DeVos’s Controversial Comments on Campus Sexual Assault
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos made headlines after some controversial comments on a March 11 appearance on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” During a discussion about her department’s changes on how colleges should report sexual assaults, she appeared to suggest that the number of false accusations was equal to the number of actual, real assaults. When host Leslie Stahl asked her to confirm this, DeVos responded, “I don’t know.”
A department spokesperson later walked back on these statements, saying that Secretary DeVos does agree that false statements make up only a fraction of sexual assault complaints.
This interview comes after DeVos has been widely criticized for rescinding an Obama-era Title IX guideline known as the “Dear Colleague” letter. The letter, created in 2011, clarifies the responsibilities of school and universities after allegations of sexual assault. It also serves as a tool for the victim and the accused during the reporting process. In response, a group of advocacy groups filed suit against the Education Department in January.
The Secretary of Education came under even more criticism by victims’ rights groups last summer when, in group discussions about campus assault, she met with people self-described as wrongly accused of sex crimes. She also met with a group of members of the National Coalition of Men, an organization that one assault survivor describes as a “hate group.”
We’ve pulled together a few statistics about rape and campus assault:
- There were more than 430,000 cases of sexual assault reported in 2015, along with one million cases of domestic violence.
- Those under age 30 are at the greatest risk for sexual assault.
- Women in college face three times the risk of assault than other women.
- Twenty-three percent of women in college reported being sexually assaulted.
- Only 20% of students ages 18 to 24 report their assaults to police.
Though DeVos said she was unsure of the facts, it’s not common for student survivors to falsely report rape. These statistics do show, however, that many students don’t feel safe or comfortable reporting sexual assaults. With the rescinding of the “Dear Colleague” letter, students no longer have the protection of changing housing facilities or class schedules.
You should feel safe both on campus and off campus. If you were the victim of a sexual assault, let our attorneys help bring the perpetrator to justice. Taylor & Ring provides compassionate and experienced representation in the Los Angeles area. Call us today at 310.776.6390 or complete our contact form to schedule a consultation.
David Ring is a nationally renowned plaintiff’s personal injury trial attorney and has obtained multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements on behalf of seriously-injured individuals or families who have lost a loved one in a tragic accident. For more than 20 years, he has represented victims of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, assault, molestation and sexual misconduct in cases against a variety of employers and entities, including schools, churches and youth organizations.
He prides himself on providing aggressive, yet compassionate representation for children who have been sexually abused and women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted. Read more about David M. Ring.