Lawsuit Accuses Betsy DeVos And Her Deputies Of Being Motivated By Sexism
The lawsuit says that the education secretary’s decision to scrap Obama-era rules governing sexual assault on campus was based on bias and stereotypes.
A new filing in a lawsuit against the Trump administration accuses Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and a top deputy of being motivated in part by sexism in their policy decisions.
The lawsuit, originally filed in January, challenged DeVos’ elimination of Obama-era Title IX guidance on how sexual assault cases are handled on campus. But an amended complaint submitted Wednesday says that DeVos’ decision was influenced by discriminatory and stereotyped views of women.
DeVos scrapped the Title IX guidance in September 2017, issuing her own interim guidance on the subject. Her version lowered the standard of evidence used in campus sexual assault cases. At the time, DeVos said that the Obama administration’s directive was an example of federal overreach.
But plaintiffs in the filing say DeVos and her deputies had more nefarious motivations, and they use new Freedom of Information Act records as evidence. The records indicate that Department of Education leaders had solicited input from groups and academics who push inflated and widely discredited statistics regarding the prevalence of false rape allegations. A National Sexual Violence Resource Center study found that false reports Continue reading: Lawsuit Accuses Betsy DeVos And Her Deputies Of Being Motivated By Sexism | HuffPost
