Today we filed our Written Comment to the Office for Civil Rights, calling for impartial and fair campus investigations. Our cover letter is shown below. Attached to the letter were:
A. The actual petition
B. A listing of the names of the 5,131 petition signers.
If you want to submit your own comment, these are the steps how to do that. Feel free to use any of the information from the letter, below, in your comment.
Deadline to send comments is 5pm ET on Friday.
Sincerely,
Edward Bartlett
++++++++++++++++++
Written Comment: Title IX Public Hearing
Petition Calling for Impartial Campus Investigations
June 8, 2021
Dear Office for Civil Rights:
Recognizing the importance of impartial and honest campus investigations, SAVE established an online petition in 2019: https://www.change.org/p/congress-stop-sham-believe-the-victim-investigations
The petition features Matt Rolph, a former student at Hobart College in Geneva, New York who was accused of sexual assault. Despite the fact that a jury had found him innocent of all sexual assault charges, the college mounted a guilt-presuming “victim-centered” investigation against him, resulting in his expulsion.
Rolph filed a lawsuit against the College. Judge Elizabeth Wolford eventually ruled in favor of Rolph’s claims of investigative bias. The entire petition can be seen in Attachment A to this Written Comment.
To date, 5,131 persons have signed the petition calling for an end to investigations based on “Start By Believing,” “victim-centered,” or “trauma-informed” philosophies. The name, location, and signature date of these 5,131 persons is listed in Attachment B to this Written Comment.
This petition points to the need to retain all of the regulatory language at Section 106.45 (b)(1), and to issue additional policy directives regarding the inadvisability of using investigative methods based on “Start By Believing,” “victim-centered,” or “trauma-informed” philosophies.
Sincerely,
Edward E. Bartlett, PhD
President
SAVE
P.O. Box 1221
Rockville, MD 20849