OCR ATTORNEY Drags Her Heels in Deciding Fate of Anti-Male Bias Complaint Against UNC System’s 16 Schools
Nearly a year after filing a federal complaint alleging anti-male bias in sexual misconduct investigations across the University of North Carolina System, The National Coalition for Men Carolinas, a men’s human rights organization, is still waiting for official action. The complaint was filed March 2nd 2018 with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. It alleges widespread deprivation of due process and mistreatment of male students and employees in Title IX investigations at the system’s 16 schools. The complaint cites multiple recent court cases where accused students have seen success in lawsuits against their schools for due process violations that led to their discipline. It alleges that UNC has not been following the interim guidance issued by DeVos in September 2017, who rescinded the previous administration’s “Dear Colleague” letters on Title IX enforcement. Former UNC-Chapel Hill wrestling coach C.D. Mock helped file the complaint. The university fired him in 2015 months before a court cleared Mock’s son of wrongdoing in a sexual assault investigation at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. (Mock’s son is featured in the Fox’s documentary: The Truth about Sex and College.)
NCFM Carolinas has received limited correspondence from OCR in the 11-plus months since filing the complaint, said President Gregory Josefchuk. The senior attorney in OCR’s D.C. regional office Sara Clash-Drexler communicated in April 2018 that she would be evaluating the complaint. In Sept. she finally said the evaluation of the complaint was ”currently making its way through our internal review process.” That means OCR “has yet to provide a notice of determination into the discriminatory practices we’ve identified (and submitted corroborating evidence)” in the 7 months since the complaint had been filed, responded Josefchuk to Clash-Drexler. Josefchuk said that voicemails left with OCR have been ignored since December.
“It is beyond frustrating to not receive a determination on a complaint that has provided ample evidence of systemic discrimination (based on sex),” According to its list of pending cases under investigation at “elementary-secondary and post-secondary schools,” last updated Feb. 1, OCR has 1,458 open sex-discrimination cases. Our complaint is “stuck in limbo,” and the halting communication and lack of developments in nearly a year was “very disappointing.” Given DeVos’s Title IX rulemaking and interest in reforming campus proceedings, Josefchuk said he would have expected the complaint to be “high on their list.”
thecollegefix.com– Jeremiah Poff
