Safe space update: "Common sense" and "reasonable" are Title IX violations

If you’re an administrator on one of our nation’s college campuses and are responsible for setting policy, be on the lookout for flagrant Title IX violations which could endanger your federal funding. One particular area of concern are the kangaroo courts which you are no doubt arranging for incidents of alleged sexual assault, particularly when the student body doesn’t want the pesky police sticking their noses into the matter. The administration at Frostburg State University in Maryland learned that lesson the hard way recently when students challenged the school’s standing guidelines for investigations into such matters. In response, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) slapped down the school and let them know where they had come up short. Ashe Schow reports at the Washington Examiner. (Emphasis added)

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The school found several things wrong with Frostburg’s investigation process, but one of the most notable findings was that using “common sense” and “reason” are considered violations of Title IX, the anti sex-discrimination statute that is used to force schools to adjudicate felony sexual assault.

In its findings letter to Frostburg, OCR quoted the school’s “Sexual Harassment Policy” as “inappropriately” stating: “…in assessing whether a particular act constitutes sexual harassment forbidden under this policy, the rules of common sense and reason shall prevail. The standard shall be the perspective of a reasonable person within the campus community.”

This standard, OCR wrote, “falls short of the preponderance of the evidence standard required to satisfy Title IX.”

This is really perfect in a way, and it sums up the problems we have with Special Snowflakes taking over the nation’s campuses. We’re so eager to prove that a “rape culture” exists in our schools that anything which endangers the narrative must be banned. The federal government is supporting this effort 100% and is using the power of federal funding (and the threat to remove same) to enforce the idea. So calling in the cops to, you know… investigate crime, might result in someone being found innocent. We can’t have that now, can we?

And after the police and the courts are barred from the scene, we’ll have no talk of standards of conduct which meet the test of what a “reasonable person” might conclude when observing the evidence. You know how unreasonable those reasonable people can be. They might wind up asking impertinent questions or demanding some sort of evidence.

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It’s enough to make your brain ache just reading about it. But for all of you parents out there who are sending your special snowflakes off for an education this fall, here’s a reminder. The annual tuition at Frostburg for out of state students is $30,910. ($18, 810 for in-state.) I sure hope you’re getting your money’s worth.

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