8 posts from month 03/2014

Sexual Violence Facts at a Glance

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

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Why the SaVE Act Harms Women on Campus

Please resist supporting or seeking support from any group that lobbied for the Campus SaVE Act. It is profoundly anti-women's equality; it's overtly sexist and it explicitly segregates and subjugates women by requiring or allowing the redress of violence against women on campus to be subjected to less protective legal standards compared to all other forms of civil rights violence.

That women WERE equal under Title IX BEFORE SaVE (at least in the written law—if not its enforcement) for more than forty years and then became expressly UNequal in higher education in 2014 is outrageous, though maybe not surprising. Only when victims started speaking up did Congress slap them down by giving schools express permission to devalue civil rights violence against women.

For those of you who care about the fair treatment of women, please take the time to read the law critically, and read the lawsuit that was recently filed to stop SaVE so you can understand WHY certain of its provisions are so offensive and dangerous.

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Stop Campus Sexual Assault

The Problem of Campus Sexual Assault

Recently, a friend and fellow University of Chicago alumna showed me an open letter to university president Robert Zimmer demanding that the university reevaluate its policy regarding campus sexual assaults. After reporting an assault by her then-partner and being illegally offered a mediation session by Dean of Students Susan Art, current fourth-year student Olivia Ortiz filed a complaint with the United States Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR), prompting a larger investigation of the university for possible violations of Title IX. In response, a coalition of alumni wrote and circulated the letter in question. I gladly added my name.

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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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Please Save us from SaVE!

There are lots of reasons that Title IX activists should be working to stop the Campus Sex Violence Elimination Act (SaVE) from taking effect. This law was snuck in as part of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) re-authorization and now it’s time to take a much closer look.

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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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