On Thursday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced that she intended to review Title IX guidance established in 2011 during the Obama administration. DeVos stated that the current system of campus sexual assault enforcement failed and needed to be replaced in order to be fair to both the victims and the accused.
The announcement was received with great amounts of backlash, with Joe Biden, former Vice President, calling it “a step in the wrong direction” and Mara Keisling, the executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, saying that “this is another cruel, heartless move from the Discrimination Administration.” However, DeVos’s statement did receive some support, with Matthew Haberkorn, a lawyer who represented a student from UC San Diego who was accused for sexual misconduct, expressing that “the current [campus sexual assault enforcement] process is unfair and flawed.”
Either way, DeVos’ statement garnered a lot of attention due to, what I call, her “All or Nothing” approach. Throughout the press conference, DeVos argued that the current system was unfair to both the victims and the accused. It was this approach that caused her announcement to be referred to as a “retreat from [the] fight against campus sexual assault.”
Her choice of words is worthy of criticism and the personal stories of accused individuals she shared make it seem as if the victims of sexual assault and those allegedly responsible for it stand in the same side and deserve the same treatment. DeVos called the accused “victims” when addressing the fact that some were denied due process. Although this can be seen as a flaw in the current system, especially considering that being denied due process technically goes against the Due Process Clauses from the fifth and fourteenth amendments, DeVos spoke about the accused as if they deserved pity from the public.
Additionally, DeVos mentioned that she met with “falsely accused students” to understand “all perspectives.” Although, it is true that some accusations end up being false, they represent between 2 and 10 percent of reported cases. So, DeVos should not expect people to feel sorry for the accused students, when it is very unlikely that they are not guilty.
DeVos also undermined sexual assault and sexual misconduct when stating that “any perceived offense can become a full-blown Title IX investigation. But if everything is harassment, then nothing is.” By saying this, she gives the impression that only certain acts of sexual assault are important or more dangerous than others. DeVos should not have a say on what offense is “appropriate enough” to become a Title IX investigation. She, or anyone else, should not have the right to decide what offense is deemed as serious enough, especially considering that the victim is the one emotionally and physically affected by the action, not her.
Victims of sexual assault and those responsible for it, do not stand in the same side of the spectrum. DeVos should not expect people to praise her move to end the guidance established during the Obama administration. She very much pointed out that the system has flaws, as the majority of the people were aware. But, her decision to try to stand with “both sides” backfired because of how she presented her argument. The trauma that a victim goes through does not compare to the consequences that someone who committed the assault must undergo.
People will not stand with a policy that looks to protect the oppressor as much as the oppressed.
