Sexual assault cases: Students accused are winning lawsuits in court | Hacker News Reader

Sexual assault cases: Students accused are winning lawsuits in court

eu.usatoday.com

43 pointsmpweiher16 comments

Why do universities have to do anything? Report it to the police, and they should deal with it and use the proper procedures. After that it's the courts.

Having some kangaroo courts and then losing lawsuits never helped anyone.

We don’t see university students as full adults. So when a student is harmed we see the university as having partial fault and a role in resolving the situation.

Most university students are 18 or older, so legally adults. The university may have some culpability, but that’s even more reason for courts to investigate, not the university. I almost see it as obstruction of justice if not turned over to courts.

Imagine if Google has a sexual assault review process that didn’t involve handing evidence over to police. That would be pretty bizarre and anti-victim justice.

They aren't allowed to drink at 18. In many other ways the law infantalizes them including the Title X tribunals universities are required to have. When the combination of energy drinks and liquor was banned in WA state it was done so on the theory they were taking advantage of "kids". "kids" who were the legal drinking age of 21. [1]

The path to adulthood is an extended progression in modern times and does not end at the age of 18. The law has many more milestones before full rights are provided.

[1] "They're marketed to kids by using fruit flavors that mask the taste of alcohol" https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-oct-27-la-na-bl...

You’re right, but I’m not sure why this is relevant to why universities should have non-judicial, non-criminal courts for sexual assault.

Its an extension of Loco Parentis. They aren't children, they have some agency and responsibility hence the "court". But clearly society doesn't think they are quite ready to be left solely to the whims of the justice system. The court covers other offenses as well.

If a person of the same age who was not attending college and living with their parents were assaulted, would it be the parents' responsibility to bring the perpetrator to justice? No, it would be the job of the criminal justice system. So why should two cases be handled completely differently just because one happened to occur on a college campus?

Yes, "we" don't, but the law does. So not giving a legal adult due process has opened up this litigation can of worms.

Obama, the lawyer, should have anticipated this perverse outcome. But maybe he did and was just trying to make more jobs for lawyers with all this excess litigation.

Universities are highly incentivized to keep any word of sexual harassment on the down low. Reputation is everything and if every year one or two students is known to be assuaulted, then very soon no one would want to pay to sent their kids to the schools.

The concept here is much like if you have a workplace or social club, they might want to expel bad actors without the same standards you'd use to imprison a person. Once the group is organized or big enough, it becomes a process. It's perfectly reasonable in principle, the question is that of how it gets put into practice.

Universities frequently have their own police, so often these are reported to the police, but they are campus police (still sworn peace officers, not rent-a-cops).

You would think that campus police would be better trained to investigate crimes that are common on campus.

They're often off campus, and at a lower rate than the non college student early 20's population.

> Those involved are barred from talking about the case by the agreement.

Tangential, but I think these sort of silencing agreements are overwhelmingly to the detriment of society, and should be illegal/unenforceable.

Why schools should not have kangaroo courts. Why should someone get less justice if they happen to be a student?

> "Why schools should not have kangaroo courts. (sic)"

From https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kangaroo%20court

"kangaroo court (noun)

1: a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted

2 : a court characterized by irresponsible, unauthorized, or irregular status or procedures"

There should not be any place that has kangaroo courts.

Which means there are lots of fake cases.

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