Debate surrounding two dueling campus sexual assault prevention bills has gotten extremely heated, in part because of the criticism towards the GOP-led Safe Campus Act. The bill requires alleged victims to report the assault to the police before there can be a campus investigation.
The bill had been supported by several national chapters of fraternities. This did not go over so well with Democratic lawmakers such as Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who actually wrote personally to fraternity presidents at the University of Missouri to express her disappointment in them.
Now, Inside Higher Ed has reported that support for the bill has been withdrawn by the North-American Interfraternity Conference and the National Panhellenic Conference.
The ultimate concern “is to provide a safer environment for students to further their education.” And apparently the bill won’t do that enough because it involves the police.
Also mentioned:
But what other role is there for the police to have? Wouldn’t a more “chilling effect on victims” be if their attacker was allowed to walk free and assault someone else?
When it comes to reporting assaults to the police, there could be more sensitivity shown towards the victims while still protecting the rights of defendants, certainly. That is a more noble effort which could even involve bi-partisan support. Instead, we have one side criticizing the other for trying to stop campus sexual assault.
The issue ought to be making sure the police are understanding enough so that victims can feel empowered in reporting the crime and stopping the attacker.
More importantly, the police may be able to help victims where campuses have failed to do so in the past. This is especially the case for campuses who have tried to keep victims quiet. Adding another avenue to report to may be adding a necessary accountability then.
Instead, we see juvenile responses from the liberal media in addition to partisan lawmakers. Gawker for instance put forth the headline “Eight Sororities Put a Stop to Bullshit Campus Assault Bill.” Gawker may disagree with the bill, but how does that make it “bullshit?” How is that going to do anything to solve the problem of campus sexual assault or police sensitivity?
Gawker’s “reporting” is similar to Inside Higher Ed, except in that it offers its opinion more so as fact and refers to the Safe Campus Act as “a nonsense campus sexual assault bill that would make things measurably worse for victims.”
Disagreements and concerns about the various bills are understandable. However, Gawker was certainly anything but classy, to use your opinion as fact in calling something “bullshit.” That’s not going to win anybody over to your side.
There are ways to debate campus bills. But, how Gawker and McCaskill have proceeded isn’t uplifting the discussion.
