Recent Review-Journal commentary on campus sexual assault was off base

In her Tuesday article, Cynthia M. Allen takes aim at Title IX and the attempts by colleges and universities to deal with what she readily acknowledged as true. In her own words, “There’s no denying that sexual assault on campus was historically underreported and largely unaddressed.”

She goes on to say, however, that this is no longer true. I don’t believe this for a moment, and Ms. Allen gives us no reason to explain why she believes in such a major reversal.

The real problem with her reasoning is that she confuses the “civil” actions of the schools with the legal requirements mandated by the Constitution for criminal justice. It is certainly true that there have been thousands of assault cases at our schools each and every year, and, with due respect to Ms. Allen, I believe that this continues. All that Ms. Allen can come up with is 50 cases in which judges have found that the schools were wrong or unfair in finding against the defendant. Remember, in all such cases, there was no attempt by these schools to apply sanctions for criminal conduct against any of the defendants.

Ms. Allen would have us believe that the schools should have to use the standard of “guilty beyond any reasonable doubt” in what is a civil case. Why? She notes that expulsions resulting from false accusations have led to ruined careers and even suicides. I accept that. But, let me note that in any real case of false accusation, the defendant does have the right to take his or her case to court for redress, as was done in those 50 cases she cites. What redress is had for the victim of assault? How does the victim get back his or her loss?

Instead of attacking the schools in their use of Title IX to attempt to deal with campus assault, Ms. Allen should be applauding their efforts, and helping in any way possible to improve on such efforts.