#DearBetsy and Voters: Protect our Girls with Title IX.

Advocacy groups: KnowYourIX, End Rape on Campus, SurvJustice and @FemMajority, among others will act today at a live rally in Arlington, VA and online through social media to help bring attention to the changes to our students’ Title IX rights that the US Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, is attempting to limit.   And, once again, this political writer feels compelled to remind Americans that voting matters–on every single level.

Don’t care about Title IX? Think it doesn’t, or won’t ever, apply to you or your family?

God, I pray you never need to know or understand the minute details of it the way I do. And, I pray your daughters don’t ever need it. But, our society has proven to protect the accused rights over the survivor on so many occasions, that I urge you to care more about the safety and protection of the women in your life. Please take a look this important legislation and consider if it makes sense for Ms. Devos to take away protections for our students, rather than increase them.

Title IX bolsters female athletes’ confidence by offering protections against denial of participation based on sex or pregnancy, while giving them: equal access to higher and career education, affording equal rights to be part of academic bodies (teachers/professor tenure), increasing female athletic scholarships, and protections against sexual harassment and crimes.

Why should a stripped-down Title IX matter to you?

Do you have a daughter on a college campus, or that will ever be on one? Title IX may be a saving grace for her if she becomes one of the staggeringly disgusting statistics (1 in every 4 women at universities, according to this AAU survey) this country constantly looks the other way when shown. In fact, The National Education Association (NEA) stated, “Under Title IX, schools have a legal obligation to prevent and address any reported sexual harassment.”  It added that prior to Title IX, “Administrators used to be able to dismiss claims of sexual harassment as trivial or simply as “boys being boys.” Additionally, we live in a social environment that loves to blame the victim. Harassment and assault occur at a much higher rate than reported because when victims consider reporting, they are aware they’ll be forced to also indure a strong societal prejudice against their integrity.

There is no excuse to further tie the hands of victims already struggling with just surviving their crimes–it doesn’t save money, it doesn’t better the true identity of a ‘campus brand’, it does nothing other than pretend these crimes aren’t happening at the rate they are, while sabotaging the tiny bit of healing a victim ever hopes to truly gain.

Anyway, if you’re interested in learning more or speaking out about protecting victims rights’, participate in person (at the Antonin Scalia Law School, Arlington, VA) or on social media with #StopBetsy, #KnowYourIX, #INeedIX and personal notes to #DearBetsy.
More details and victim advocacy available online:
@KnowYourIX, @EndRapeonCampus, @SurvJustice  RAINN

Sec of Ed, Betsy Devos, and her anti-victim, pro-accused record:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/us/politics/campus-rape-betsy-devos-title-iv-education-trump-candice-jackson.html?mcubz=3&_r=1

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/betsy-devos-education-sexual-assault-233376

http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a12172894/betsy-devos-title-ix-announcement-new-guidance/

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