Sexual Assault Vigilantes
Comment from Brett Sokolow: “One of the things I told the
reporter that did not make it into the article is that some colleges, in the
name of upholding Title IX, are placing gag orders on students that prohibit
them from talking about an investigation, hearing process, or their own
stories. That’s simply a misreading of Title IX by the college. Title IX
mandates that colleges conduct confidential investigations, but that mandate
imposes the confidentiality on the college, not the participants. It’s smart for
administrators to caution students as to what can happen in terms of their own
privacy if they do speak out, but improper to tell them not to do so.”
From the article: Brett Sokolow, president of the NCHERM
Group, a law firm that handles campus sexual assault cases for students and
colleges, said colleges have become too prone to pressuring students to enter
into confidentiality agreements between the two sides, even though doing so is
a violation of Title IX. But, he said, if the rape accusation listed on the
bathroom walls includes students found not guilty by Columbia, the writer is
“vulnerable” to defamation.
“This is one of those tough cases where there’s a difference
between what a victim knows happens to them and what a college can prove,” he
said. “There’s dissatisfaction where there may have been an assault, but
evidence isn’t there so the victim feels like the college hasn’t sided with
them.”
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