Not Tired of Winning Yet CIX
From Reason magazine:
On Wednesday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos formally announced the new rules related to Title IX—the federal statute that governs sexual misconduct in schools…
… the new rules narrow the scope of actionable sexual harassment to exclude conduct that ought to be protected under the First Amendment.
Obama-era guidance had defined sexual harassment as “any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.” The new rules keep this definition but add that the conduct must be offensive to a reasonable person [sic: man], severe, and pervasive. In practice, this should mean that schools will no longer initiate Title IX investigations that impugn free speech.
“This new rule strikes a powerful blow against campus censorship,” said a Department of Education spokesperson [sic: spokesman]. “Campus free speech must not be sacrificed in the misguided pursuit of any other value.”
The new rules will also end the pernicious practice of universities initiating Title IX investigations in cases where the alleged victims are not interested in this course of action.
Under previous guidance, any university official who became aware of a potential Title IX issue had to report it, thus triggering an investigation.
Under the new guidance, school employees should make the Title IX office aware of potential issues, which will prompt these officials to reach out and offer support to victims.
But a formal complaint that results in adjudication can only be initiated by the victim or their [sic: his] parents/legal guardians. This approach gives agency [sic] to victims and prevents schools from taking actions contrary to their wishes.
Nevertheless, victims’ rights advocates intend to fight the new rules in court.
Catherine Lhamon, current chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the former Obama administration official who presided over the changes that compromised due process, slammed the reforms as “taking us back to the bad old days, that predate my birth, when it was permissible to rape and sexually harass students with impunity.”
That’s a gross misrepresentation of what DeVos has done, though not an unexpected one, given how irresponsibly activists and members of the media have characterized DeVos’s work.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
