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Title IX

Students may or may not be aware of Title IX, the portion of the United States Education Amendments which says that no school receiving federal funding may discriminate based on gender. It’s most commonly referred to in cases of gender discrimination in sports, but Title IX goes far beyond that. Title IX legally protects students from being discriminated against in access to things such as higher education and employment, as well as the STEM subjects. Not everyone realizes that Title IX provides protections from sexual harassment and assault. This means that all schools that receive federal funding must follow specific guidelines when dealing with sexual assault allegations.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos recently announced her plans to replace the Obama-era guidelines of Title IX with new guidelines that she claims would better protect victims of sexual assault, as well as those accused of committing sexual assault. In her announcement, she stressed that her proposed reforms would not take away protections from victims, but rather extend protections to the accused. She didn’t specify exactly what the new guidelines would entail, but indicated that the goal of the new guidelines would be to better protect those accused of sexual assault on campuses.
DeVos’s proposal sparked outrage on the internet, with many people labelling it as a rollback of Title IX. Since its inception, Title IX has become a symbol of women’s rights and gender equality. So when DeVos announced her plans to change it, many people, especially those on the left, were immediately worried, considering the Trump administration’s dismissive views on sexual harassment and assault.
While it isn’t necessarily a rollback of Title IX, the people’s outrage is not unwarranted. DeVos’s proposed reforms are, on paper, completely fair. They don’t legally give anyone special privileges, and many argue that strengthening the fairness of a trial is always a good idea. But it’s what happens behind the scenes that may pose a threat to the safety of students. The Department of Education’s head of civil rights, Candace Jackson, claimed that these protections are being put into place because “ninety percent of campus accusations are over drunk or breakup sex.” While this claim has no statistical evidence whatsoever, the ideology behind it is alarming to say the least, and it has heavy implications of victim-blaming. Jackson’s words also imply that almost every person who reports an on-campus sexual assault is lying. How can someone with this ideology really claim to support and protect victims of sexual assault?
Many people were also concerned because a “men’s rights” group was consulted in the making of these reforms. The group has been accused of harassing women online and in general expressing many anti-woman sentiments.
It’s impossible to think about these reforms without considering President Trump’s legacy of sexual assault. Not only has he himself been accused of sexually assaulting women, but he has openly defended known sexual criminals. Earlier this year, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly was fired for sexually harassing several of his co-workers. President Trump openly defended him, saying he was a “good person” who “didn’t do anything wrong.” This all comes almost a year after the infamous leaked recording of President Trump in which he brags about sexual assault in terms we can’t even print in this publication.
Vice President Joe Biden, who was personally involved in the writing of several Title IX guidelines, was quick to respond to DeVos’s proposed changes, calling it “a step in the wrong direction.”
Ultimately, DeVos’s plans to rework the guidelines put in place by Title IX come off as dismissive of the realities of on-campus sexual assault in the United States. As of now, one in every five women are sexually assaulted in college, and one in every fifteen men. These statistics increase sharply for LGBTQ+ students and disabled students. In contrast, only about two to ten percent of sexual assault accusations are false reports. While DeVos argues that even one false report warrants her new guidelines, she fails to address that the vast majority of on-campus sexual assaults go unreported. This means that the number of students falsely accused of sexual assault is likely substantially lower than two percent, causing many people to ask: is this really the most important aspect of campus sexual assault that we should be focusing on right now? Many people think it’s just an excuse for actively defending rapists, and won’t actually do anything to help the issue of sexual assault which plagues our campuses across the country.