Imagine for a moment you’re the male student at Amherst College, who, after a night out drinking with friends, accompanied a fellow student back to her dorm room. While you’re blacked out, she performs oral sex on you. Nearly two years later, she accuses you of sexual assault—and you’re expelled.
Before you object: That actually happened a few years ago. So, how are you feeling right about now? Confused? Wronged? Not keen on celebrating your “male privilege,” that’s for sure. Such injustices occur far too frequently and hang over the heads of male college students like a dark cloud.
I should know. I am a recent graduate of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; the fear among my male peers of being falsely accused is palpable.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Candice Jackson, the acting assistant education secretary for civil rights and herself a sexual assault survivor, echoed that sentiment. She said that many of these cases “fall into the category of ‘we were both drunk,’ ‘we broke up, and six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation because she just decided that our last sleeping together was not quite right.’ ” She had to apologize for the remark.
But there’s good news: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos seems keen on getting justice right.
Read the rest at the Detroit News.
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