CYNTHIA GARRETT w FACE Supports New TIX Rules on NPR. “A Serious Serious Mental Trauma for People who are Falsely Accused.”
NPR’s Lakshmi Singh speaks with Cynthia Garrett, the co-president of Families Advocating for Campus Equality, who supports recently proposed changes to Title IX rules.
SINGH: In proposing a change to Title IX that would allow a defendant, for example, to cross-examine his or her accuser, we know that concerns have often been raised that this could retraumatize victims of sexual assault. Are you concerned about that at all?
GARRETT: I personally have never advocated for an accused or an accuser to directly cross-examine each other. And that’s not what the regs provide for. They allow a student’s advocate to question the opposing party.
SINGH: Does that not, still, retraumatize victims of sexual assault?
GARRETT: Well, you’re assuming they’re victims before they’ve been questioned. And, as you’ve probably heard, courts say cross-examination is the greatest legal engine ever created for determining the truth….
Is it fair to expel somebody based on something that the accuser refuses to be questioned about? Is that fair, really?…there’s a whole lot of misinformation or disinformation about the repercussions of these findings. We get calls almost every day. We have students that have been through these processes found not responsible and, five years later, are still so traumatized, they can’t go back to school. So this is not a game. This is a serious, serious mental trauma for people who are falsely accused.npr.org
WashingtonPost: DeVos “It’s Time We Balance the Scales of Justice in our Schools”
