Department Of Education Rolls Back Title IX Protections, Advocacy Leader Speaks Out
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made it official today: rolling back protections for sexual assault victims on college campuses, and a local womens' advocacy leader weighs-in on the policy change.
Carol Tracy, executive director of the Women's Law Project, says this new guidance will not "unring the bell."
She says the guidelines during the Obama era came after colleges did not prevent sexual assault and were shamed into taking action. Tracy says that made victims advocates for themselves.
"They were throwing down the kind of historic shackles of shame and stigma, and victim blaming, that went along with being sexually assaulted, and demanding that they be treated as equal citizens in educational institutions," she said.
Previously, victims would often drop out. Now, she says they demand protection and continued education.
Tracy says Title 9 is about equality in education, and what Betsy DeVos has done?
"In all different ways, this is something I think to destabilize, and certainly not to clarify."