A New York Times article this weekend provides a view into the distressing fight that mothers take on to clear their sons who are accused of sexual assault on campus.
The stories of these women provide a fresh reminder that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was right to rescind the Obama Administrations guidelines about combatting campus sexual assault. Those guidelines eroded rights of accused students and led to a perverse environment on campuses.
In many cases, the young men are cleared, but their lives can’t return to “normal” because assault allegations have damaged their name, reputation, and career and education prospects. The mothers explain why the allegations were not right to begin with:
Their sons may not have been falsely accused, the mothers said, but they had been wrongly accused. They made a distinction.
One mother, Judith, said her son had been expelled after having sex with a student who said she had been too intoxicated to give consent.
“In my generation, what these girls are going through was never considered assault,” Judith said. “It was considered, ‘I was stupid and I got embarrassed.’”
We explore this point with writer Jennifer Braceras for our podcast recently. Braceras penned an essay in the Wall Street Journal entitled Straight Talk for College Women to young women heading to campus this fall with advice on taking care of themselves.
Listen as she explains the impact of the Obama-era guidance, the questionable data on campus sexual assault, and tips to help young women protect themselves.