Democrats are still attempting to rob young men of basic fairness by insisting that any accusations of sexual misconduct are, by default, to be believed.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with several other Democrats, including Dianne Feinstein, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren, signed a laughable letter sent Wednesday to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos asking her to rescind her department’s just-announced rule change to Title IX, the law that prevents sex discrimination in public schools.
“Not only does your misguided rule make it harder for students to report sexual assault and harassment, and create confusion for schools about their responsibilities,” the letter said, “but the timing of the rule is completely inappropriate in light of the COVID-19 crisis.”
Wait, what’s “COVID-19,” again? Something about not gathering in groups of more than 10. It’ll come to me later.
The letter went on to state that to presume an accused person’s innocence is “harmful to students.”
From the senators’ letter: “In general, the rule makes it harder for survivors to feel comfortable coming forward. By requiring the schools to presume there was no wrongdoing, students coming forward will have the impression the school assumes they are not telling the truth.”
This is expressly not what the new rule does.
The actual purpose of the rule change was to establish clear guidelines, by official rule, on what was required of school administrators when a student complains of sexual harassment. Until the Education Department announced the rule in May, the old guidelines had come via an informal but coercive instruction from the Obama administration that became known as the “Dear Colleague” letter. Many colleges and universities had interpreted the Obama administration instructions in ways that assumed the accused was guilty and denied them adequate opportunities to defend themselves.
The DeVos rule is both more formal and more specific. It defines sexual harassment, requires that schools follow certain procedures to adjudicate harassment accusations, and provides victims other ways of having their claims addressed outside of an official complaint should they prefer not to accuse a specific person of wrongdoing or pursue any action against him.
But the part that most bothers Democrats, including Joe Biden, is that the rule entitles those accused of misconduct a chance to defend themselves.
That’s what the letter from Democrats meant when it inaccurately stated that the new rule requires schools “to presume there was no wrongdoing.”
The presumption of innocence is not the presumption of no wrongdoing. It’s the presumption that the person accused may not be the one who committed the wrongdoing.
For example, if the owner of a store calls the police to complain that a customer just purchased something with a fake $20 bill, the person identified as the culprit may not, in fact, be guilty. He may have been misidentified. Or the bill may not be fake after all.
As another example, if a woman claims that a high-profile Democratic senator once digitally penetrated her against her will, that senator identified as her abuser may not, in fact, be guilty. His accuser could be lying.
That’s how our justice system works. If we expect it to work for the two people above (both of whom are fictional and any similarity to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental), why shouldn’t it work for young men on college campuses?
Democrats are embarrassing themselves with this nonsense.
