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Incoming Trump administration heightens anxiety about reversal in Title IX progress
http://www.espn.com/espnw/culture/feature/article/18493421/incoming-trump-administration-heightens-anxiety-reversal-title-ix-progress?addata=espn:frontpageIn 2011, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights had issued a Dear Colleague letter that established sexual violence on college campuses as a matter of Title IX law. A truly equal and accessible learning environment is free of sexual harassment, the OCR directed, and schools were obliged to comply. The OCR expanded its guidance in 2014 to include gender identity as a protected status.
According to The New York Times, DeVos is a billionaire and a Republican donor who, along with her husband, has an investment firm that has holdings in companies that refinance student loans. Her experience in education, according to the Times, has been as a donor and board member of organizations that advocate for vouchers that help families attend private and religious schools.
While she hasn't spoken publicly about campus sexual assault, she gave $10,000 to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which has sued President Barack Obama's administration to increase the standard of proof on victims of sexual assault in university hearings, according to Politico. And DeVos' family has funded organizations that have supported anti-LGBTQ causes, according to Politico. A spokesman for DeVos didn't respond to a request for comment.
Still, to advocates of victims of sexual assault, justice isn't always afforded in court, either. Consider the three months of jail served by convicted rapist and former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, or the comment from a New York City police captain, who said a spike in rape cases was "not a trend that we're too worried about" because the alleged victims were raped by people they knew, rather than by strangers. And according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, out of every 1,000 rapes, 57 lead to arrest and seven lead to a felony conviction.
