Crime

Betsy DeVos Prevents Future Larry Nassars By Nixing Obligation To Report Sexual Assault

All better now!

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(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The NCAA is not impressed with the Department of Education’s new rules to better “protect” students from sexual harassment and assault under Title IX. Apparently, the organization is not convinced that limiting the number of mandatory reporters will magically make student athletes safer from sexual violence. And if the billion dollar non-profit that hoovers up cash selling athletes’ images while excommunicating them if they accept a free pair of sneakers is recoiling in horror, chances are the DOE’s new rule is pretty bad.

As ESPN’s Paula Lavigne notes, the changes finalized last week relieve coaches and athletic staff of the pesky obligation to report allegations of sexual abuse or assault the school’s Title IX coordinator. Last year the Department fined Michigan State $4.5 million for systemic failure to address horrific abuse of gymnasts by Dr. Larry Nassar, and yet the new regulations seem to have been designed to create more people who can look the other way with impunity.

But Secretary DeVos has a perfectly good explanation for a rule that would have allowed Jim Jordan to (allegedly) chortle about wrestlers being molested by the Ohio State University’s team doctor with no obligation to do anything about it, and it is … AUTONOMY.

Every situation is unique, and individuals react to sexual harassment differently. Therefore, the Final Rule gives complainants control over the school-level response best meeting their needs. It respects complainants’ wishes and autonomy by giving them the clear choice to file a formal complaint, separate from the right to supportive measures. The Final Rule also provides a fair and impartial grievance process for complainants, and protects complainants from being coerced or threatened into participating in a grievance process.

Perish the thought that an athlete whose scholarship and athletic career are dependent on staying in the good graces of the coaching staff be “coerced or threatened into participating in the grievance process” by mandatory reporting requirements!

The new regs only impose the reporting obligation on staff who have “authority to institute corrective measures,” a power which schools can optionally confer on athletic staff. Clearly the Department’s curriculum includes fantasy novels where organizations voluntarily increase the pool of staff members who can incur millions of dollars in federal fines and civil damages. Nevertheless, NCAA rules will still impose a reporting requirement on all collegiate athletic staff.

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“The campuses will retain the responsible employee mandatory reporter standard that they have because that’s the better practice,” W. Scott Lewis, co-founder of the Association of Title IX Administrators told ESPN.

“The department is not under an obligation to conform these final regulations with NCAA compliance guidelines and declines to do so,” sniffed the Department in its response. And then it went back to discussing a plan to protect students from sexual assault by passing out millions of copies of “Atlas Shrugged,” useful as a weapon to fend off an attacker and a paean to the vaunted “autonomy” Secretary DeVos values above all else.

New Title IX regulations change how colleges must respond to sexual misconduct complaints [ESPN]
New Title IX regulations no longer require coaches to report sexual misconduct [Yahoo]

Elizabeth Dye (@5DollarFeminist) lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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