Sexual harassment has always been a big problem on college campuses, and in the past couple of years, attention has been drawn to how much of an issue some of these particular policies have been, especially in regards to the person who has been affected by the harassment in question. Of course, this has come to a head in a number of court cases, including one against Harvard.
Problems at Harvard
Most people think of Harvard and they think of geniuses and law gurus, but there is a huge problem with their sexual harassment rules. They are just one of many schools that have been put under the microscope when it comes to how they deal with assault and harassment cases – and the biggest issue has been with how they deal with the victims of these crimes.
First off, the issue with how the assaulted are dealt with. Many times, these students are not protected as they should be. Even though their attackers are being punished, they aren’t always taken out of the school, thus forcing the victim to live in fear. That being said, their attackers aren’t always punished either – because there is such a huge “victim blaming” mentality, especially when it comes to girls being raped and assaulted, it rolls over into how these women are treated.
Where does Title IX Come In?
That, of course, is where the Title IX issue comes into play. Basically, what Title IX says is that, if you’re getting any sort of money from the government to help educate the students that are attending your university, then there can be no signs of gender discrimination and people of all genders must be treated equally. By placing the blame on female victims, it was determined (by the courts) that Harvard (and other schools) were actually in violation of the Title IX agreement.
There are other problems as well, but this is the biggest one that comes up, a majority of the time. Because there are so many cases that happen on campuses every year, and so few of them are reported to anyone off campus, it turns into a large mess and people are not getting the justice that they deserve. Granted, there has been some pushback, because not everyone agrees that this is a Title IX issue, but it’s still something that needs to be addressed so that both men and women can feel safe under the law.