Sexual Assault & Harassment

As an alum of Swarthmore College who looks back on my years there with halcyon nostalgia, nothing could be more disheartening to me than to learn that my alma mater had been covering up reports of sexual assault, misreporting campus crime statistics, and turning a cold shoulder to survivors looking for support and justice. But after students filed Clery Act and Title IX complaints against the college last spring, I was forced to acknowledge that while Swarthmore gave me the educational foundation and friends to last a lifetime, other students—survivors of sexual assault—received so much less than the college promised and than they deserved.

Swarthmore took an important step last Thursday in restoring my confidence in the school and, more importantly, the safety of the students currently enrolled. In an open letter, President Rebecca Chopp detailed the initial actions Swarthmore will take to respond to the “sea change” in the law addressing sexual assault and harassment at America’s colleges and universities. From a number of new policies the college will roll out as soon as this summer, it’s clear that Swarthmore would rather surf the wave than drown. Read more »

Yesterday, two different Congressional committees voted against protections for sexual assault victims:

• The House Judiciary Committee, while considering a 20 week abortion ban, voted AGAINST including an exception for victims of rape and incest. During the Committee meeting, Representative Trent Franks joined the long list of abortion opponents who have claimed that the chance of “rape resulting in pregnancy is very low.”
• The Senate Armed Services Committee, in considering a set of new protections for victims of sexual assault, voted AGAINST a provision to give the responsibility for addressing these crimes to independent prosecutors and away from the chain of command. As you may recall, there have been several very public stories in the last few months of commanders failing to pursue claims of sexual assault and overturning sexual assault convictions. And, even reports that the officers charged with enforcing these laws accused of sexual assault themselves.

It is important to note that these two votes took place in very different contexts – the House vote took place during consideration of a bill designed to limit women’s rights while the Senate vote took place during consideration of a bill that will otherwise strengthen the military’s prevention of and response to sexual assault. Read more »

Today, NWLC, with the Michigan law firm Smietanka, Buckleitner, Steffes and Gezon, filed a Title IX lawsuit in federal court against the Forest Hills School District outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan. We represent a high school student—we call her Jane Doe to protect her privacy—who was sexually assaulted on campus by a fellow student and star basketball player.

Jane was brave enough to tell a teacher what happened, and that teacher told the school principal. But when the principal met with Jane and her parents he discouraged her from filing a police report and implied that she’d jeopardize her assailant’s changes of getting recruited by Division 1 schools (!!!).

Jane reported her assault to the police anyway, and they opened an investigation. Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based harassment, including sexual assault, in federally-funded education programs, requires schools to investigate and respond to allegations of sexual assault. Read more »

Jon Hamm’s … ahem… manhood has been all over all my RSS feeds as of late. Apparently, the wardrobe people on the set of Mad Men needed to ask Hamm to wear underwear so he isn’t exposed by tight-fitting suits, and he’s been caught at unflattering angles that accentuate certain body parts, shall we say, over others.

As a result, of course, the Internet has gone crazy – multiple Tumblrs have been created in honor of his privates, and article upon article has been written poking fun at the whole situation. Hamm is pretty upset. He told Rolling Stone:

“They're called privates for a reason. I'm wearing pants, for [expletive’s] sake. When people feel the freedom to create Tumblr accounts about my [penis], I feel like that wasn't part of the deal."

But as Slate points out, constant commentary on private parts has become par for the course for female celebrities. We plaster images of every single wardrobe malfunction, create Internet memes, and feel completely comfortable shaming female celebrities for their clothing mishaps. Anne Hathaway sums up perfectly in her recent interview with Matt Lauer about her wardrobe malfunction while promoting Les Miserables:

Read more »

I had the great fortune of ringing in the New Year in India, thanks to my wonderful family who loves to travel. In addition to rediscovering how delicious and picturesque Indian food is, I also had a chance to be in the country during protests related to a violent gang rape, talk to people, and think about how important it is that respect for women be a part of every culture.

Channa masala and a samosa. Yum!

Immediately after stepping off the plane in Delhi, we were bombarded with news coverage, discussion, advertisements and even tourism signs addressing the story (honestly – the first sign my sister and I saw upon stepping out of baggage claim was one that said “Welcome to India! :) Many different kinds of bears live in India. :( Not strict enough rape laws.” What an interesting way to greet tourists…). Read more »

Monday morning I had the honor of observing the oral arguments for Vance v. Ball State at the United States Supreme Court. At issue in the case was how courts should define “supervisor” for the purposes of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination, including sexual harassment. This definition is important because it determines when an employer—in this case, Ball State University—will automatically be held liable for harassment perpetrated by an employee.

The plaintiff in the case is Ms. Vance, a catering assistant at Ball State University, who was the only African-American employee in her division. She alleged that she was threatened and called racially-motivated names by her immediate supervisors, and she suffered greatly because of it. However, Ms. Vance lost her case against the university when the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that for the purposes of Title VII, supervisors only include those people who can hire and fire employees. The individuals who harassed her did not have this authority, though they did oversee her day-to-day work. This decision reflects a continuing split among Circuit Courts, as other courts have held that supervisors should also include day-to-day supervisors. Read more »

Yesterday the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Allentown, Pennsylvania School District filed a proposed consent decree to resolve multiple complaints of peer-on-peer sexual assault at Central Elementary School. Specifically, a number of individual plaintiffs alleged that six- and seven-year-old students were sexually assaulted by another student in the boys’ bathroom at Central Elementary School during the 2003-04 school year.

The students alleged violations of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bans sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. Sexual harassment, including sexual assault, is a type of sex discrimination.

DOJ intervened in a private lawsuit filed by student victims against the district, and conducted an investigation into the claims. DOJ found that sexual assaults had occurred on at least five separate occasions; the district was told of each incident immediately after it occurred, but failed to take appropriate action (and in some circumstances took no action) to prevent further assaults from occurring. Read more »

“I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was. So I backed away…”

That’s how former Penn State Head Football Coach Joe Paterno explained his failure to notify the authorities of Jerry Sandusky’s sexual assault of a young boy.

But as the Freeh report released last week concluded, it wasn’t the university’s procedure Paterno was afraid to jeopardize, but its reputation.

After all, to be consistent with the law, university procedure should have required Paterno to speak up.

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (aka “the Clery Act”) requires colleges and universities to publicly disclose the number of reports of criminal offenses—including sexual assaults—that occur on their campuses each year.

Under the Clery Act, Paterno had a legal obligation to inform the proper authorities after learning of the sexual assault an assistant coach had witnessed. Instead, Paterno sat on the report. He even delayed speaking with his supervisors so as not to “interfere with their weekends.”

Ultimately, Paterno and then-University President Graham Spanier decided not to report the sexual assault to campus police. The Department of Education is now investigating potential Clery Act violations at Penn State.

In addition to their failure to report, Paterno and Spanier neglected to investigate the assault: to determine the identity of the victim, take action to protect him, and remove Sandusky from Penn State facilities. As a result, they “provided Sandusky with the very currency that enabled him to attract his victims.”

This “consistent disregard [for the] welfare of Sandusky’s child victims” points to a deliberate practice of valuing the university’s football program over children’s—or students’—safety. Indeed, the Freeh report specifically noted that “a culture of reverence for the football program…. [was responsible] for [the] failure to protect…victims.”

This bizarre moral compass may help explain earlier eyebrow-raising disciplinary decisions regarding Penn State football players:

In 2002, a player who admitted to sexual assault was allowed to play in a bowl game during his two-semester suspension. Read more »

Reuters reports that a new study by University of Texas Medical Branch found that 30 percent of US teenagers are sexting (defined in the study as “electronically sending sexually explicit images or messages”).

The study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, finds not only that nearly one-third of teens are sexting, but also that over half of teens have been asked to send a nude photo.

"Almost all of the girls that were asked to send a sext were bothered at least a little bit and over half were bothered a lot or a great deal, and yet some of them are still sending it," said Dr. Jeff Temple, lead author of the study.

In addition, sexting can become cyberbullying when students forward explicit photos to other students or even the entire school. And in fact, forwarding such images can actually be sexual harassment, and under Title IX schools are required to address harassment that is severe or pervasive enough to interfere with a student’s education or participation in school activities. Read more »

Because nothing gives me the warm and fuzzies quite like David Beckham speaking out against dating violence…

Last week the White House released a compelling new dating violence PSA entitled “1 is 2 Many,” which features President Obama, Vice President Biden, and a host of celebrity athletes encouraging men to step up in the fight to end gender-based violence.

Vice President Biden, who spearheaded the campaign, has long been a tireless advocate for women and girls. In 1990, then-Senator Biden introduced the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which forever changed the way our country responds to sexual assault and domestic violence. While it seems obvious to most of us that issues of gender-based violence should always transcend political gamesmanship, this year Congress has yet to reauthorize this crucial legislation.