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McCaskill visits MU to discuss sexual violence on college campuses

Jason Hoffman
/
KBIA
Senator Claire McCaskill spoke at MU on Tuesday to discuss her proposed bill trying to combat sexual violence on college cmapuses.

Senator Claire McCaskill visited MU on Tuesday to discuss her bipartisan legislation aimed at protecting students and strengthening accountability and transparency at colleges and universities. Representatives from eight mid-Missouri schools as well as law enforcement officials and students were at the event.

McCaskill’s primary purpose was to find out the biggest issues regarding sexual violence on campus and ways to improve the reporting process for students.  She noted that many campuses nationwide clearly aren’t following the laws currently in place to protect students based on results from a nationwide survey. 

“Forty percent of them (universities) have not conducted a Title IX, sexual assault investigation in five years,” McCaskill said.  “Now keep in mind that these investigations are mandated if there’s a complaint.”

McCaskill said the reason institutions aren’t conducting investigations is because the current punishment for violating Title IX is a loss of all federal funding.  She says, that punishment is nothing more than an empty threat and is a major factor in institutions failure to act. 

“Some schools that have serious and pervasive problems have gone on for months and months and sometimes years because there’s no impetus to get to the end of the process because they’re not going to do anything to us anyway,” McCaskill said.

McCaskill says her legislation aims to put enforceable punishments in place and make students aware of who they can talk to in the event they witness or are the victim of sexual violence. 

Many in attendance were concerned that students often don’t know what exactly constitutes sexual assault.  The senator speculated that the “sexual culture” at many schools now blurs the line for many people, and victims don’t always know when they have been a victim. 

Chief Executive Officer of the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence Coleen Coble said educating students on their rights has to be a top priority. 

“First there has to be really solid information on what is a sexual assault, what is rape, knowing that in Missouri if there’s no consent, it is a crime,” Coble said. 

McCaskill’s visit to MU comes less than a week after the UM System ratified new Title IX policies, making it easier for students and faculty to report an incident of sexual violence.  She will visit 10 schools across the state by the end of the week to discuss her Campus Accountability and Safety Act

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