BETSY DeVOS TALKS: “It’s Time We Balance The Scales of Justice in Our Schools”
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos recently wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post. Here are some highlights from her article.
Last week, the Education Department released for public comment a proposed regulation regarding Title IX implementation. The rule would require schools to address sexual misconduct by assisting and protecting victims of sexual misconduct while affording due-process protections to those accused… No student should have their education unfairly derailed. That’s why there must be no tolerance for sexual harassment or assault in America’s schools — And there should also be no tolerance for adjudicating these matters in a way that denies to any person access to the core principles that underpin our justice system, such as due process.
I have heard consistently that we can and must do better. A fair process treats each party with dignity and ensures the integrity of final decisions. This is why unbiased decision-makers need to objectively consider the testimony of both parties and other available evidence before reaching conclusions about what happened and what to do about it. Our proposed rule would require schools to apply basic due-process protections for students, such as the presumption of innocence, the right to know of allegations against them, the right to examine and challenge the evidence and the right to an unbiased decision-maker. That includes prohibiting the “single investigator” model, in which determinations are made by the same person who has investigated the case — a situation akin to a prosecutor also serving as a judge…Colleges and universities would also need to hold a live hearing in which cross-examination could be conducted by the parties’ advisers, even if that means putting the parties in separate rooms.
Some may mischaracterize our proposals as tilting the scales of justice, but we believe they simply balance them. Our proposed framework supports survivors while safeguarding due process, helping make Title IX protections against sex discrimination a reality for all students. Indeed, it is difficult to understand how people can object to procedures premised on the foundational concept of due process, or how anybody could have confidence in a system that lacks such protections.
To read DeVos’ full opinion piece go here: washingtonpost
