Dealing With Sexual Violence on Campus
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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Last week, we told you about a call for American [A]educators[/A] to do more to [A]protect[/A] students from sexual violence on campus. The government recently sent a letter telling schools, colleges and [A]universities[/A] that such violence is a form of sex [A]discrimination[/A].
That means it [A]violates[/A] a nineteen seventy-two law against discrimination on the basis of sex in education [A]programs[/A] and activities.
The letter says schools must take steps like making sure [A]victims[/A] know their rights and are kept informed about[A] investigations[/A]. Victims must also be protected if the accused attacker is still in school with them.
Russlyn Ali is the [A]assistant secretary[/A] for civil rights at the Department of Education. She and her staff wrote that letter.
RUSSLYN ALI: "Our sense of urgency could not be greater, and as I'm sure any parent in America would say, they don't want their child to go to college or school and have to be worried about being [A]raped[/A]. And we are going to work with [A]officials[/A] to make sure that doesn't happen."
One of those officials is Mary Mayhew. She leads efforts to prevent sexual [A]harassment[/A] and rape at the University of New Hampshire. That was where Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan released the guidance letter in April.
Ms. Mayhew says she believes sexual violence on campuses has actually decreased over the past twenty years. She says schools are getting better at educating students to understand the idea of [A]consent[/A] -- or, put more simply, that no means no.
MARY MAYHEW: "Between nineteen eighty-eight and two thousand was when we really started [A]implementing[/A] education campaigns about what [A]consent[/A] is. So we educated, you know, the population and that did amount to some degree of [A]prevention[/A]."
Ms. Mayhew says the warning from the [A]government[/A] to pay more attention to the problem might lead more schools to start or expand their programs. At the same time, however, it might also lead to an increase in reports of sexual assaults. Not [A]necessarily[/A] because the problem has gotten worse, she says, but because more students will know their rights and be willing to report attacks on campus.
Russlyn Ali at the Education Department says the government is ready to take action against schools that fail to protect their students.
RUSSLYN ALI: "Where there are violations, and in the case where officials are not willing to [A]comply with[/A] the nation's civil rights laws, we will [A]enforce[/A] the laws vigorously."
