Once again, the government is making things worse by trying to help. Ashe Schow of the Washington Examiner takes a close look at the Campus Safety and Accountability Act.

6 questions for the sponsors of the new campus sexual assault bill

Eight senators introduced bipartisan legislation Wednesday designed to combat sexual assaults on college campuses.

But, as with most fancy-named bills, the “Campus Safety and Accountability Act” may not do anything to actually combat sexual assaults and will most likely lead to more lawsuits over claims of due process violations and more men being convicted for politically correct purposes.

The bill’s one-page summary refers to accusers as “survivors” throughout, without any mention of accuracy of their claim or its outcome. It states that the bill will help colleges “rid their campuses of sexual predators.” To me, that doesn’t sound like the bill is going to be concerned with the truth of the allegations or any kind of due process for the accused.

Right off the bat, the bill appears to be aimed more at assuaging public outrage over a perceived epidemic than actually assisting campuses in dealing with a very real and serious problem.

To that end, I have some questions for the bill’s sponsors, which I will send to their offices. I will post their responses as I get them.

1. What protections will be in place to make sure the annually reported statistics won’t lead to more convictions based on political correctness?

The bill requires universities to prepare an annual report with sexual assault statistics, including:

• “The number of cases that were investigated by the institution”

• “The number of cases that were referred for a disciplinary proceeding at the institution”

• “The number of cases that were referred to local or state law enforcement”

• “The number of alleged perpetrators that were found responsible by the disciplinary proceeding at the institution”

• “The number of alleged perpetrators that were found not responsible by the disciplinary proceeding at the institution”

• “A description of the final sanctions imposed by the institution for each offense perpetrated” and

• “The number of disciplinary proceedings at the institution that have closed without resolution.”

By reporting such numbers, universities will have more incentive to convict to boost those particular data points instead of determining whether a criminal act transpired.


 
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