US Education Department tells schools to change sexual misconduct rules
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The revised guidance instructed educators to once again adopt new standards for enforcing codes against sexual violence and harassment on campus.
PHOTO: PEXELS
Zach Montague
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WASHINGTON – The US Education Department sent notice to K-12 schools and colleges on Jan 31 that it would revert to policies put out during President Donald Trump’s first term that limited schools’ liability in sexual misconduct cases and afforded stronger rights to students accused of sexual harassment and assault.
The letter also instructed schools not to expect the department to enforce a revised interpretation of Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding.
That change, announced during the Biden administration, broadened the law’s scope to recognise harassment or exclusion based on sexual orientation and gender identity to be a form of discrimination.
The revised guidance issued on Jan 31 instructed educators to once again adopt new standards for enforcing codes against sexual violence and harassment on campus.
The old rules, set in 2018, eased the standards by which the department assessed schools’ liability in sexual misconduct cases, giving schools room to follow different evidentiary standards and appeals processes in investigations.
They also required schools to hold live hearings in which accusers and students accused of sexual assault could cross-examine one another, including through a lawyer.
In a break from recent changes surrounding the law, formally known as Title IX of the Education Amendments Act, the letter sent on Jan 31 stated that the changes in its implementations could begin immediately, after a federal judge in Kentucky blocked the Biden administration’s revisions from taking effect.
That ruling was largely based on the Biden-era rules’ increased protections for transgender students, which the judge found to be unconstitutional.
The letter also leaned on Mr Trump’s executive authority to justify the immediate return to the old standards, circumventing the more standard practice of proposing new regulations through a lengthy federal rule-making process.
It stated that the employees in the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, which enforces federal law across schools receiving federal funding, essentially answer to the President.
Students’ rights groups focused on due process celebrated the development as a restoration of fair standards for those accused of serious offences.
Critics of the rules, dating to Mr Trump’s first term, have said the requirements for live hearings force victims to relive the trauma of sexual violence and give the schools they attend more room to ignore or informally resolve many serious infractions. NYTIMES
