But to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who actively refers to one of her constituents as a “rapist” even though he was exonerated by a campus investigation, these requests are “completely backwards.”
“We should be making universities more accountable for providing a safe campus, not less,” Gillibrand told the Huffington Post. “Waiting for long legal process to play itself out for those victims who pursue criminal charges while leaving potential serial rapists on campus in the interim would put public safety at risk.”
Except that locking people up (or kicking them off campus) based solely on an accusation — without any other evidence — flies in the face of due process. What’s more, to allow schools to adjudicate campus sexual assault doesn’t do real justice for the accusers, either. The most a school can do is expel someone. That, to echo Gillibrand, leaves potential serial rapists wandering the streets, putting public safety at risk. A criminal court can actually take these dangerous people off the streets.
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