HOW ONE COMMUNITY IN OREGON IS CHANGING THE DISCUSSION ON CAMPUS SEXUAL ASSAULT

Hull's program, called "You Have Options," places victims in control of what happens after they make a report and provides detectives with a uniform checklist of information to gather. It also requires that officers who work with victims are trained in interview techniques with those who have experienced trauma, rather than simply interrogating them.

"It's so common sense," Hull says. "It's just a human, decent way to treat people, and a smarter way to get information."

Ashland Police Department Detective Carrie Hull (left) and SOU's Angela Fleischer.

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ANTI-RAPE MOVEMENT IN COSMOPOLITAN

Photo © Kylie Nicholson.

Now USC is among dozens of colleges (more than 64 at press time) facing federal investigations for alleged violations of Title IX and the Clery Act, laws that govern the treatment of sexual-assault survivors. Last year, I filed a federal complaint against USC for failing to handle the case of my assault properly. The investigation is ongoing.

I believe the key to ending the college-rape epidemic is changing the "risk assessment" analysis made by some colleges that believe expelled rapists are more likely to sue them than ignored victims are and that the number of reported rapes needs to be low so that recruitment numbers will stay high. Colleges should give mandatory anonymous exit surveys to all graduates to gauge how administrations respond to student-on-student violence.

Rape victims must continue to stand up and speak out. Let's draw courage from the knowledge that our collective voices grow louder with every new survivor who rises up and joins the roar.

USC MISLABELS SEXUAL ASSAULT TO KEEP CRIME NUMBERS LOW, CLERY COMPLAINT SAYS

          The Clery filing adds to USC's woes. The U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation of the school in late June under Title IX, the federal education law that bars sexual discrimination. A lead complainant in the Title IX filing that sparked the U.S. investigation, USC senior Tucker Reed, organized the Clery complaint.
          Reed said she found multiple students who saw their sexual assaults marked as lesser crimes, such as sexual battery or "injury caused by acquaintance," and campus police frequently discouraged victims from reporting sexual misconduct. The faulty reporting means the school's annual Clery log detailing the total number of sexual assaults in the past year is inaccurate, Reed claimed.

SCAR DELEGATES INVITED TO SPEAK WITH CNN

Reed:  It's very interesting to note that a student can present a binder of evidence that supports their claim that they were subjected to a violent attack, but the school will choose to believe a completely unsubstantiated claim from a male student who denies it.

SCAR MEMBERS SPEAK TO FEMINIST MAGAZINE RADIO

The panel discussion begins at the 9:00-minute mark, with three SCAR members involved in the filing of the Title IX complaint against the University of Southern California. Feminist Magazine is produced by a coalition of women volunteers from all walks of life, and broadcasts live throughout the Los Angeles area.

Student contributors to the Title IX complaint.

SCAR REPRESENTATIVE QUOTED IN TIME MAGAZINE
"WITH STUDENTS HEADED BACK TO SCHOOL, A COALITION OF STUDENTS AND ACTIVISTS ARE COMING TOGETHER TO CHANGE HOW UNIVERSITIES HANDLE SEXUAL ASSAULT"

           As more complaints and investigations arise, universities will be forced to modify their adjudication and reporting procedures. One thing is clear: schools have a new, powerful force to answer to beyond the federal government.
           When Reed posted her experiences to her blog, called "Covered in Bandaids,"  sharing those stories gave her a new feeling of agency over her own experiences. “I went public with the fact that this happened to me and I wasn’t ashamed of it, and I felt instantly better,” she says. “It became something that happened to me that I wasn’t carrying around like a secret shame.”

COSMOPOLITAN BLASTS USC
"I HOPE YOU'RE AWARE NOW THAT THIS KIND OF PUBLICITY IS ACTUALLY WAY WORSE THAN ACCURATELY ACKNOWLEDGING AND DEALING WITH REPORTED RAPES ON CAMPUS"

          Thirteen students have filed federal charges against USC for failing to respond appropriately to these assault reports, according to Salon. One woman reports that a detective on the campus police force told her that it wasn't worth bringing to the LAPD because it wasn't "technically" rape as long as her assailant hadn't ejaculated. She says she was told: “Because he stopped, it was not rape... Even though his penis penetrated your vagina, because he stopped, it was not a crime.” Are you f*cking kidding me?
           Another woman says that charges weren't pressed against her ex-boyfriend after he raped her, despite the fact that she actually presented authorities with an audio recording of the guy admitting it. As in, she literally did their job for them and they still didn't take it to the LAPD or even discipline the student. (Literally, these are the stories that flash through my brain whenever a guy — or girl — says there's "no reason for feminism to exist anymore." I've taken to simply saying "Google rape," walking away, and trying not to punch a wall.)
          Over the weekend, the USC thirteen were informed that the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights were investigating their charges against the school. Let's hope some changes come out of this negative publicity. (Note to USC bureaucrats: I hope you're aware now that this kind of publicity is actually way worse than accurately acknowledging and dealing with reported rapes on campus. Just saying.)

"POLICE SAID MY RAPE WAS NOT A CRIME BECAUSE MY ASSAILANT DIDN'T ORGASM"

USC students hope that the federal investigation will force the university to change its policies — and raise the profile of their cause, which is to end the sexual assault crisis occurring on college campuses across the country:  “For me,” USC student Francesca Bessey told the Huffington Post, “the technical outcome of the investigation is much less important than the consciousness I want it to inspire among decision makers at colleges and universities nationwide.”

STUDENTS :  UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA "GROSSLY MISHANDLES" RAPE ALLEGATIONS

U.S. INVESTIGATES HANDLING OF
ALLEGED SEX ASSAULTS AT USC

"I FELT RAPED A SECOND TIME"
USC STUDENT SAYS UNIVERSITY MISHANDLED RAPE INVESTIGATION

          A USC student said Monday that she believes university officials performed a shoddy investigation when she told them last year that she had been raped by her then-boyfriend in 2010.
          Tucker Reed, who has blogged extensively about her alleged rape, said that she informed USC officials about the incident in December 2012, after she told police. But school officials told Reed, who recently finished her junior year, that they could not do anything because there was not enough evidence.
          "The process made me feel raped a second time," Reed said at a news conference on USC's campus.
          Reed and other alleged victims filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education in  May detailing 100 cases.  The case is the latest in a series of investigations looking at sexual assault allegations at colleges and universities throughout the nation, including reported cases at Occidental College and Dartmouth University.

SEXUAL ASSAULTS MISHANDLED AT DARTMOUTH, SWARTHMORE, USC, COMPLAINTS SAY

Linda Fairstein, a former New York City sex crimes prosecutor now a senior advisor at K2 Intelligence, a security firm that advises schools on sexual assault regulations, said complaints that universities are wrongly handling sexual violence comes as no surprise.

"It's probably true that the overwhelming number of schools in this country have lagged in needing compliance with both Clery and Title IX," said Fairstein, whose company isn't working for any of the schools named in the complaints. "This is a problem of enormous proportion on college campuses."

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