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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Bridget and this is stuff Mom never

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Speaker 1: told you. Now today we have kind of an intense

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Speaker 1: topic for you. I just want to give a quick

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Speaker 1: suggar arning because it is about sexual assault. Today, we're

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Speaker 1: gonna be diving into the newest updates around the fight

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Speaker 1: to curb sexual assault on America's college campuses, what's being

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Speaker 1: done about it now, and how folks are getting involved

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Speaker 1: on this issue. So a quick level set of the

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Speaker 1: lay of the land when it comes to campus sexual

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Speaker 1: assault and what's being done about it. According to the

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Speaker 1: National Sexual Violence Resource Center or the n s v

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Speaker 1: r C, one in five women will be sexually assaulted

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Speaker 1: in college, as well as one in sixteen men. If

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Speaker 1: you paid attention to the initiatives that the Obama administration

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Speaker 1: had with Joe Biden, that's the number that might sound

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Speaker 1: familiar to you, and it's a number that we're gonna

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Speaker 1: be dealing with throughout the show. And what those numbers

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Speaker 1: really break down to mean is that twenty three percent

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Speaker 1: of college women and five percent of college men experience

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Speaker 1: rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation,

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Speaker 1: and of transgender or gender nonconforming students report rape or

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Speaker 1: sexual assault as well. That's a big number. It's a

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Speaker 1: big number. I would almost say it's an epidemic proportions.

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Speaker 1: And no one wants to send their kid away to

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Speaker 1: college and think that they're going to get assaulted or hurt.

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Speaker 1: But it seems like these numbers are to be believed.

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Speaker 1: That's the reality that a lot of parents are facing

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Speaker 1: every day. And all the reporting agencies and advocacy organizations

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Speaker 1: who track this data also reiterate, which is an important

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Speaker 1: sort of asterix here, that really assaults and rape are

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Speaker 1: under reported for a lot of different reasons, but those

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Speaker 1: numbers are really most likely conservative estimates for sure. For

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Speaker 1: sure because as we all know, sexual assault and rapes

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Speaker 1: and sex crimes are historically some of the most underreported

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Speaker 1: crimes out there, in part because of the culture around

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Speaker 1: victim blaming, which we're going to talk about further, and

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Speaker 1: the lack of belief that any kind of justice is

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Speaker 1: possible um and this is especially true on college campuses,

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Speaker 1: where a lot of the debate on this issue has

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Speaker 1: been not in the presence or lack there of of

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Speaker 1: assault and rape, but on how college campuses are dealing

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Speaker 1: with them. Some insist on managing it themselves, even despite

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Speaker 1: the fact that this is an illegal crime that is

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Speaker 1: being committed, and there's been a lot of reticence to

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Speaker 1: actually treating this epidemic like the criminal outbreak that it is.

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Speaker 1: So one statistic that came out in from the American

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Speaker 1: Association of University Women says that eight nine percent of

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Speaker 1: college campuses reported zero rapes. That actually might seem like

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Speaker 1: a really cheery number, like, oh, almost campuses reported no

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Speaker 1: rapes exactly, but here's why that's wrong. The key word

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Speaker 1: is reported. They've actually gone back and said that if

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Speaker 1: a campus is reporting that few sexual thoughts and rapes,

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Speaker 1: that actually that if this needs to rethink their reporting

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Speaker 1: structure and whether or not students are actually coming forward

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Speaker 1: because that figure just does not jibe with what's actually

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Speaker 1: going on when you look at the data, yeah, when

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Speaker 1: you look at surveys done of students. So one thing

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Speaker 1: to note is that if you're a college or university

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Speaker 1: that participates in a federal financial aid program, you actually

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Speaker 1: are required to do some reporting and transparency around who

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Speaker 1: is coming forward with rapes past. In nine, the Cleary

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Speaker 1: Act requires schools that get federal funding to disclose campus

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Speaker 1: crime stats and security information including training and prevention efforts,

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Speaker 1: which is good. So why the hell are not almost

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Speaker 1: of college campuses in reporting no rapes? Right? You know

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Speaker 1: what I mean? Like, how does that even? How is

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Speaker 1: that meeting the standards? Well, it really comes down to transparency, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and disclosure, which really gets me infuriated because you know

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Speaker 1: what this has to do with bridget This is a

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Speaker 1: marketing problem. This is all about the college industrial complex

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Speaker 1: that exists here in the United States where nobody wants

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Speaker 1: to be known as the rape campus. So everyone's trying

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Speaker 1: to keep hush hush on even toxic cultures or not

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Speaker 1: dealing with things like rape and sexual assault because god

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Speaker 1: forbid that should end up on a brochure somewhere and

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Speaker 1: have concerned parents asking about, you know, how safe should

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Speaker 1: I anticipate my daughter or son will be in terms

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Speaker 1: of the kind of rape statistics or what kind of

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Speaker 1: policies do you have in place to bring those crimes

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Speaker 1: to light? Well, that's exactly it. According to the American

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Speaker 1: Association of University Women, Basically, how schools are getting around

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Speaker 1: this requirement that they've reported around this is by mixing

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Speaker 1: in sexual assault numbers with other crimes, so they might

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Speaker 1: be reporting the numbers of crimes in general or crimes

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Speaker 1: like harassment or stalking, and they aren't required to actually

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Speaker 1: break out those numbers of sexual assaults and how they're

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Speaker 1: being dealt with, And that is part of the reason

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Speaker 1: why in two thousand eleven, the Obama administration wanted to

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Speaker 1: address this epidemic of campus assault and rape and the

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Speaker 1: total lack of a clear and measured justice system that

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Speaker 1: was being put in place at a lot of these

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Speaker 1: college campuses through a new outlining of guidelines for how

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Speaker 1: colleges and universities should deal with campus sexual assaults in

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Speaker 1: order to be aligned with Title nine of our Constitution.

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Speaker 1: And in laying out these new guidelines, and the Department

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Speaker 1: of Education under the Obama administration wrote a letter that's

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Speaker 1: a little bit wonky, but here's what it really breaks down.

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Speaker 1: In order for the school's grievance procedures or justice system

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Speaker 1: to be consistent with Title nine standards, the school must

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Speaker 1: use a preponderance of the evidence standard. In other words,

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Speaker 1: it's more likely than not that sexual harassment or violence

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Speaker 1: occurred the quote clear and convincing standard, i e. It's

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Speaker 1: highly probable or reasonably certain that the sexual harassment or

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Speaker 1: violence occurred, which is currently used by some schools, is

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Speaker 1: a higher standard of proof. Grievance procedures that use this

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Speaker 1: higher standard or inconsist, stint with the standard of proof

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Speaker 1: established for violations of the civil rights laws and thus

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Speaker 1: are not equitable under title line. In other words, the

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Speaker 1: Department of Education is saying, we need to lower the

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Speaker 1: evidence required for sexual assault and rape cases to actually

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Speaker 1: come to a conclusion in order for punitive measures to

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Speaker 1: be put in place and for justice to be served.

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Speaker 1: We shouldn't have to require clear and convincing, which is

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Speaker 1: a much higher legal standard to prove someone guilty of

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Speaker 1: rape or sexual assault. Instead, the school should use a

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Speaker 1: preponderance of evidence, which is a much more common um

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Speaker 1: or reasonable statute for proving that someone raped you, which

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Speaker 1: is not a not a very easy thing to prove exactly.

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Speaker 1: So that was a big wonky mouthful, but essentially what

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Speaker 1: they're saying is that it shouldn't require the same level

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Speaker 1: of evidence that it might require in a court room

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Speaker 1: in order to get some action. If you are sexual

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Speaker 1: assaulted on a college campus, and I honestly think if

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Speaker 1: you think about how sexual assaults out then do occur

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Speaker 1: on college campuses, it can often be very difficult to

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Speaker 1: prove I mean that he said, she said the time right,

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Speaker 1: And so it just seems to me to require an

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Speaker 1: intense level of evidence when we all understand that these

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Speaker 1: interactions often are murky, often don't have that kind of

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Speaker 1: high level evidence. You should still be able to get

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Speaker 1: justice even in those situations. And you're saying justice on

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Speaker 1: an academic level, not in a courtroom, exactly about throwing

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Speaker 1: someone in jail. We're talking about kicking someone off of

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Speaker 1: the college campus, which, if you think about it, the

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Speaker 1: underlying sort of presupposition that is inherent to this decision

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Speaker 1: is whether or not we should believe victims who come

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Speaker 1: forward and claim that they were raped or sexually assaulted.

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Speaker 1: There's two lines of thought, in my opinion. There are

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Speaker 1: the people who believe like I do, quite frankly, for

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Speaker 1: you to come forward and report a rape or sexual assault,

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Speaker 1: which is not a pleasant thing to do with your

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Speaker 1: life or time. I'm inclined to hear you out and

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Speaker 1: believe you. And I'm not saying that it's open and

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Speaker 1: shut case every time someone says that they were raped,

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Speaker 1: But if you inherently are skeptical of rape, claimants of

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Speaker 1: people who say that they were raped or sexually assaulted. Basically,

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Speaker 1: what you're saying is that we should be defaulting on

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Speaker 1: the side of believing survivors. And I think knowing that

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Speaker 1: the number of people who falsely claimed to be raped

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Speaker 1: or sexually assaulted is so low. In my mind, this

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Speaker 1: is my personal opinion. I don't feel like we lose

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Speaker 1: anything by having our default be belief survivors. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: is tricky though, because right it's we're talking about innocent

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Speaker 1: until proven guilty. That's not part of law. But that's

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Speaker 1: the thing I'm not. I'm not a court of law.

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm a person, right, and so I believe that

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Speaker 1: everybody gets do process. I believe everybody gets their daymn court.

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Speaker 1: But I as a person, I am able to look

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Speaker 1: at a situation and say I believe you. I believe

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Speaker 1: what you're saying. I'm not necessarily held to do process

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Speaker 1: standards that make sense. Yeah, I think it's sort of

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Speaker 1: the Department of Education Shin under the Obama administration was saying,

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Speaker 1: this isn't a courtroom setting either. So when we have

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Speaker 1: epidemic proportions of women, especially who are being raped and

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Speaker 1: sexually assaulted on college campuses, who are under reporting we

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Speaker 1: know under reporting is a thing, and whose rapists are

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Speaker 1: walking amongst them in college. That is preventing those women

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Speaker 1: from getting their rights to an equal education. That's really

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Speaker 1: what is happening here. Exactly because of all of those circumstances,

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Speaker 1: we should lower the bar for proof and it shouldn't

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Speaker 1: be a legal courtroom standard for proving your sexual assault

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Speaker 1: or rape. That's exactly it. And all of that goes

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Speaker 1: back to Title nine. So Title nine is a US

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Speaker 1: Education amendment from nineteen seventy two which basically says that

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Speaker 1: the sexual harassment of students, including sexual violence, interferes with

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Speaker 1: students right to receive an education free from discrimination, and

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Speaker 1: in the case of sexual violence, is a crime. So basically,

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Speaker 1: this title is a title that allows for students and

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Speaker 1: universities to say, Hey, if I'm being sexually harassed on campus,

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Speaker 1: as a public university, you are required to make sure

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Speaker 1: that I get the same level of education as every

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Speaker 1: other student here. And if I'm being sexually harassed, if

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Speaker 1: there is a sexual assault epidemic on campus that isn't

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Speaker 1: being dealt with, then I am not able to get

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Speaker 1: that education that you promise that you would barely give

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Speaker 1: to me right or I'm not being offered a safe

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Speaker 1: environment for me to continue my studies. It's basically saying,

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Speaker 1: if you're siding with the rapist by saying you guys

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Speaker 1: should just work it out or just peacefully coexist, you

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Speaker 1: don't understand that you're not creating a safe environment for

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Speaker 1: me to learn exactly. Of course, we have a Trump

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Speaker 1: alert coming up, Trump Alert, Trump be alert at Trump Alert,

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Speaker 1: because that is the nature of new guidelines when they're

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Speaker 1: handed down from the Department of Education in two thousand

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Speaker 1: and eleven, is going to look a lot different than

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Speaker 1: new guidelines handed down by the Department of Education in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and seventeen. Exactly. Emily, there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: new updates in terms of what the Trump administration is

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Speaker 1: doing and their new head of the Department of Education,

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Speaker 1: Betsy Devas, is doing on the front curb sexual assault

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Speaker 1: on college campuses. We're gonna dig into what that looks

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Speaker 1: like after this quick break and we're back. So earlier

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Speaker 1: this month, Betsy Divas, who is the Trump administration's head

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Speaker 1: of the Department of Education, announced they were going to

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Speaker 1: be rolling back the Obama administration's guidelines around how colleges

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Speaker 1: should be handling sexual assaults on campus. More or less,

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Speaker 1: they decided that they were gonna be totally reversing these

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Speaker 1: guidelines and coming up with interim guidelines in the meantime

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Speaker 1: before they came up with the new permanent guidelines. Right, So,

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Speaker 1: whereas the Obama administration's Department of Education lowered the burden

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Speaker 1: of proof on the part of claimants who were reporting

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Speaker 1: rape or sexual assault, they raised the bar once again.

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Speaker 1: They said, we are just gonna undo what that former

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Speaker 1: administration has done. Basically, they're requiring a lot more evidence

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Speaker 1: in order for a rape or sexusault claimed to be

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Speaker 1: heard because they believe that a verdict can lead to

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Speaker 1: discipline and expulsion, and that is the problem that they

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Speaker 1: want to focus on. Instead of focusing on the epidemic

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Speaker 1: of sexual assault on college campuses, they're coming to the

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Speaker 1: defense of predominantly men on college campuses, who they believe

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Speaker 1: the bigger problem is in their in their eyes, behind

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Speaker 1: this move is the unfair disciplinary retaliation against alleged rapists.

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Speaker 1: So that's who they're standing up for in this move.

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Speaker 1: They're saying, you know what's a bigger problem than campus

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Speaker 1: sexual assault, men who are falsely claimed of rape, and

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Speaker 1: that is literally who they're standing up for with this move. Well,

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Speaker 1: I would say that it sounds like you're exaggerating, but

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Speaker 1: when you go and look at the people and the

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Speaker 1: group that Divas actually met with, that's actually who it is.

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Speaker 1: In addition to meeting with victims, advocates, and organizations that

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Speaker 1: are trying to curb sexual assault on campus, she also

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Speaker 1: met with groups who are advocating for quote the do

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Speaker 1: process rights of acute students. These are organizations like Families

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Speaker 1: Advocating for Campus Equality or FACE, a nonprofit founded by

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Speaker 1: mothers of sons who had been falsely accused of sexual

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Speaker 1: misconduct in college. I mean, here's the thing. I don't

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Speaker 1: want people to be falsely accused of rape. I don't

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Speaker 1: want people to be falsely kicked out of college because

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Speaker 1: of sexual assault. But I'm inclined to believe that's a

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Speaker 1: much smaller problem than actual sexual assault and actual rape

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Speaker 1: on campus. So, you know, good for the moms, by

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Speaker 1: the way, not the dad's question mark what the hell

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Speaker 1: is moms are responsible for their sons uh sexual misconduct

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Speaker 1: or lack thereof, because they're all definitely innocent who have

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Speaker 1: been falsely claimed as rapist, and I'm just like, I

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Speaker 1: get it. I agree that we are having a conversation

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Speaker 1: about what sexual consent looks like, especially on college campuses,

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Speaker 1: especially when there's alcohol involved, which does make things a

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Speaker 1: little murkier. However, I just think that we're doing actual

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Speaker 1: rape victims and sexual assault victims a serious disservice when

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Speaker 1: we put motions forward like this that focuses instead on

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Speaker 1: a much much, much smaller and more rare problem, which

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Speaker 1: is the false they accused. Well, and I think you're

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Speaker 1: exactly right. And what troubles me so much about this

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Speaker 1: conversation that's coming out of the Department of Education is

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Speaker 1: that it seems as if the people who are in

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Speaker 1: charge of setting the tone for how sexual assaults are

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Speaker 1: investigated on college campuses stationwide believe some jan kie bs.

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Speaker 1: If you look at this quote from Candice Jackson, who

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Speaker 1: leads the Education Department's Office for the Civil Rights and

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Speaker 1: it's basically in charge of investigating these claims, she's quoted

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Speaker 1: as saying in The New York Times that sexual assault

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Speaker 1: accusations on college campuses of them fall into the category

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Speaker 1: of we were both drunk we broke up, and six

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Speaker 1: months later I found myself under a Title nine investigation

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Speaker 1: because she decided that our last sleeping together was not

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Speaker 1: quite right. Now, I should go on and say that

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Speaker 1: Jackson later apologize and called these remarks flippant. But it's

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Speaker 1: this is the if. This is the message that is

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Speaker 1: coming out of the organization that is in charge of

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Speaker 1: setting the tone for how we deal with sexual as

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Speaker 1: thought on college campuses. What is that? What kind of

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Speaker 1: message is that telling you? I mean, it's telling you

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Speaker 1: to She literally doesn't believe victims. She, like so many people,

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Speaker 1: have a false perception that there are tons of women

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Speaker 1: out there claiming rape just because they regret a relationship.

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Speaker 1: When if you look at what the experiences like of

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Speaker 1: any woman who does push charges against a rapist, that

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Speaker 1: is not an uphill climb that you would venture into

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Speaker 1: lightly or without real cause, and that most people would

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Speaker 1: avoid the reporting altogether because it's like experiencing the rape

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Speaker 1: all over again. Well, when you look at the numbers,

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Speaker 1: most people do. That's why we're talking about these crimes

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Speaker 1: being so vastly underreported, because we see how people who

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Speaker 1: are the victims of sexual thoughts are so often dragged

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Speaker 1: with the mud. They're so often disprespected, they're so often

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Speaker 1: you know, their past or dug up in this way.

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Speaker 1: Is if that makes a difference in terms of what

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Speaker 1: actually happened. They're revictimized through the trial. Kind of like

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Speaker 1: when we were talking about Ellen Powe's trial, how much

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Speaker 1: her life was in many ways ruined, even more so

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Speaker 1: than the sexual assault that she was facing at work,

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Speaker 1: because the trial itself was so taxing. You know who

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Speaker 1: became kind of a poster her child for this too

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Speaker 1: was Taylor Swift. Recently, we would be remiss not to

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Speaker 1: mention the fact that she press charges. She reported she

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Speaker 1: didn't let this guy off the hook for grabbing her

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Speaker 1: bare ass at a fan meet and greet because she

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Speaker 1: wanted to stand up for all the other women, millions

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Speaker 1: of other women who don't have necessarily the time, the energy,

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Speaker 1: the money, the resources to put themselves through that again,

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Speaker 1: and watching her go through that, watching the mixed headlines

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Speaker 1: that came out of her trial, even though she was

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Speaker 1: so courageous and brave and fears in not allowing the

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Speaker 1: defendant's attorney to make her feel less van or question

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Speaker 1: her sanity or memory or character. It was inspiring, inspiring,

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Speaker 1: and to add on to that, look at someone like

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Speaker 1: Kesha who called out her sexual abuser. I mean, if

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Speaker 1: you ever want to see why people don't report sexual

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Speaker 1: assaults or sex crimes or sexual harassment, look at Kesha

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Speaker 1: and look at where she is with her career. She's

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Speaker 1: been fighting to get her career back right because she

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Speaker 1: spoke up about what happened to her side note Rainbow Amazing.

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Speaker 1: I am obsessed with her new album. I've never been

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Speaker 1: a listener before, but I am obsessed. She just did

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Speaker 1: a collaboration with Mackamore. I don't know if do we

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Speaker 1: like Magamore? I have no strong feelings. Do you like

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Speaker 1: his haircut? Now? One off the Nazis picked up on

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Speaker 1: his haircut he ditched it, which I thought it was good.

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Speaker 1: But yes, now I am a big Macamore fan too,

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Speaker 1: and I just love this collaboration anyway. Yeah, I'm a

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Speaker 1: big fan of Kesha. So in case your blood isn't

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Speaker 1: boiling enough already. The other group that Divos met with

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Speaker 1: before rolling back these guidelines is the National Coalition for Men.

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Speaker 1: I like men. I want men to have rights as well.

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Speaker 1: But if you look at what the National Coalition for

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Speaker 1: Men is it's actually, according to think Progress, a group

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Speaker 1: with a quote long history of what is now known

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Speaker 1: as men's rights activism. Some of that activism has included

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Speaker 1: things like publishing the photos and names of women who

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Speaker 1: have reported sexual assault and labeling them as false accusers

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Speaker 1: to watch out for. And when you think about this

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Speaker 1: idea of publishing accusers pictures online, I mean, would you

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Speaker 1: want to report if you knew that your picture might

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Speaker 1: wind up on a website? Would you feel like that

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Speaker 1: it was a safe climate to say, hey, this happened

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Speaker 1: to me. I think it was a crime. Would you

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Speaker 1: feel safe in doing that if you thought your picture

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Speaker 1: was going to wind up on this creepy website. The president,

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Speaker 1: Harry Crouch, has vocally blamed survivors for the abuse that

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Speaker 1: they faced. In a two four interview with The Pacific Standard,

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Speaker 1: Crouch defended Ray Rice, a former football player you may

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Speaker 1: have heard of who was indicted on third degree aggravated

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Speaker 1: assault for an incident involving his then fiancee, isn't either

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Speaker 1: one who dragged her out of the elevator. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: there was a bit out of him punching her and

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Speaker 1: dragging her lifeless body out of an elevator. Right, So

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Speaker 1: that's the kind of guy that this guy likes to

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Speaker 1: come to the defense of. He said, and I quote,

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Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's a good guy, but if she

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Speaker 1: hadn't aggravated him, she wouldn't have been hit. They would

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Speaker 1: say it's blaming the victim, but I don't buy it.

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Speaker 1: And these are the organizations that Bessie Divas was getting

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Speaker 1: counsel from while coming up with the interim guidelines or

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Speaker 1: how to deal with sexual assault on college campuses. That

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Speaker 1: doesn't enrage you. One of the things that makes me

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Speaker 1: so angry about this is that it really sets up

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Speaker 1: this false dichotomy, Like on the one side, it's victims

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Speaker 1: and victims advocates. On the other side, it's I don't

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Speaker 1: know how to put the victim suspects, like people who

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Speaker 1: inherently suspect victims. Yeah, it's it sets up this weird

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Speaker 1: dichotomy that I'm really really uncomfortable with. We're victims and

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Speaker 1: victims advocates are on one side, and people who are

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Speaker 1: skeptical of victims or on the other. And it's trying

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Speaker 1: to sort of make it seem like we can all

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Speaker 1: work together to come to some sort of agreement on

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Speaker 1: how we're gonna deal with this problem. It's not balanced

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Speaker 1: at all, but we're treating it as if it's balanced.

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Speaker 1: We're treating it as if the motivations of each group's

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Speaker 1: come from the same place and just a hammer home

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Speaker 1: how not normal Divorces interim guidance is on this measure.

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Speaker 1: Her departments take on this, It's no surprise eyes are

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Speaker 1: completely different than the Obama administrations take. But what might

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Speaker 1: surprise you is that the Bush administration also completely would

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Speaker 1: not have signed off on what Divas is putting forth.

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Speaker 1: Her interim guidance actually allows schools to resolve sexual violence

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Speaker 1: complaints through mediation. Let's just have you sit in a

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Speaker 1: room with your rapist and we can talk this out

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Speaker 1: with a student peer counselor Okay, that's literally what they

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Speaker 1: are putting for. I am enraged right now, and I'm

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Speaker 1: freaking out because the idea of putting women through that

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Speaker 1: is beyond retriggering. And the Bush administration had outlawed that exactly,

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Speaker 1: So what the hell is happening now? So? Yeah, the

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Speaker 1: Bush administration specifically said that even though mediation can be

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Speaker 1: helpful in some cases, they say that expressly should not

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Speaker 1: be used to resolve cases of sexual assault on campus,

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Speaker 1: and so I think it's really telling the Divas says, Wait, actually,

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Speaker 1: mediation is a great way to resolve campus sexual assaults.

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Speaker 1: And we're gonna talk a bit more about why that

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Speaker 1: completely falls apart after a quick break and we're back,

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Speaker 1: and we were just talking about some of the new

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Speaker 1: guidelines around campisexual assault and why they might not be

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Speaker 1: so useful after all. So one of the things that

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Speaker 1: Betsy Devas is putting forth as a way to resolve

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Speaker 1: sexual assaults on campus is mediation. Now, mediation can be

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Speaker 1: a great way of solving college disputes between students. Maybe

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Speaker 1: if you have a fight with your roommate, or you

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Speaker 1: guys don't get along, maybe you have a problem with

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Speaker 1: an instructor, mediation might actually be helpful. But why is

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Speaker 1: mediation not a good way to resolve CAMPI sexual assaults. Well,

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Speaker 1: there's an underlying assumption behind mediation, which is this presupposition

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Speaker 1: that both parties are somewhat at fault, so we can

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Speaker 1: talk through what you did wrong, what I did wrong,

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Speaker 1: how we can get better together, and when we frame

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Speaker 1: sexual assault or rape as something in which two parties

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Speaker 1: are responsible for, which a lot of people would happily say,

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Speaker 1: you know, as as this head of the men's rights

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Speaker 1: organization says, you know, maybe she shouldn't have aggravated him,

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Speaker 1: Maybe she had it coming, Maybe she had that punch coming.

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Speaker 1: That is the kind of narrative that we reinforce by

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Speaker 1: postulating that mediation is an appropriate response to rape and

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Speaker 1: sexual assault. And honestly, I can't even get through this

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Speaker 1: without becoming enraged because it plays into this narrative beyond

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Speaker 1: victim blaming, it plays into a narrative that you are

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Speaker 1: somehow responsible for solving the problem that has victimized you.

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Speaker 1: I just I can I lose my mind thinking about this.

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Speaker 1: Well exactly, it's just like what Grace Watkins writes over

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Speaker 1: at motto. She writes, there is no shared blade and

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Speaker 1: sexual assault. Survibers of sexual violence should not be asked

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Speaker 1: to compromise, self reflect or reconcile relationships with someone the

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Speaker 1: assaulted them. Even worse, mediation perpetuates the myth that sexual

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Speaker 1: assault is simply a misunderstanding between two people rather than

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Speaker 1: what it really is, a violent abuse of power. Mediation

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Speaker 1: betishizes compromise, which for survivors often means premature forgiveness and

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Speaker 1: serious harm. It relies on the societal expectation that quote

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Speaker 1: good girls forgive the same gender stereotypes that Title nine

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Speaker 1: was intended to eliminate, and that really I think that

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Speaker 1: really hammers at home for me. Mediation really does assume, oh,

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Speaker 1: we both, we both had a hand in this, let's

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Speaker 1: talk it out, let's work it out. And I don't

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Speaker 1: think survivors should be asked to do that, especially not

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Speaker 1: with the person that victimized them. And we're not alone

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00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:34,399
Speaker 1: in that, because right after this set of guidelines was

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Speaker 1: handed down by Divas, the hashtag stop Betsy, referring to

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Speaker 1: Betsy Divas immediately began trending on Twitter as students began

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00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:48,560
Speaker 1: protesting on campuses like GW University. Harvard recently made headlines

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00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:52,760
Speaker 1: with a really compelling and powerful silent protest that involved

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00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:55,520
Speaker 1: students who attended a speech she was giving on campus

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00:23:56,080 --> 00:23:59,960
Speaker 1: standing up silently, unfurling signs that say things like protect

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00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:03,840
Speaker 1: survivors rights and our Harvard can do better. So I

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00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:05,479
Speaker 1: really got to give it to these students who are

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00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:08,040
Speaker 1: leading the way and saying that they're not cool with

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00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:11,000
Speaker 1: this new guidance coming out of the Trump administration. Furthermore,

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Speaker 1: I do think there might be a little bit of

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00:24:12,680 --> 00:24:14,920
Speaker 1: good news on this issue because a lot of lawmakers

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00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:17,840
Speaker 1: are really taking this up as one of their big

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Speaker 1: issues to deal with. Um Missouri Senator Claire mccaskell wrote

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00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:24,280
Speaker 1: Trump a letter in which she criticizes administrations handling of

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00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:27,080
Speaker 1: sexual assault on campus so far and asked that they

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00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:30,080
Speaker 1: could talk to work together on a new policy. Furthermore,

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Speaker 1: folks like Senator Cureson gilibrand have really made this an

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00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:35,000
Speaker 1: issue that they have been campaigning on and talking on

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00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:37,320
Speaker 1: and making a lot of noise about for their constituents.

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Speaker 1: So it's not all bad, and I really am a

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Speaker 1: little bit optimistic that more lawmakers will sort of take

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Speaker 1: the charge here and really come up with a solution

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00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:46,960
Speaker 1: that works for more folks, right, and especially one that

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00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 1: works for victims, because college campuses still to this day

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00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 1: are operating like the wild wild West when it comes

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00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:56,159
Speaker 1: to sexual assault and rape on campus, and for anyone

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00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:59,920
Speaker 1: who is a student on college campuses, or a pair

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Speaker 1: of someone who is a student on college campuses, or

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00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:06,960
Speaker 1: simply doesn't want to perpetuate this idea that boys will

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Speaker 1: be boys and college rape doesn't indicate something tremendously problematic

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Speaker 1: about what this young person might do to continue being

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Speaker 1: even more violent in their life after college. We are

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00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:24,959
Speaker 1: missing opportunities to take real, responsible, punitive action on college

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00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:27,960
Speaker 1: campuses right now that could actually prevent further harm from

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00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 1: never taking place, because when we brush off things like

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Speaker 1: domestic violence and assault and rape and say, oh, they're

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00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,960
Speaker 1: not that big a deal, and then we like create

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Speaker 1: these loopholes like what exists on college campuses right now,

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00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 1: we're creating more public danger, pure and simple, because that

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00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:47,840
Speaker 1: is that is the kind of behavior that is not

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00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:50,119
Speaker 1: going to stop if someone gets away with it on

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00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:52,919
Speaker 1: college campuses and implicitly gets a you know, you can

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00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:55,880
Speaker 1: get away with this and nothing will happen to you message.

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00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 1: And I think it really comes back to what you

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00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:00,400
Speaker 1: said earlier about college does not want to look wanting

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00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:03,199
Speaker 1: to look like this quote unquote sexual assault school. So

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00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 1: we all were a little bit more transparent and dealt

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00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:08,399
Speaker 1: with this issue in a more serious way with the

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00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:10,800
Speaker 1: gravity that it deserves. That's the only way that will

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00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:14,880
Speaker 1: ever get anywhere on this issue. So sminthy listeners, we

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00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,520
Speaker 1: want to hear from you on this is your blood

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00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:20,520
Speaker 1: boiling as much as mine is right now? How are

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00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:23,119
Speaker 1: you taking action to make your voice heard to make

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Speaker 1: sure the Department of Education and Betsy Davos, here's you,

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00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:31,159
Speaker 1: loud and clear. Are you using that hashtag stop Betsy not?

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00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: Maybe you should and we will join you in on

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00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,360
Speaker 1: that conversation on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast, on Instagram

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00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:41,119
Speaker 1: at stuff mom Never told You, And as always, let's

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00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:46,160
Speaker 1: continue this very nuanced conversation via our email at mom

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Speaker 1: Stuff at how stuff works dot com