One would like to believe that any college student found responsible for sexual assault was actually responsible for the crime. But far too often on college campuses, students are being branded as rapists because of campus kangaroo courts that ignore due process and, under pressure from the government, find students responsible regardless of the evidence.
Now, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, D-Calif., says she plans to introduce legislation that would ensure colleges and universities are made aware when a transferring student has been found responsible for sexual assault or sexual harassment.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education points out that this would be an acceptable approach if the findings of campus hearings weren’t flawed. But as Anita Levy, senior program officer for the American Association of University Professors, told Inside Higher Ed, passing on such information is concerning “when the original proceedings may have been severely lacking in procedural protections, and thus the findings questionable — even if that means some genuine serial harassers may slip through the nets.”
Activists may suggest that it is better that innocent students be harmed than a responsible student be allowed to continue his education. This was evidenced in a Washington Post survey about campus sexual assault, in which students were asked which was worse, an innocent person being expelled or a guilty student going free. Fifty-six percent of women surveyed said it was worse for a guilty student to go free. Just 36 percent of women surveyed said it was worse for an innocent to be punished, showing an alarming ignorance of the Constitition.
We’ve created a system where false accusations are easier to make and carry few if any consequences.
Bill Haggard of the University of North Carolina at Asheville has called the campus hearings a “learning experience.” They are anything but, and Speier’s bill would make sure that is the case.
If campus hearings were learning experiences, then activists couldn’t get upset if students weren’t expelled, but they are. Because the fact of the matter is, many campus activists want students accused of sexual assault to be punished as if they’re criminals, but don’t want to provide them with the appropriate due process rights to defend themselves.
Even campus activist Alexandra Brodsky has spoken against including information on the transcripts of students expelled or suspended for sexual misconduct. At a panel in March 2015, she suggested the marks not be included because “I think that people can change” and that accused students should have “the opportunity to learn from this experience.”
Speier’s proposed bill would put a halt to that, making it very difficult in today’s culture for an expelled student to continue their education.
What do activists want from accused students? They don’t want to give them due process to defend themselves, because that’s seen as an impediment to justice. They don’t want the students to continue their education (expelled students have had their prospective employers and colleges informed of the sexual assault allegations, even when they were supposed to be confidential).
So in essence, many campus activists want to deprive students of an education simply on the word of an accuser, evidence be damned. So what do they want from accused students? Do they want them to have no future? If that’s what they want then students need due process rights to defend themselves, if their entire future is indeed at stake. They might not be in a jail cell, but they are certainly being deprived of life and liberty.
As one expelled student told Buzzfeed: “At first I thought they didn’t want me to participate in campus activities. Then I thought they didn’t want me to graduate. Now they don’t want me to have a job or be part of society. Do they want me to commit suicide? Is that what they want me to do? What is the endgame?”
Activists need to decide what they want from accused students, and if they indeed want these kids to have no educational future, then the activists need to accept that accused students deserve to properly defend themselves.
Speier’s office did not respond to a Washington Examiner inquiry.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
