Feds Fighting Date Rape, But Protecting Date Rapists

Schizophrenic, or Just Two Laws Strangely at Cross Purposes?
 
WASHINGTON - Dec. 17, 2014 - PRLog -- WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 17,  2014):  After applying tremendous pressure on colleges to crack down on date rape  - not only by finding more students guilty, but also by making their disciplinary proceedings more open and transparent - the federal government is now about to argue that information which could help determine whether universities have different standards when the accused is an athlete should be kept secret.

    "It's ironic that after threatening to cut off federal funding to colleges which don't go alone with the government's ideas about how campus rapes should be handled - including not only more openness and transparency, but also without any favoritism for athletes - that same government is providing what was called  "a big early Christmas present for colleges who want to cover up how they handle sexual assault claims," says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, an expert on legal issues related to campus rapes.

       The Montana Grizzlies quarterback, Jordan Johnson, was found guilty by his university of a campus rape and ordered expelled, but the expulsion never took place for reasons which remain unexplained.

        An author seeking to write a book about, as he put it, "how that expulsion order magically turned into a temporary suspension," was told by the school that school disciplinary records would not be made available under the state's FOIA act.

        The author argued that the athlete's name is already known, that the names of other victims and witnesses would be redacted, and that the disclosure of the records would serve the public interest.

        Although a judge agreed, the University still refused to release any of the records, citing FERPA, the federal privacy law governing student educational records. Now the federal government has announced that it will argue on appeal that "disciplinary records constitute protected "’education records.’"

        The Student Press Center, which would likewise like to be able to expose how colleges handle date rape cases, says the government is “intervening on the side of the university," “giving them a quick and easy way out of answering questions about how this case or any other was handled.”

        But, notes Banzhaf, both the government and anti-rape activists have argued how important it is to protect the privacy of the female complainant, even to the point of not revealing her name to the accused, not requiring her to face her accused, and not even forcing her to face any cross examination.

        “Here, the privacy is on the other foot,” says Banzhaf, and the intimate details of how the sex occurred - the act was admitted, but he argued that it was consensual - would likely be embarrassing to any student, male or female.  Perhaps one reason Johnson wasn’t expelled is that, after the university proceeding, a jury acquitted him of rape after only two hours of deliberation, finding the complainant enjoyed the sex.

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
Fellow, World Technology Network,
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052, USA
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/ @profbanzhaf

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Tags:FERPA, Foia, Date Rape, Jordan Johnson, Montana Grizzlies
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