Article here. Excerpt:

'Jezebel’s Erin Gloria Ryan recently declared, “Being terrible about rape appears as endemic to American high education as barfing on the quad.” Ryan had just heard the news that 55 American universities are facing federal Title IX investigations for possibly mishandling cases of sexual misconduct. Jezebel seems to think that the Department of Education (DOE) investigations are evidence of a sexual-assault epidemic and insidious “rape culture” plaguing our college campuses.

Actually, the investigations show no such thing. The DOE has made it clear that a college’s investigation “in no way indicates at this stage that the college or university is violating or has violated the law.” What the investigations actually reveal is just the beginning of the messy results of three years of federal overreach into campus rape policies.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Dear Potus and Flotus...

Now that the President’s prerogative of addressing the American people and the wider world in his weekly talk has been usurped by his wife, I was wondering if I, too, might have a crack? If one unelected individual who represents nobody but herself can air her views, why not anybody?

Article here. Excerpt:

'A FEMINIST guru is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach Federal public servants to be fairer to women in the workplace — and she’s offered a session to Tony Abbott.

Work coach Deborah May, who provides awareness training in unrecognised bias, has been hired by the Commonwealth’s most senior and male-dominated departments, including Prime Minister and Cabinet, Treasury and Finance.

Taxpayers have forked out more than $800,000 in the past five years for Ms May’s lectures, with Treasury regularly booking sessions. In their latest contract, which ends next month, beancounters will pay Ms May almost $150,000 for training.'

Story here.

'The Feminist Initiative (FI), a Swedish party, may win its first seat in the European Parliament, according to the latest opinion polls published in the national press.

FI is currently polling at 4.3% of votes in Sweden, just above the 4% threshold required to win one of the country's 20 seats in the parliament. In 2009, the party got 2.2% of votes.

"This is an incredible development when the party got less than 1% of the votes in the last general election," said Drude Dahlerup, a professor of political science with a focus on gender at Stockholm University. The party doesn't have loyal voters but its approval ratings are lifted by its charismatic party leader Gudrun Schyman, Dahlerup told TV-station SVT.

But she added some voters might be disappointed when they realise that Schyman is not on the party's list of candidates for the election.

Story here. Excerpt:

'Jay Z was ferociously assaulted by Beyonce's sister Solange ... who was wildly kicking and swinging at him inside an elevator ... and the attack was captured on surveillance video ... obtained by TMZ.

According to our sources, it all went down at a Met Gala after party last week at the Standard Hotel in NYC. In the video ... Jay Z, Beyonce and Solange step into the elevator ... and then Solange goes crazy, screaming at Jay before unleashing a violent attack.

A large man -- who appears to be a bodyguard -- attempts to hold Solange back, but she manages to connect at least 3 times. At one point Solange throws a kick and Jay grabs her foot, but never attempts to strike her. Beyonce stands by without getting physically involved.'

---
Wikipedia on Jay Z here. Solange Knowles is the sister of Jay Z's wife, the singer/actress Beyoncé.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Sumner County Elementary School teacher has been suspended because of allegations she encouraged two young boys to fight.

Brandie Dobson is still trying to figure out exactly what happened to her 8-year-old son last week, after the Watt Hardison Elementary 2nd grader got into a fight with one of his friends.

The scuffle happened on the school bus, and Dobson admitted her son was a part of the fight.

"The little boy had pushed him and hit his brother and cousin. So he hit him back,” she said.

But the next day, she said one of their teachers decided the fight wasn't over. Dobson said the teacher allegedly took her son, his brother and the other little boy into an empty classroom, and with another teacher present, had them finish.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A school bus driver is no longer driving students and a stepmother is facing assault charges after a seven-year-old child was attacked on a Clarksville school bus that was headed to St. Bethlehem Elementary School.

The incident happened April 25, but News 2 was unable to obtain video of the incident until Wednesday.

According to school officials, two students were involved in an altercation before boarding the bus. One of the children is the daughter of Kela Hand’s partner.

The little girl ran home and told Hand that one of the kids on the bus hit her.

Hand, 22, then boarded the school bus. Video from inside the bus shows Hand yelling at students.

“You touch my baby?” She can be heard asking. “Who was it?”

Then the little girl points out a seven-year-old boy.

“You touch my baby again I will f*%! your little a%! up,” she is heard telling the little boy.

After nearly five minutes, Hand leaves the bus.

Story here. Excerpt:

'A Michigan school district has withdrawn its efforts to fire a teacher over a video showing a student stuck in a classroom chair and instead is suspending her for a year.

The Goodrich Area Schools board was to meet in closed session Thursday evening to consider the settlement with Nicole McVey.

The video was recorded in November at Oaktree Elementary School and released to a TV station in February. On it, the boy is shown with his head and arms stuck in an opening in the back of the chair.

McVey and Principal Michael Ellis taunted the fifth-grader, who has Asperger’s syndrome, according to Patrick Greenfelder, a lawyer for the boy’s family.

Ellis has since resigned. McVey had been fighting the district’s efforts to fire her.

According to Greenfelder, McVey can be heard questioning the boy about how he got stuck before asking, “Do you want to get Tasered?”

Article here. Excerpt:

'With a national push for better Title IX compliance and more and more schools facing consequences for mishandling sexual-harassment cases on campus, officials from West Virginia’s colleges came together for the first time last week to learn how to protect students from harm — and themselves from lawsuits.

Amy Niedzalkoski, an attorney who works for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and specializes in Title IX — a law that forbids gender discrimination at schools that receive federal funding — spoke to dozens of state college representatives in Fairmont last week in light of recent high-profile cases at schools across the country that have been scrutinized for turning a blind eye to a “rape culture” on campus.

The Office for Civil Rights is in charge of investigating any potential mishandling of a school’s own investigation and has the right to terminate federal funding at that school if there’s evidence of a Title IX violation.

Article here. Excerpt:

'All 20 U.S. senators who are women sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Tuesday condemning Boko Haram, the Islamist organization that abducted some 300 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria, last month. The senators called on the administration to impose further international sanctions against the militant group.

“We are outraged and horrified that these young women have been kidnapped, sold into slavery, had their education curtailed, and may even have been forced into marriages,” wrote Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), who led the senatorial effort.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Picture the following scene, if you will, horrible though it is. A group of young schoolboys are asleep in their dormitory when the doors are quietly locked and the building set alight. Most are burned alive, while those who manage to escape have their throats slit by the Islamic extremists waiting outside. What's more, it's the third such attack in eight months.

Dreadful stuff, eh? The world should do something about it. Raise awareness. Another version of the BringBackOurGirls campaign for the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram, perhaps. Only in this case, of course, there are no boys to bring back, only charred, bloodied corpses.

This is just one of the many grim stories of Boko Haram's campaign of mayhem in Nigeria, where I'm currently reporting on the case of the missing schoolgirls. As I type, Michelle Obama is on the television in the hotel lobby, borrowing her hubby's slot on the president’s weekly address to galvanise the world into action.

She says it's "unconscionable" that a terrorist group like Boko Haram should kidnap innocent schoolgirls simply because it disapproves of them getting an eduction. I couldn't agree more. But while this case has rightly become a cause celebre for schoolgirls' rights in Nigeria, it should be remembered that their male counterparts are having a rough time at the hands of Boko Haram too.
...
So why is it, then, that it is the girls' suffering, rather than the boys', that is finally bringing Boko Haram's mayhem to world attention? Plenty of media-analysis stuff has already been written on this, and I don't have much more to add.
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'As "rape culture" activism heats up, reporters are demonstrating a startling credulity on the subject. One case in point is the Chronicle of Higher Education's recent investigation of Title IX complaints from 2003 to 2013. The piece, entitled "Promise Unfulfilled?," illustrates the faulty assumptions driving many journalists who cover campus sexual assault.

The nearly 3000-word article, by Jonah Newman and Libby Sanders, advances the following thesis: the fact that only 10 percent of Office of Civil Rights complaints filed in the past decade led to settlements is evidence of "a process that...can be fraught with confusion and conflicting expectations, and often brings unsatisfying outcomes." It makes that argument, however, in an unusual fashion.

First, and most obvious, the article never mentions--not even once(!)--the OCR's 2011 "Dear Colleague" letter which demanded that colleges lower the threshold for convicting accused rapists , even as the piece addresses the years both before and after the OCR unilaterally, and dramatically, reinterpreted federal law. This oversight is particularly baffling given that many Title IX accusers wish to force adoption of new policies that increase the likelihood of colleges branding some of their students rapists. A pre-2011 complaint (when the OCR still respected due process on sexual matters) would obviously yield a different outcome than a filing made after 2011 filing, the period in which the agency has all but declared war on due process.
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'Leading British historian and writer David Starkey has slammed the idea that the BBC should appoint a female host for the remake of the hit documentary 'Civilisation'. Starkey called the moves "preposterous" as they have been based on a quota notion, rather than who would be best suited to do the job.

Starkey hit out at the idea in the Sunday Times, claiming “...just because someone is a woman they will have something interesting to say is preposterous”.

A campaign by female celebrities has called for Prof. Mary Beard to host the show, and feminist activists and celebrities have backed the idea that “would ensure [Civilisation] won’t just be about history but also herstory”.
...
“Feminism has got its knickers in a terrible twist. Are feminists claiming that women can compete on every level with men in every sphere — or are they now putting this different argument, which is that women bring different qualities to bear?"

Article here. Excerpt:

'Frankly, I have no idea if the repulsive physical attack was politically motivated or not and neither does the victim nor CAFE. The greater point, however, is that groups like CAFE are tired of contemporary feminism marginalizing and libelling men.

Are they correct? I didn’t think so until a few years ago I was asked to write a men’s column for another daily newspaper.

What I encountered was evidence of a campaign to discredit men and a legal and sociological campaign to remove their rights as husbands and partners and, in particular, fathers.

I’m very lucky to be in a happy marriage with a wonderful wife and with four great kids. I have never been a victim.

As soon as I wrote this column, however, I was inundated with stories of men, good men, who had lost their homes, their savings, their freedom, their children, after false and malicious complaints.

The anecdotes had similar themes. A married couple with children. The marriage falls apart, nobody’s fault in particular. She gets a lawyer, and suddenly alleges that she’s been abused — it’s not true, but it means he has to leave the home, has hardly any rights, can’t see the kids.

They divorce, he has to pay a lot of money in support even though she’s already with another man and doing very well financially. He now lives in a basement apartment.

He’s allowed to see the kids every second weekend, one night a week. But often she says they’re not well or she’s just not there when he goes to pick the children up. After repeated pleas he shouts, bangs on the door. She calls the police, he’s arrested, convicted, put on probation and humiliated.

Or how about the couple who argue and hit each other, or she hits him and he does nothing.

Article here. Excerpt:

'IN last week’s column, I wrote about the connection between college social life and socioeconomic stratification, and the way the party scene at many universities, oriented toward heavy drinking and hooking up, creates distinctive challenges for working-class students, whether they’re attracted to its thrills or alienated by its excesses.
...
But the modern university’s primary loyalty is not really to liberalism or political correctness or any kind of ideological design: It’s to the school’s brand, status and bottom line. And when something goes badly wrong, or predators run loose — as tends to happen in a world where teens and early-twentysomethings are barely supervised and held to no standard higher than consent — the mask of kindness and community slips, and the face revealed beneath is often bloodless, corporate and intent on self-protection.

I glimpsed this face, and saw it reflected in my friends’ eyes, at various moments of crisis during my own four years in higher education; I doubt that anything has changed for the better in the 12 years since. This seems to be what the anti-rape activists — victims, friends, sympathizers — are reacting against so strongly: the realization that an institution that seemed to make one set of promises had other priorities all along.

That the activists’ moral outrage is justified does not mean, again, that their prescriptions are correct. Their fatal conceit in many cases is the idea that by sweeping away misogyny they can resolve the internal contradictions of social liberalism, and usher in a world where everyone can be libertines together, and a hard-drinking, sexually permissive culture can be experienced identically by male and female, rich and middle class and poor.