Article here. Excerpt:

'It’s not enough for a college to arrest and remove a student accused of harassment, at least according to a new Title IX ruling from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A three-judge panel found the University of Michigan showed “deliberate indifference” toward student Rebecca Foster, based on her alleged harasser’s repeated flouting of restrictions placed on him by the university.

The ruling appears to undermine an opinion from the same court but different three-judge panel in December. That panel said the female plaintiff cannot claim Michigan State University violated Title IX policies simply because she is dissatisfied with its response – a sentiment echoed by the dissenting judge in the new ruling.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Three Democrat senators are using the coronavirus pandemic to urge Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to delay providing college students their constitutional rights to due process.
...
Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) were the only three senators to sign the letter, saying that “while schools are grappling with how to maintain basic services for and supports to their students, it is wholly unacceptable for the Department to finalize a rule that fundamentally will change the landscape of how schools are required to respond to incidents of sexual harassment and assault, and we urge you to reconsider this misguided plan.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Over six hundred lawsuits arguing higher ed institutions deny students accused of Title IX-related offenses basic rights have been filed against higher ed institutions, according to Title IX For All's Title IX Legal Database.

Over six hundred lawsuits have been filed against colleges and universities in behalf of students accused of Title IX-related offenses. These numbers come from Title IX For All, an organization dedicated to tracking such lawsuits since 2013. The current count in their Title IX Legal Database , a clearinghouse of information on these cases aimed at assisting Title IX professionals and accused students, is 621.

Article here. Excerpt:

'As the U.S. Department of Education prepares to implement new regulations regarding sexual misconduct on college campuses, lawsuits filed by accused students claiming their rights were violated continue to boil over in the federal courts.

Complaints against institutions of higher education in Indiana have been filed in the Northern and Southern Indiana district courts. Also, a lawsuit against Purdue University — John Doe v. Purdue University et al., 17-3565 – became the first such case to reach the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has put forth a proposal that more clearly defines and, in some ways, limits a school’s responsibility in instances of sexual misconduct.

Attorney Scott Shockley of DeFur Voran in Muncie supports the proposed changes. He has represented Ball State University in a variety of matters and was recently successful in defending the school against a Title IX claim brought by a male student.

From SAVE:

“The dog ate my homework” is one of the oldest excuses students use to rationalize their delay in turning in an assignment. The coronavirus pandemic is one of the newest excuses universities and others are using to request the Department of Education suspend the Title IX rule making process, which has been ongoing since November 2018.

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) calls on the Department of Education to swiftly proceed by releasing the new regulations, keeping with their stated goal of restoring due process in the handling of sexual harassment cases on college campuses.

In a letter to Secretary DeVos and others [1], the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) lays out their argument for delaying the regulations. In their rampage, NWLC cites reasons, such as, reduced resources, ongoing stress, and remote working environments. While these are true, they are also true for a university absent of a coronavirus pandemic. With campuses devoid of most students until the Fall semester, the university campus is quieter than ever, and the administration has ample time to focus and implement the necessary steps to be compliant.

Article here. Excerpt:

'We’ve already been told plenty of times that the coronavirus pandemic is a gendered crisis, as those on the front lines — “nurses, nurse aides, teachers, child carers and early-childhood educators, aged-care workers and cleaners” — are mostly women. We’re not certain what to do with this information, or even if we believe it. School teachers have had their classes sent home, and there are plenty of male nurses (and female doctors).

And then there’s the uncomfortable fact that men are more likely to die from COVID-19 complications than women. But Rep. Frederica Wilson wanted to get in a word about the gender disparity among those on the front lines of the coronavirus fight.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Only identity politics could turn a virus that disproportionately attacks and kills males into a women’s problem.

Mehreen Faruqi, Australian politician, Greens Senator for New South Wales, and identity politician stood up before that nation’s legislative body and asked her colleagues to consider the impact that coronavirus is having on women specifically, and that resources be dedicated to that cause.

“Let us not forget that COVID-19 is a gendered crisis. Nurses, nurse aids, teachers, child care workers and early childhood educators, age care workers and cleaners, are mostly women. They are on the front line of this public health crisis, and carry a disproportionate risk to being exposed to the virus.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Mexico’s government is calling on the nation’s men to pick up a mop, do some laundry and take on more household responsibilities while they are staying home because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Four female officials spoke out at Mexico’s daily COVID-19 briefing on Thursday to remind people that women do almost three times more housework and family care than do men.
...
“We have to redistribute this work equally between men and women.... Men will have to do more, and women should have to do less,” said Nadine Gasman, head of the National Women’s Institute INMUJERES, a government body working for gender equality.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Eighteen Democratic attorneys general are urging U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and other federal officials to pause the release of federal regulations that would govern how colleges handle sexual violence cases.
...
DeVos published her draft rules in 2018 after walking back Title IX guidance from the Obama administration the previous year. The Obama-era policies were largely credited with giving sexual assault survivors new protections, but they were derided in some circles for being unfairly slanted against accused students.

Her proposal proved unpopular among advocates of sexual assault survivors. They took particular issue with requirements that college officials hold a live hearing to make a decision in a case and that parties or their representatives be allowed to cross-examine each other.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Many disingenuous things have been said during the coronavirus crisis, some of them by the president of the United States himself. But right near the top must be three letters issued last week — from the American Council on Education (ACE), activist groups led by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), and 18 Democratic attorneys general — calling for the Department of Education to halt the release of long-anticipated regulations that will restore due process to the handling of sexual-assault cases on college campuses. DeVos’s proposed rule would ensure basic rights for accused students — notice, access to evidence, a live hearing, and the ability to have a lawyer or advocate cross-examine adverse witnesses — that are often or almost always absent in the current Title IX process imposed by Obama-era guidance. That system has yielded more than 170 university setbacks in lawsuits filed by accused students in state or federal court.

Article here. Excerpt:

'On September 14, 2018, The New York Times reported the existence of an unverified sexual misconduct allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The story cited three people who had read a letter sent by the accuser—Christine Blasey Ford—to Sen. Diane Feinstein (D–Calif.). Ford was not interviewed for the story; indeed, she wasn't named.

Unconfirmed reports of a teenaged Kavanaugh assaulting a teenaged Ford evidently merited coverage from The Times. This prompts an obvious question: Why is the paper of record now declining to publicize a very troubling allegation against former Vice President Joe Biden?

Article here. Excerpt:

'The coronavirus relief bill signed into law on Friday includes payments to help most people, except for people who owe child support.

Owing back taxes or other debts such as student loans to the government does not affect how much stimulus money a person would receive, according to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
...
“The only administrative offset that will be enforced applies to those who have past due child support payments that the states have reported to the Treasury Department,” he continued.

In other words, people who owe child support could see their cash payments reduced or taken away altogether thanks to a 1996 law where the Treasury Department is allowed to collect overdue child support by cutting or withholding any federal handouts.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'DU introduced a plan that will guarantee every accusation results in suspension or expulsion for a male accused student. The school is instituting “trauma-informed investigation” methods, a new concept that assumes every accusation to be true no matter what. Supporters insist it is backed up by scientific evidence, but decades long research on trauma and memory do not support the techniques. For example, “trauma-informed” techniques insist that a woman is telling the truth about being raped even if she lies to police, because lies are simply a result of trauma. The techniques also encourage allegedly neutral “fact finders” to ignore exculpatory evidence and not interview the accuser multiple times so that accused students can’t point to inconsistencies in their stories.

Article here. Excerpt:

'In its desire to be a mecca of political correctness, the University of Michigan continues to prioritize the rights of some students over others.

And that does not fly in the courts, thanks to the U.S. Constitution, which demands free expression and due process for everyone.

UM’s resistance to ensuring its codes of conduct abide by that framework keep landing the university in court.

It got slapped once again by a federal judge this week.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow found UM’s sexual misconduct policy to be unconstitutional, following a 2018 lawsuit by a student who claimed he’d been unfairly treated by the university and denied basic due process.

The judge ruled that an accused student must be allowed to cross-examine witnesses, even his accuser.

Article here. What, VAWA Joe assailing female staff? The MSM is curiously silent. Excerpt:

'Former Vice President Joe Biden has been accused of sexual assaulting a former staffer in 1993 in his Senate office.

Tara Reade, who worked in Biden’s office in 1993, accused Biden of touching her, kissing her and penetrating her with his fingers without consent.

Reade made her claims in an interview with Katie Halper, a writer and podcast host, released Wednesday.

“We were alone, and it was the strangest thing. There was no, like, exchange really, he just had me up against the wall,” Reade said.

“His hands were on me and underneath my clothes. And then, he went, he went down my skirt and then up inside it, and he penetrated me with his fingers…and um…He was kissing me at the same time and he was saying something to me,” she also told Halper.'