EDUCATION Dept. Says Schools Must Post Previously Hidden Title IX Training Materials
For years, accused students have been at a disadvantage due to the hiding of materials used to train Title IX adjudicators. During lawsuits, accused students are rarely able to obtain the training materials that would show supposedly neutral investigators were actually trained to believe accusers and not the accused… But when those materials were obtained, they showed that Title IX investigators tasked with looking into claims of student-on-student sexual assault were trained to believe that women rarely, if ever, lie about sexual assault. Training materials include the misleading and biased statistic that just 2% of sexual assault allegations are false. As I have reported numerous times, the statistic that very few sexual assault allegations are false is simply incorrect. The truth is that we don’t know how many are really false. The 2% to 10% figure only refers to allegations that were proven false and classified by police as such. Using this same logic, one could say just 2% to 3% are true, since that’s how many allegations lead to an arrest, trial, and guilty verdict. Title IX training materials that have been released also show schools using the scientifically unsound “trauma-informed” technique, which teaches adjudicators that classic signs of lying are actually signs of trauma and the truth.
When Education Secretary Betsy DeVos introduced new Title IX rules for schools that required them to provide much needed due process to students, the Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA), which produces most of the training materials used by colleges (for a hefty price) instructed schools not to post those materials, citing copyright laws. But now schools will no longer be able to use copyrighted training materials if they can’t post them on their website.
DeVos has now published the official Title IX guidance, and has altered the section about training materials: Schools must post their training materials. Not doing so would run afoul of the federal government. Schools will no longer be able to use copyrighted training materials if they can’t post them on their website.
Accused students still have a long road ahead of them before schools and the culture accepts that just because someone is accused doesn’t mean they’re guilty. DeVos’ rules, however, take a big step toward correcting this injustice.
dailywire-Ashe Schow
