The “conversation” isn’t about avoiding a rush to judgment, but about accusers needing to be believed…today’s culture allows anyone to accuse someone of rape or racism and seek forgiveness by claiming the false accuser just wanted to “start a dialogue.”
www.washingtonexaminer By Ashe Schow
I’ve been on a crusade criticizing The Tennessean newspaper for its biased and irresponsible coverage of the University of Tennessee sexual assault lawsuit… they have been going beyond simply reporting the plaintiff’s perspective to publishing articles written in an attempt to paint UT, and specifically its athletic department, as a depraved and toxic place. Tennessean news director openly admitted that the publication has an agenda. They believe UT is guilty. The primary problem with this belief is that the accusations in the lawsuit have not yet been proven to be true. And nothing proves the importance of waiting to form an opinion until after all of the facts have been presented more than the sexual assault case brought against the Duke lacrosse team in 2006.
sportsradioknoxville.com By Charlie Burris
“We’re gratified to have it behind us and that once again the innocence of the boys, the young men now, has been reaffirmed,”…Three Duke University lacrosse players and the City of Durham settled a long-running lawsuit Friday, closing another chapter in a case that exposed flaws in the Durham justice system and ended a district attorney’s legal career.
charlotteobserver.com By Anne Blythe
Encourage hysteria, and you get more hysteria. The reigning idea on today’s campuses, is that words—offending some people—are capital offenses, not misdemeanors. What must be done for you, and may not be done to you, now depends on your privileged-to-victimized handicap score… One consequence is that discarding mere justice in favor of social justice gives authorities enormous powers vis-à-vis citizens, whose rights are rendered provisional rather than inalienable.
www.claremont.org By William Voegeli
On March 5th, 2016, in Washington, D.C., FACE convened its third Meet and Greet event.
The formal presentations, FACE family sharing sessions, and the Friends of FACE (FOF) seminar provided participants opportunities to build relationships through education and shared experiences. “The Meet and Greet provided exposure to other cases, parents, legal experts, and the opportunity to hear from other students who have had this experience,” said one parent, “it means so much to know we are not alone.”
The Meet and Greet hosted presenters nationally recognized for their expertise in the field, including Stuart Taylor, Jr., Cecil Byrd, Justin Dillon, Kimberly Lau, Eric Rosenberg, and FACE’s own Joseph Roberts. Speakers covered topics including mental health issues such as PTSD and Depression and the devastating emotional impact of being accused, navigation of disciplinary and legal processes after an accusation, a review of relevant legal cases of 2015, and experienced practical advice on how to move forward in school and in life after suffering an accusation. Attorney and FACE board member Eric Rosenberg held a training for volunteers to learn how to help attorneys prepare pro bono research to aid in the defense of students accused of sexual misconduct both on campus and in the courtroom.
FACE family members and friends share nothing in common other than their experience of being accused. They come from all parts of the country and all walks of life, they hold different personal beliefs and political opinions, and they represent the full diversity that American higher education students have to offer.
The Meet and Greet event followed a mass political advocacy campaign by FACE’s members, who used the trip to Washington D.C. as an opportunity to share their stories with sixty-seven representatives in Congress and raise awareness about the frightening legal environment in which accused students find themselves as a result of controversial overreaching mandates by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
FACE looks forward to the day when its efforts will no longer be necessary, and justice on campus will be strong, fair, and transparent. Until then, FACE will continue its dual efforts to bring accused students and their allies together and to pursue political advocacy on their behalf.
Accused students are often isolated and silenced by gag orders, post-traumatic stress, or shame. FACE believes the antidote to their struggle is to bring people together and to give them a voice, and the Meet and Greet event showed the strength of FACE’s community on a national stage.
Because of the lack of due process rights, politicians and professors are calling for reform of the handling of sexual assault cases on college campuses.
washburnreview.org By Brenden Williams
An explosive opinion was handed down by a federal court in Rhode Island: Doe v. Brown University. The court looked with a jaundiced eye at the way colleges handle allegations of sexual misconduct and referenced the perceived backlash against male students created by the climate of guilt fostered by the “Dear Colleague” letter. .this is among the best decisions to date handed down for presumptively innocent college students accused of sexual assault.
With new manual of protocols, University of Texas System instructs its police officers to base sexual assault investigations in neuroscience. To quote Christina H. Sommers tweet, “reads like blueprint for sexual police state. Fake stats and bogus neuroscience.”
insidehighered.com By Jake New
Jack Montague, captain of Yale’s basketball team, has been expelled from the university on some sort of sex charge- there’s no reason to trust that Yale’s deeply unfair process got the decision right…Yale’s procedures deny an accused student a meaningful attempt to prove his innocence. At Yale, the critical procedural obstacles for an accused student include a denial of direct cross-examination of the accuser; the lack of any meaningful right to legal representation in the disciplinary process; and severe restrictions on the amount of evidence he can possess.
mindingthecampus.org By KC Johnson
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn grilled the department’s acting secretary, Dr. John B. King, about a non-legally binding document issued by the department that has actually carried the force of law. “We do believe that equitable resolution means preponderance of the evidence—” King began to say before Alexander interrupted. “Well who gave you the right to believe that?” Alexander said.
washingtonexaminer.com By Ashe Schow