Office of Civil Rights defends rights of accused, in sex assault case

The Chronicle of Higher Ed has the story, here:

In an apparent first, federal officials have found a college in violation of Title IX, the gender-equity law, for infringing on the rights of students accused of sexual violence.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights had opened an investigation of Wesley College, in Delaware, in July 2015. That investigation was one of more than 300 the office, known as OCR, has conducted into colleges for possibly mishandling reports of sexual violence.

In the past, OCR’s findings about colleges have occasionally alluded to the rights of accused students. But experts say the findings in the Wesley case,released Wednesday, seem to mark the first time that the office has cited unfair treatment of an accused student as the primary Title IX violation. …