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St. Thomas Law Review

Evelin Mac Clay

First Page

256

Document Type

Comment

Abstract

Although Florida is known for having passed the toughest mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse of children after the Sandusky Penn State scandal, there is no mandatory reporting requirement for young adults who suffer sexual abuse in schools. Additionally, schools do not currently offer programs of rehabilitation for the alleged assailant, and for the most part, the alleged attacker is allowed to continue pursuing his or her studies in the same university, running the risk of having repeat offenders on campus. Part II of this comment will provide a background of the different laws and amendments previously enacted in an effort to eradicate sexual abuse from colleges and universities, such as (1) Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; (2) Dear Colleague Letter; (3) The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act ("Clery Act"); (4) Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act of 2013; and (5) the proposed bill "Safe Campus Act of 2015, which was introduced to the House of Representatives on July 29, 2015, but has not been enacted.40 Part III will discuss the problem of underreporting of sexual crimes, the disservice caused by universities investigating and handling sexual crimes internally, and the lack of punishment toward the assailant.4 Part IV proposes that (1) colleges and universities be obligated to report allegations of sexual assault to local authorities; (2) the victim's identity remain protected by the authorities, allowing the victim to proceed by pseudonym or anonymously, if the victim so choses; (3) colleges and universities implement a rehab program in which the alleged assailant or any student who has a record of sexual misconduct must undergo a psychological evaluation and attend weekly counseling sessions; and (4) the assailant be automatically suspended upon being found responsible by the university's committee, until completion of the rehab program, followed by a one-semester probation in which the assailant has to continue attending monthly sessions; however, if the student violates probation, such student should be automatically expelled on the basis of sexual misconduct, which should be noted on his or her school transcripts.

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