a system of campus justice often controlled by amateurs and political activists.

For more than four decades the Department of Education has set Title IX policy by issuing “guidance,” which circumvents the normal rule-making process. The Obama-era sexual abuse guidance was essentially an administrative diktat. The public had no chance to comment, and universities, which understood federal funding was at risk, opted to dilute standard legal protections for accused students.

Secretary DeVos has instead followed normal rule-making to create a balance between protecting victims and the rights of the accused. The proposals include “the right of every survivor to be taken seriously and the right of every person accused to know that guilt is not predetermined.” Both the alleged victim and the accused would be able to inspect and review all evidence.

[Stirner]

A liberal friend of mine bemoaned this move by saying, “Now victims will not come forward and will be returned to suffering in silence with no recourse.” I replied that, if a crime has been committed, the proper recourse is to involve the police. He said that most victims do not want that and will not do it. I guess he thinks the solution is to allow anonymous accusations. The right to examine and cross-examine allegations is fundamental to our system of justice. If someone is too anxious to participate in such a process, then she loses her rights to redress. I can understand her problem, but the solution is not to take a fundamental right away from the accused.

[goodnesswins]

Why don’t we really ask the question (and answer)...WHY is there sexual abuse on college campuses? HHHmmmm??? Moral issues? Males/Females living together at a time when they should not....etc? Women behaving like whores, and then wondering why they are treated as such? And, libertine men, not controlling THEIR impulses? Oh, no...let’s not go THERE..../s

[Ace's Dad]

WHY is there sexual abuse on college campuses?

I'm guessing that what genuine abuse exists is so minor that the radical feminists wouldn't have an "issue" to wail about.

My observation. I have several children and grandchildren with college educations.