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t.pdf”>chart is a useful tool to clarify the reporting requirements of Title IX and the Clery Act in cases of sexual assault.
Tag: White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault
Not Alone-First Report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault
This report created by the Task Force to Protect Student From Sexual Assault brings together some action steps and recommendations towards addressing sexual assault on college and university campuses.
Read through the first ever report established through the White House on Campus Sexual Assault.
Title IX Coordinator’s Role in Sexual Misconduct Policy Sample Language
Recently on the anniversary of President Obama’s inception of the White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexua威而鋼
l Assault, the Not Alone released new documents to inform policy changes and institutional changes.
The document listed below serves as a guide that highlights issues for schools to consider when assigning the Title IX coordinator functions and responsibilities related to their response to incidents of sexual misconduct.
View resource below.
Sample Language for Interim and Supportive Measure to Protect Students Following an Allegation of Sexual Misconduct
This document presented by the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Misconduct provides assistance on how “interim measures” required by Title IX can be incorporated into a college’s sexual misconduct policy and offers sample policy language.
This is not meant to replace actual policy making by campus administration, but it helps to inform how policies should be stated and enforced by campus officials.
Click on the view resource button to read the document.
One Year Anniversary of White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault
On the week of the anniversary of when President Obama established the White House Task Force to Protect Students, Tina Tchen, Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls and Eve Hill alongside Mark Kappelhoff, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Right Division reaffirmed the importance of collaborative work as part of effective strategies for improving the federal government’s efforts to prevent and effectively respond to sexual assault in the United States.
In their comments regarding the one year anniversary of the White House Task Force to Protect Students, they presented documents on sample MOUs, sample language for detailing the role of Title IX coordinators, and sample language for interim policies.
To read their comments, click on their names below:
Tina Tchen, Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls
Eve Hill and Mark Kappelhoff, Deputy Assitant Attorneys General for the Civil Rights Division
Media Backlash
This week there were a number of articles and stories in the mainstream news questioning statistics about rape, pointing out the disproportionate impact on women usually generated by NISVS and the White House report. Two of these articles are listed below:
‘One in Five? The White House’s Questionable Sexual Assault Data’ by Samantha Harris through Forbes.
Ashley Maier, in response to this media backlash in an email to the PreventConnect listserv, wrote:
I’m thinking about this in a number of ways:
- Support – I’m reminded of what we’re up against and thankful for the support and community we provide each other in what can be the lonely world of sexual violence prevention.
- Moving forward – I wonder how we can best move forward in this context, in this culture that questions whether sexual violence is really even a problem.
- Looking back – I look back at the advocates who have worked to highlight violence against women, to provide remedies, and to prevent it, for years and years and years. I try to remember that we have made progress and trust that we will make more.
Prevention is possible.
Defining Sexual Assault
White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault launched a website, Not Alone, which defines sexual assault as:
Physical sexual acts perpetrated against a person’s will or when a person is incapable of giving consent (for example, due to the student’s age or use of drugs or alcohol, or because an intellectual or other disability prevents the student from having the capacity to give consent). A number of different acts fall into the category of sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, sexual abuse, and sexual coercion. Sexual violence can be carried out by school employees, fellow students, students from other schools, or third parties. Sexual violence is a form of sexual harassment.
To read a list of other key terms the Task Force, click on view resource below.
Using a Comprehensive Approach to Preventing Sexual Violence
In January, President Obama established the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. The members of this task force (which include the Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Secretary of Education) have many tasks, including “providing institutions with evidence-based best and promising practices for preventing and responding to rape and sexual assault. “
In the last month, many organizations have provided the Task Force feedback through listening sessions held in February and written input. From my perspective as a prevention practitioner, we need to ensure prevention, including primary prevention, is part of a comprehensive approach to addressing sexual violence on college campuses and in our communities. A comprehensive approach to prevent sexual violence incorporates diverse strategies that are culturally relevant, sustainable, responsive to community needs, and consider risk and protective factors on the individual, relationship, community and societal levels. We want prevention efforts that are informed by the best available evidence as well as fit the specific needs of the community.
When reviewing several organizations input to the community, I was alarmed when I saw the recommendations to the Task Force from RAINN that defined primary prevention in this manner: “…the most effective — the primary — way to prevent sexual violence is to use the criminal justice system to take more rapists off the streets.” While a criminal justice response is part of the solution, we cannot end rape by primarily enforcing criminal laws. I cannot think of any social problem that has been solved primarily by criminal enforcement.
In order to prevent sexual violence we need to identify community-wide solutions, not only actions that are addressing sexual assault on an individual case-by-case basis. Thus, changing culture and norms that shape behaviors are key elements to prevention. I do not see the value of labeling efforts to end rape culture as an “unfortunate trend” as RAINN does in their recommendations. Finding ways to effectively transform rape culture is a necessary piece of the change we seek.
I recommend comprehensive community-based solutions. In February, I had the opportunity to speak about prevention at the UVA Dialogue on Sexual Misconduct Among College Students. I described how effort to prevent sexual violence should include all of these elements:
- Services: Provide victim-centered supportive services to survivors of sexual violence and those impacted by violence by sexual violence, and dedicate sufficient resources to support individual and community healing.
- Systems: Build effective responses, services and systems response to sexual violence incidents to provide consistent community and social sanctions for perpetrators of violence.
- Awareness: Conduct efforts to engage the community in dialogue around sexual violence as a serious community issue, raising the profile of the problem of sexual violence, and making it relevant to individual and community lived experience. This includes efforts toward public safety that focus on helping individuals and communities managing the existing conditions that facilitate sexual violence. Such safety efforts can include publicizing available resources, individual empowerment strategies, and community safety plans.
- Primary Prevention: Implement strategies that seek to develop healthy, robust, and just communities crucial to interrupt the culture in which sexual violence thrives. These strategies promote the norms and behaviors that support a community without sexual violence.
We cannot lose sight of primary prevention efforts. I agree with RAINN that we should not mandate the use of specific curricula toward preventing sexual violence as each college and community needs to find the strategies that best meet their specific needs and build upon the assets of that community. However, I do not agree with RAINN that “research has shown that prevention efforts that focus solely on men and “redefining masculinity,” …are unlikely to be effective.” Sexual Violence Research Initiative’s 2011 Report Engaging Boys and Men in the Prevention of Sexual Violence and other research indicate many strategies that have promise in reducing sexual violence perpetration.
I wish sexual violence could be prevented with a video, brochure, or pre-packaged program. However, we need to dedicate a range of activities, that includes activities that RAINN calls for, and comprehensive prevention efforts to create colleges and communities without rape.
Article written by David S. Lee, MPH, Director of Prevention Services at the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA). Photo from Her Campus.