Legal Momentum Hails Obama Administration’s Steps Against Campus Sexual Assault

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Date: 

April 29, 2014

Media Contact: 

Jean Gazis

212-413-7558

jgazis@legalmomentum.org

New York, NY— April 29, 2014 Legal Momentum, the nation's oldest legal defense and education fund dedicated to advancing the rights of all women and girls, today praised a series of recent actions undertaken by the Obama Administration to address the incidence of sexual violence on college campuses:

  • The release of the initial Report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault, co-chaired by the Office of the Vice President and the White House Council on Women and Girls with contributions from the Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services;
  • The release of “Questions and Answers on Title IX and Sexual Violence” by the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR); and
  • OCR’s recent determination to find Tufts University in breach of an agreement in which it pledged to remedy its prior violations of Title IX.  

“This Administration has sent a clear and unmistakable message that it will not tolerate sexual violence on college and university campuses.  The ‘business as usual’ attitude of colleges cited by the Department of Education for their slow and insensitive handling of sexual assault allegations must become a thing of the past,” said Carol Robles-Román, President and CEO of Legal Momentum. 

“The new resources released today—including the Task Force report and the new Department of Education Questions and Answers—clarify important questions about how schools meet their responsibilities to investigate and address sexual violence.  The new White House website, www.notalone.gov, provides students comprehensive and user-friendly information about their rights and how to find help locally,” said Lisalyn R. Jacobs, Vice President for Government Affairs.  “These tools make our work serving victims of assault at school much easier.”

Legal Momentum is pleased to see these results of our advocacy, as we have urged the White House and Department of Education to use all available tools to hold institutions of higher learning fully responsible for non-compliance with Title IX.

Legal Momentum regularly advises students, faculty, and administrators about their rights and responsibilities under Title IX and other laws related to domestic and sexual assault.  Resources on sexual assault on campus, including a Guide for University Discipline Panels on Sexual Violence drawing extensively from the National Judicial Education Program’s publication Judges Tell: What I Wish I Had Known Before I Presided in an Adult Victim Sexual Assault Case, can be found on Legal Momentum’s website.

About Legal Momentum

Legal Momentum is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1970 to advance the rights of women across the nation by using the power of the law and creating innovative public policy in three broad areas: economic justice, freedom from gender-based violence, and equality under the law. Successful initiatives include judicial education programs on the realities of sexual assault, domestic violence, and their intersection; successful advocacy for the Violence Against Women Act and for expanded protections for Native American and other survivors of violence in its 2013 reauthorization; and representing women who have been subjected to workplace pregnancy and gender discrimination with precedent-setting litigation. For more information, visit www.legalmomentum.org.

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