Department of Education’s New Draft Regulations Disregard Student Safety and Misread the National Mood

(Washington, D.C.) Today, the New York Times reported that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is preparing sweeping new legal rules to attempt to weaken Title IX protections against sexual assault and sexual harassment of students in schools.

The following is a statement by Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC):

“These draft regulations further reveal Betsy DeVos’ and the Department of Education’s disregard for student safety, barely a week after we learned of their plan to use federal funds to put guns into schools. The #MeToo movement has changed the country and made clear that we need new institutional accountability to prevent and address sexual harassment and assault. The reports today indicate that Secretary DeVos and the Trump Administration, badly misreading the national mood, plan instead to give schools new leeway to dismiss the complaints of student survivors. Be clear: a movement will rise up to fight these attacks on the rights of students, the likes of which Secretary DeVos has not yet seen. She should reconsider whether she wants to go down this path.”

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For immediate release: August 29, 2018
Contact: Maria Patrick ([email protected])