We’ve all heard the ‘statistic’ that 1 out of 4 women on a college campus have been sexually assaulted. That the generally accepted 1 in 4 figure is totally bogus, based upon a non-scientific poll that even the researchers who ran the poll say is not representative of actual sexual assaults on college campuses. Even the definition of sexual assault was assigned by the researchers and was overly broad by their own admission. Things such as an unwanted advance or being asked out by someone a woman disliked was considered assault, something that heavily weighted the numbers. But that hasn’t stopped the media from pushing the idea of rampant sexual assaults on campuses across the nation.
This has led to a wide range of unintended consequences, including our colleges and universities being shoved into creating kangaroo courts and star chambers where the only evidence of sexual misconduct required is the accusation. No actual evidence or witness testimony is required. No questioning of the accused is required, nor is cross-examination of the accuser. Investigation, if there is any, is performed by personnel who are neither qualified nor capable of running what is in reality a criminal investigation. In too many cases the investigator is openly biased in favor of the accuser. What’s worse is that a government agency, the Department of Education, has pushed this with their “Dear Colleague” letter that threatened loss of federal funding if out institutions of higher learning didn’t start dealing with the ‘epidemic’ of sexual assaults because these assaults were somehow a violation of Title IX protections.
The result has been a large number of male college students being accused, suspended, or expelled for sexual assaults that, in the eyes of law enforcement, never occurred. Due process was ignored. The rights of the accused didn’t exist. One unintended consequence – a large and increasing number of lawsuits against those same institutions of higher learning that are costing these same institutions millions of dollars in settlements or damage awards, as well as damaged reputations of both the accused student and the college.
As I have heard more than one person opine, if colleges and universities were truly centers of a 20% sexual assault rate, parents should be charged with child neglect for sending their daughters to them. I agree wholeheartedly.
It’s time for the media to stop pushing this false narrative. It serves no purpose other than to create more discontent and mistrust, setting back relations between the sexes decades.
