‘Yes Means Yes’: California Bill Would Create Strong New Definition Of Consent On College Campuses
Colleges have tried to address this issue in the past, but many have done so with sexual assault prevention programs that hardly focus on educating would-be perpetrators.
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State Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, left, talks with Sen. Richardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, during the Senate session, Monday, Aug. 25, 2014, in Sacramento, Calif.
CREDIT: AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
California lawmakers passed a bill on Thursday that would make the Golden State the first to clearly define when “yes means yes” in campus sexual assault investigations. The legislation passed through the Senate by way of unanimous vote and now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has yet to indicate his support for the law.
The passage of the bill known as SB-967 comes as colleges and universities across the country scramble to create policies that educate students about sexual assaults and help administrators better address allegations. It places much of the onus on would-be aggressors by stating that silence or lack of resistance would not constitute consent. Under the law, people also would not be able to give consent while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, asleep, or unconscious.
SB-967 would apply to all California public and private postsecondary schools that receive state money for financial aid. Many lawmakers, including Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) said that the bill allows California’s colleges and universities to proactively address an issue that has become a major topic of discussion well before the Obama administration launched a campus assault task force earlier this year.
“With this measure, we will lead the nation in bringing standards and protocols across the board so we can create an environment that’s healthy, that’s conducive for all students, not just for women, but for young men as well too, so young men can develop healthy patterns and boundaries as they age with the opposite sex,” de Leon said before the vote, according to the Associated Press.
Today, a college with 10,000 students could experience as many as 350 sexual assaults annually, according to the National Institute of Justice, an umbrella organization of the U.S. Department of Justice. Researchers say that women just entering college are at a higher risk of sexual assault, in part because of their age. In more than 80 percent of sexual assault cases, the victim knows her assailant. While relatively less information has been collected about sexual assaults against men, research shows that the group makes up more than 10 percent of victims raped by an acquaintance.
Often times, the nightmare for sexual assault victims doesn’t end after the traumatic event. Victims face a number of hurdles in bringing their alleged assailant to justice including a lack of confidential reporting and policies that punish them for excessive drinking, regardless of the circumstances. Many victims, as a result, experience feelings of stress, anxiety, and fear that can hinder their academic performance and cause social exclusion.
Although colleges have tried to address this issue in the past, many have done so with sexual assault prevention programs that hardly focus on educating would-be perpetrators. These programs instead call on potential victims to take preventative measures including drinking less and going out in groups.
While SB-967 would shift the focus on would-be aggressors, a few people, including Gordon Finley of the National Coalition for Men, consider the law an assault on members of the male species. In an editorial earlier this week, Finley asked Gov. Brown to not sign SB-967 saying, “This is nice for the accusers — both false accusers as well as true accusers — but what about the due process rights of the accused.” California Senate Republicans showed little opposition, however, citing that many schools have been trying to get their act together already.
Other schools around the country – including Doane College in Crete, Nebraska, Elon University in North Carolina, and Indiana University – have launched campaigns that educate students about what constitutes as a sexual assault and provides resources that allow them to confidentially report cases to campus authorities. Students at The George Washington University and University of California, Berkeley also started the academic year participating in small group discussions about sexual assault and completing an online course, respectively. A group of sexual assault survivors has also found much success in pressuring the Princeton Review and other college admissions guides to include the prevalence of sexual assaults in its rankings.
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More Than Half Of All Syrian Citizens Have Been Forced Out Of Their Homes
And there are now more than 3 million Syrian refugees dispersed throughout the region as a result of the civil war.
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Syrian refugee women stand outside their tent at a Syrian refugee camp in the eastern Lebanese town of Majdal Anjar
CREDIT: AP Photo/Bilal Hussein
The United Nations announced on Friday that more than have of all citizens in Syria have had to flee their home during the three year-long civil war with the result being a record three million Syrians housed as refugees around the region.
While the United States and its allies debate how to address countering militants with the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) in both Syria and Iraq, the battle between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the rebels intent on removing him from power continues unabated. The clashes between Assad’s regime and security forces and the multitude of groups fighting against him has had disastrous results for the civilian population within Syria, precipitating a massive humanitarian crisis. In 2012, Syria’s population was 22 million. Now, according to the United Nations, more than half of them have been forced to flee that violence.
“One in every eight Syrians has fled across the border, fully a million more than a year ago,” the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement, documenting just how bad the situation has gotten. In total, that means that there are for the first time more than three million Syrian refugees have been dispersed throughout the region. On top of that, there are more than 6.5 million additional Syrians who have been displaced but remain within Syria.
The hardships faced as the number of refugees in countries like Lebanon and Jordan grows are only growing more severe, the U.N. said. “More than four in five refugees are struggling to make a living in urban areas, with 38 per cent living in sub-standard shelter, according to a recent survey,” the UNHCR noted. A growing share of them are arriving in their host countries suffering from long-term medical issues, having fled due to no longer being able to receive proper care in Syria. And smugglers are now charging some crossing the desert into Jordan as much as $100 U.S. for their support, a huge sum for those who have often had to leave everything behind.
“The Syrian crisis has become the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era, yet the world is failing to meet the needs of refugees and the countries hosting them,” Antonio Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a statement. So far the U.N.’s request for funding for the situation in Syria remains only 30 percent complete, with $692 million of the $2.28 billion required to fully feed, clothe, and provide shelter and medicine to Syria’s population provided from donor governments.
Humanitarian aid groups used the U.N. announcement to castigate the world — especially countries outside the region — for not dedicating enough resources to helping the vast number of people who have been affected by the violence. “As the number of refugees grows, aid is proving insufficient and neighboring countries are stretched to breaking point,”Andy Baker, Oxfam’s head of Syria crisis response, said in a statement. “It is shocking that over three years into a crisis which shows no sign of abating, rich countries have resettled a mere 5,000 of the 3 million registered refugees who are often struggling to survive from one day to the next.”
David Miliband, International Rescue Committee president and CEO, agreed that Syria’s neighbors need more help. “The three million refugees from the Syria conflict represent three million indictments of government brutality, opposition violence and international failure,” Milliband said in a statement. “This appalling milestone needs to generate action as well as anger,” he continued, adding that “there needs to be greatly increased efforts to reduce [the Syrian people’s] suffering.”
The announcement comes one week after the U.N. gave its first update in months of the number of men, women, and children who have been killed in the civil war. According to a tally of confirmed deaths, not counting those who died from second-hand effects such as starvation or have simply vanished, at least 191,369 have been killed over the course of the war. This also doesn’t include another 51,953 reported deaths that the U.N. couldn’t verify.
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