19 posts by James R. Marsh

Sexual Violence Begins in Middle School

A recent survey of 1,391 students from four Midwest middle schools (grades 5-8) indicated that middle school-aged students are experiencing real acts of sexual violence. The survey sample was evenly split between boys and girls.

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Bloomberg Businessweek – Changing How Colleges Deal With Rape

On April 20 of that year, Karasek says, she and three other women walked into Berkeley’s Center for Student Conduct to report that the same student had assaulted them. They told their stories to several administrators, including the school’s Title IX officer, Denise Oldham. At the meeting with Oldham, who enforces women’s rights to equal education under Title IX, Karasek says they were asked to write statements about the assaults. She assumed this was a formality and didn’t submit hers for almost a month. One woman, she says, misunderstood and didn’t write anything. Karasek says the school never followed up with that student. “She thought that telling her story out loud counted as informing the school,” she says. Berkeley acknowledges that a verbal report is enough—but Karasek says the women don’t know if that complaint was ever addressed. Berkeley says it can’t comment on specific students’ conduct cases and refused repeated requests to make Oldham available for interviews, saying “she’s focusing all her attention on addressing the situation.”

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Sexual Violence Facts at a Glance

Here is the complete datasheet from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Allegations of a botched UVA rape investigation at center of a challenge to the Campus SaVE Act

Today, the local Charlottesville paper, C-Ville, published this story about the Marsh Law Firm's case against the United States Department of Education and the University of Virginia. Here are some excerpts from the piece.

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Sexual Harassment Law, a Step Back for Class

A woman who claims the University of Virginia brushed aside her sexual assault claim filed a federal class action challenging the Campus SaVE Act, a federal law she claims undermines the rights victims of sexual assault and harassment.

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Former U-Va. student seeks to block new U.S. law on campuses’ handling of sexual assaults

Today, The Washington Post ran this story about the Marsh Law Firm's landmark civil rights action against the United States Department of Education and the University of Virginia. Here are some excerpts:

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Landmark Civil Rights Action Filed by Campus Rape Victim to Halt New Federal Law

A University of Virginia rape victim represented by the Marsh Law Firm has filed a landmark civil rights action to stop a new federal law from undermining pending federal investigations of UVA’s mishandling of a sexual assault case on campus.

Two separate cases—each filed as a Petition for a Writ of Mandamus and Equitable Relief—were lodged with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday, February 21, 2014 and docketed today.

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Title IX Prohibits Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence at Colleges and Universities

On April 4, 2011, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights issued an historic "Dear Colleague" letter which outlined the requirements colleges and universities must employ to protect students from sexual harassment and sexual violence at college. One of the primary goals of the landmark civil rights lawsuit filed by the Marsh Law Firm is to preserve the critical gains established by the DE's letter.

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Title IX’s Demise in the Public School System

Almost forty years after the enactment of Title IX, a recently released study by the American Association of University Women reveal that sex-based harassment is pervasive in the public school system.

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