Trump Administration Restores Due Process to Campuses in Incidences of Sexual Misconduct

by TONY RENTERIA

In an era where it seems allegations of sexual assault are immediately exploited for political gain and tried by the court of public opinion before ever hitting a courtroom, it is comforting to know that steps have been taken by the Trump administration to protect students on campuses throughout the country. The inability of previous administrations to accomplish what President Trump and his team have done with Title IX has led to many lives being forever ruined by the compounding effects of very bad policy that has ignored basic rule of law.

The lack of due process has historically been a serious problem in school campuses at every level from elementary school through college for many years. President Trump and Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, have succeeded in restoring due process on school campuses. This is something past presidential administrations have failed miserably to accomplish. The administration has taken long overdue action to protect students who have either been victims of or wrongly accused of sexual misconduct. In the process, President Trump and Education Secretary DeVos have restored fairness and due process to higher education campuses throughout the country.

American due process rights originated in English law and evolved into what is spelled out in the United States Constitution in the 5th and 14th Amendments. Due process means that a citizen who will be affected by a government decision must be notified of the government’s intentions and be given the opportunity to present a defense on their behalf.

Due process protects the freedoms and rights of both the victim and the accused. It is the legal requirement compelling each state to respect all the legal rights owed to a person. Due process balances the power of the state and protects the individual person from the power of the state. When a government harms a person without going through due process first, this constitutes a due process violation. In the event that a person is accused of a crime, the presumption is of innocence and through due process, the victim represented by the prosecutor presents their case against the accused, and the accused, through their defense counsel has the opportunity to refute the accusations against them. The verdict of guilt or innocence must be based on evidence rather than mob mentality, political bias, or any other methodology that is slanted against one party or the other.

According to DeVos, the goal of the administration was to ensure that all students have a safe learning environment without being sexually harassed or assaulted in school or while attending school sponsored activities. DeVos emphasized that Title IX is a just cause and it is also the law.

“I take the responsibility of enforcing Title IX seriously. Our office for Civil Rights takes that responsibility seriously. There is no place for sexual misconduct, anywhere. Such acts are disgusting and unacceptable.” said DeVos. “Especially when they are perpetrated in schools. In elementary and middle schools, high schools and colleges, vocational and graduate programs, no student’s learning journey should include surviving sexual misconduct.”

Title IX empowers survivors of sexual misconduct through immediate access to supportive services and measures. In a nutshell, through Title IX, many options are afforded the victims that gives them a safer environment for their studies.
“No student should be made to feel alone or abandoned by their school,” DeVos stated. “No incident should ever be swept under the rug and no student or teacher accused should be punished before evidence proves responsibility.”

“Students who are subjected to sexual misconduct deserve deliberate and decisive action that carries the force of law. I promised that the department would take historic steps to craft a rule to do just that,” DeVos continued. “Today, we released that rule. It takes bold steps to protect all students and their rights; especially, their right to learn.”

Title IX was a lengthy time-consuming process. DeVos and other members of the Trump administration worked tirelessly to gather as much information as needed to properly address the very serious issue involving students who were either the victims of sexual misconduct or falsely accused. This task required communicating with thousands of people over long period of time to develop the best solution to represent all parties.

Under Title IX colleges are held responsible for failing to promptly, and equitably, respond to incidents of sexual misconduct. Survivors are empowered to make decisions about how a school responds to incidents of sexual harassment. Title IX is the result of many years of wide-ranging research that included careful deliberation, and input from stakeholders (including survivors) and over 124,000 public comments.

“Our work began well before we drafted the proposed rule, by meeting with survivors, wrongly accused, administrators, and those who walk side by side with students every day. They were tough conversations, but ones we needed to have. Soon after we made a draft for public comment available, we were pleased to see an unprecedented level of engagement,” said DeVos. “Indeed, that’s what we wanted. We even extended the public comment period to hear from everyone that wanted to contribute.”

“This is how government should work, informed by the people, representative of the people, and for the benefit of the people,” Devos continued. “Today we announced a final rule that recognizes we can continue to combat sexual misconduct without abandoning our core values of fairness, presumption of innocence and of due process.”

Title IX rules prevent schools from inflicting longstanding harm against students before providing basic, fair procedures. Title IX provides an avenue for students accused of any wrongdoing to have an opportunity to respond to the allegations brought against them. The Trump administration through their research learned of troubling circumstances where individuals had faced disciplinary action and were expelled from school without even being notified of the allegations brought against them in the first place.

Over 100 cases of campus-imposed sanctions have been thrown out by the court system which is bad for both the accused and the sexual assault survivors. The end result in this flaw is that individuals who were potentially unfairly accused of sexual assault have lost their access to education. Sadly, another result is individuals who had been sexually assaulted were forced to face their perpetrators again on campus. Both circumstances are the result of a flawed administrative judicial process.

A bad process leads to bad results which is the reason the Trump administration took deliberate action through the formal rulemaking process. This is also why the Trump administration through Title IX is calling on campus leaders to take responsibility for the leadership expected of them. The goal of Title IX is to assure any campus adjudication process be a truth-seeking process that does not unfairly benefit the accused or the accuser.

The final regulation will also provide due process protections to students facing accusations of sexual misconduct. The administration points to bureaucracy as having created a culture of stacking the deck against the accused in the institutions of higher education in the United States. There is a great deal of empirical evidence that supports this assertion. Traditionally, the accused has all odds against them coupled with a general failure of these higher education institutions to offer any protections such as a presumption of innocence or adequate ability to rebut allegations.

Under the terms of Title IX regulation, a transparent grievance process is provided with the assumption of innocence until proven guilty. This requires the school to state a standard of evidence, and the school is required to provide a written decision listing their rationale. Title IX protections will legitimize the process and support survivors, including by ensuring that final findings of responsibility are credible. A credit to the Trump administration is their efforts reflect the hard work they put forth to protect America’s students and survivors of sexual misconduct. The question remains, why have previous Presidential administrations failed to accomplish this?

Under President Trump, the Department of Education has worked aggressively to hold schools accountable for sexual harassment in their education programs and activities. Already, the Trump Administration has required sweeping reforms at educational institutions, including Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Southern California, and Chicago Public Schools.

The Department of Education has led the implementation of Every Student Succeeds Act rules prohibiting employees, who sexually abused elementary and secondary school students, from being shifted from one school to another school by district administrators.

Over the last three years, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has closed a total of 172 sexual violence cases with the change, a 375 percent increase over the prior 8 years. The passage of Title IX by the Trump Administration is historic in many ways; because, it shows the adherence to the Constitutional rights which are currently being challenged in a hostile political climate.

As with every accomplishment of President Trump or his administration, especially when it defends the freedoms of the American people, the liberal propagandists (fake news) have jumped on a bandwagon attack even the idea of due process. The sad part of their reaction is that what makes America a great nation is the freedoms we have and the ability to protect those freedoms should be celebrated and not admonished. In spite of their reactions, President Trump, Secretary of Education DeVos and the members of the Trump Administration who worked tirelessly to accomplish Title IX should be applauded. They are due a great deal of thanks for their efforts. Title IX proves that President Trump and his team are willing to work through all the Congressional silliness and media hacks to consistently protect the freedoms of the American people, and in particular, the student population in our country.

President Trump and his team have brought hope for a brighter future by protecting the students who will be leading our country in years to come. With all due respect to those who oppose him, it is a great thing for our country, which is what the President Trump slogans #MAGA and #KAG are all about. An American President is actually keeping his promises – what a novel thing that is.

//pf