United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative _______,
We strongly support the efforts of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to end sexual violence and harassment in schools. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity that receives federal funding. Sex discrimination includes sexual harassment, sexual battery, sexual assault, and rape. However, a law is only as strong as its enforcement. OCR has played an essential role by helping schools come into compliance with the law and ensuring that students have a resource when their schools are not offering the proper support.
Everyone deserves the right to benefit from education in schools that are free from sexual assault, but studies have shown that this is far from what is currently happening. Although the exact number of women who are sexually assaulted while in college is difficult to capture and varies according to how sexual assault is defined, the estimates we currently have are staggering. For example: results from studies of victims of attempted or completed rape were 1 in 7 women during their years enrolled in several public colleges and 1 in 5 women who were freshmen at a private college.[1] The debate over whether the most accurate statistic for women is 1 in 5 or 1 in 6 or even 1 in 10 is a ridiculous one: are any of these statistics acceptable for our loved ones? And yet, 40% of colleges and universities reported not investigating a single sexual assault in the previous five years.[2] These statistics highlight the disconnect between the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses versus what is actually being done by the schools to help the victims.
That is why the OCR’s role is so important, providing a resource for students when their schools fail to uphold the law. The OCR also provides guidance to schools on specific actions that need to be taken as well as the best practices to help them do so.
The need for OCR is demonstrated by the increasing caseload of complaints from students which they receive each year. In the past decade, the number of Title IX-related complaints received by the OCR has skyrocketed from just 319 cases in 2005,[3] to nearly 3,000 cases in 2015.[4] Of the cases from 2015, 536 specified sexual harassment or violence. The health and mental health of students depends on OCR addressing these issues, and it is essential that you support that work.
OCR is working to ensure that all schools provide the healthiest and most supportive learning environment for students, free of sexual assault and discrimination. It is very disturbing that some members of Congress are working against this goal by advocating to strip OCR of their authority or financial support to do this important work. Efforts to impede OCR’s Title IX enforcement are simply inconsistent with the goal of helping all Americans pursue their education in an environment that allows them to do so without harm.
Students have plenty of things to worry about–sexual assault should not be one of them. Thank you for your efforts to support students and survivors.
National Center for Health Research
The National Center for Health Research can be reached at (202) 223-4000 or at info@center4research.org
References
- Kanh, S (2015). Sexual violence on campus: What numbers can and can’t tell us. National Center for Health Research. Retrieved May 30, 2016 from https://center4research.org/violence-risky-behavior/sexual-violence-on-campus-what-numbers-can-and-cant-tell-us/
- U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Financial & Contracting Oversight – Majority Staff. (2014). Sexual violence on campus: How too many institutions of higher education are failing to protect students. Retrieved from http://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/SurveyReportwithAppendix.pd
- U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil rights. (2006). Annual Report to Congress FY 2005. www2.ed.got/about/reports/annual/ocr/annrpt2005/index.html
- U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. (2016). Delivering Justice: Report to the President and Secretary of Education. www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/ocr/report-to-president-and-secretary-of-education-2015.pdf