Secretary DeVos Prepared Remarks on Title IX Enforcement

SEPTEMBER 7, 2017

Thank you Dean Henry Butler for the kind introduction and for the opportunity to be here. Thank you President Angel Cabrera for your leadership of George Mason University.

And to the students and faculty with us today, thank you for making time to be here during this busy day of classes.

It is a great honor for me to be here today to address a very important topic.

Earlier this year marked the 45th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark legislation passed by Congress that seeks to ensure: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

The amendment to the Higher Education Act was initially proposed by Democrat Senator Birch Bayh, signed into law by Republican President Richard Nixon, and was later renamed for Congresswoman Patsy Mink, herself a victim of both sex-based and race-based discrimination as a third-generation Japanese-American.

Mink’s law has served an important role in shaping our Nation’s educational environment.

Title IX has helped to make clear that educational institutions have a responsibility to protect every student’s right to learn in a safe environment and to prevent unjust deprivations of that right.

It is a responsibility I take seriously, and it is a responsibility that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights takes seriously.

We will continue to enforce it and vigorously address all instances where people fall short.

Sadly, too many fall short when it comes to their responsibility under Title IX to protect students from sexual misconduct, acts of which are perpetrated on campuses across our nation.

The individual impacts of sexual misconduct are lasting, profound, and lamentable. And the emotions around this topic run high for good reason.

We need look no further than just outside these walls to see evidence of this. Yet I hope every person—even those who feel they disagree—will lend an ear to what I outline today.

I’m glad we live in a country where an open debate of ideas is welcomed and encouraged. Debate, of course, comes with responsibilities. Violence is never the answer when viewpoints diverge.

I appreciate that you have the opportunity to attend a university that promotes a higher level of discourse.

So let me be clear at the outset: acts of sexual misconduct are reprehensible, disgusting, and unacceptable. They are acts of cowardice and personal weakness, often thinly disguised as strength and power.

Such acts are atrocious, and I wish this subject didn’t need to be discussed at all.

Every person on every campus across our nation should conduct themselves with self-respect and respect for others.

But the current reality is a different story.

Since becoming Secretary, I’ve heard from many students whose lives were impacted by sexual misconduct: students who came to campus to gain knowledge, and who instead lost something sacred.

We know this much to be true: one rape is one too many.

One assault is one too many.

One aggressive act of harassment is one too many.

One person denied due process is one too many.

This conversation may be uncomfortable, but we must have it. It is our moral obligation to get this right.

Campus sexual misconduct must continue to be confronted head-on. Never again will these acts only be whispered about in closed-off counseling rooms or swept under the rug.

Not one more survivor will be silenced.

We will not abandon anyone. We will amplify the voices of survivors who too often feel voiceless.

While I listened to the stories of many survivors and their families over these past several months, I couldn’t help but think of my own family.

I thought about my two daughters.

And I thought about my two sons.

Every mother dreads getting that phone call: a despondent child calling with unthinkable news.

I cannot imagine receiving that call.

Too many mothers and fathers are left on the other end of the line completely helpless. I have looked parents in their tear-filled eyes as they recounted their own stories, and each time their pain was palpable.

I’m haunted by the story one brave young woman told me. She was targeted and victimized by her college boyfriend—someone she thought cared about her.

He looked on as his roommate attempted to rape her. She escaped her harrowing encounter, but too many do not.

For too many, an incident like this means something even worse.

There is no way to avoid the devastating reality of campus sexual misconduct: lives have been lost. Lives of victims. And lives of the accused.

Some of you hearing my voice know someone who took his or her own life because they thought their future was lost; because they saw no way out; because they lost hope.

One mother told me her son has attempted to take his life multiple times. Each time she opens the door to his bedroom, she doesn’t know whether she will find him alive or dead.

No mother, no parent, no student should be living that reality.

We are here today for those families. We need to remember that we’re not just talking about faceless “cases.”

We are talking about people’s lives. Everything we do must recognize this before anything else.

And we’re here today because the previous administration helped elevate this issue in American public life. They listened to survivors, who have brought this issue out from the backrooms of student life offices and into the light of day.

I am grateful to those who endeavored to end sexual misconduct on campuses.

But good intentions alone are not enough. Justice demands humility, wisdom and prudence.

It requires a serious pursuit of truth. And so, this is why I recently hosted a summit to better understand all perspectives: survivors, falsely accused students and educational institutions, both K-12 and higher ed. I wanted to learn from as many as I could because a conversation that excludes some becomes a conversation for none. We are having this conversation with and for all students.

Here is what I’ve learned: the truth is that the system established by the prior administration has failed too many students.

Survivors, victims of a lack of due process, and campus administrators have all told me that the current approach does a disservice to everyone involved.

That’s why we must do better, because the current approach isn’t working.

Washington has burdened schools with increasingly elaborate and confusing guidelines that even lawyers find difficult to understand and navigate.

Where does that leave institutions, which are forced to be judge and jury?

*Editor’s Note: From the Justice Department; Protecting Students from Sexual Assault (https://www.justice.gov/ovw/protecting-students-sexual-assault)

“The 2016 BJS study also found that in the 2014-2015 academic year, an average of 6.4% of college women across the nine participating schools reported being victims of intimate partner violence. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 50% of women report experiencing their first incident of intimate partner violence between 18 and 24 years of age.2 

“Being a victim of sexual assault, especially rape, can negatively impact a student’s mental and physical health and academic outcomes.3  Being a victim of dating violence and intimate partner violence is related to a host of detrimental health and social functioning outcomes, such as academic failure, depression or anxiety, and alcohol and drug abuse.4  

“In a campus environment, students who are victimized by other students face unique challenges, such as close proximity to perpetrators and difficulty maintaining anonymity. The majority of rape incidents of college students are unreported by victims – in the 2016 BJS study, only 7% reported the incident to a school official. Furthermore, most incidents of rape involve the consumption of alcohol or drugs and are less likely to be reported to campus officials

Go to this page for a continuation of the paragraphs from the Justice Department that we’ve included in this DeVos speech:

https://www.justice.gov/ovw/protecting-students-sexual-assault