Thread by @knowyourIX

🧵Flimsy procedural protections harm all students––so we reject the idea that protections for survivors are in tension with fair processes.

That's why KYIX organizer @nesbittsarahe joined the Title IX hearings to share our recs for a fair process. knowyourix.org/issues/fair-pr…

Here are 5 main ways that the parties on differing sides of a Title IX investigation actually have many interests that align. The Department should act decisively to protect all students in those arenas.

1⃣ED should ensure clear and prompt notice of school policies and procedures related to sexual misconduct. This means having clear policies about what constitutes sexual misconduct, a carefully delineated reporting and investigation process, and prompt and unambiguous notice.

2⃣ED should prohibit bias at any step in the reporting and investigation processes. Investigators and decision-makers should be trained and vetted for conflicts of interest–– including a school’s fear of litigation.

3⃣ED should promote investigative and decision-making models that contain the checks and balances needed to promote procedural and substantive fairness. Such as dual and multiple investigator models and panel-style decision-making.

4⃣ED should require schools to provide parties with equitable, meaningful accommodations. This includes measures to ensure student safety, to provide emotional and logistical support, and to make it possible for students to continue to learn.

5⃣ED should holds schools to the same expectations of equity and fairness in sexual misconduct investigations as in all other investigations related to civil rights. This means ED must adopt uniform procedural guidelines for investigating all student civil right violations.

While it may be easy to depict complainant and respondent interests as mutually exclusive, this is false.

We encourage @usedgov to create processes that support a survivors' continued access to education while upholding a fair process for respondents.