Father of Falsely Accused Student Speaks Out as Biden Prepares to Gut Due Process
President Joe Biden has ordered officials to begin investigating ways to rescind changes to Title IX regulations instituted by the Trump administration to ensure due process for students accused of sexual assault.
The father of one falsely accused college student has expressed major concerns about Biden’s consideration of rolling back these changes.
In 2014, Corey Mock, a wrestler at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, was accused of sexual assault after a party, Fox News reported. After originally ruling that the encounter was not assault, a school adjudicator swiftly changed her mind.
“Within a couple of days, she reversed her decision with no evidence, no explanation,” Corey’s father, C.D. Mock, said on “Fox News @ Night.”
“That was the moment when we knew there’s more here than what we see, and something’s going on,” he said.
Corey Mock continued to fight as administrators barred him from wrestling during his senior year and tried to expel him. Eventually, he was exonerated by a Tennesee judge, who said campus officials’ actions were “arbitrary and capricious,” according to The College Fix.
The university’s actions were rooted in a 2011 move by the Obama administration to institute new guidance for schools in handling Title IX proceedings. It essentially came as close as possible to restricting due process for those accused of sexual assault.
“The Obama-era guidance required universities to probe essentially all complaints of sexual misconduct, no matter how long ago they allegedly occurred,” Fox News reported.
“It also further required schools to maintain copious records ahead of possible complaints and strongly discouraged schools from ‘allowing the parties personally to question or cross-examine each other during the hearing.'”
As education secretary under President Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos instituted different rules. She did so because she felt the Obama-era policies made students accused of sexual assault feel that their guilt was “pre-determined.”
Her rules still ensured the alleged victims‘ comfortability by preventing them from having to face the accused, but they allowed accused parties to ask questions through a representative. This seemed to be a good compromise, but it angered many on the left.
Sage Carson, the manager of an advocacy group for victims called Know Your IX, told NPR that DeVos’ rules discouraged victims from telling their stories.
“Right now, what we’re hearing from survivors is, ‘I don’t want to go through that process, the process is very scary to me, and those rules are very intimidating,'” she said.
Sexual assault is a very serious matter, and victims deserve to be able to tell their stories safely. With that said, due process is still very important.
Just because accusers “don’t want to go through that process” doesn’t mean that the process isn’t important. It may not always be fun to go through a trial, but due process is necessary for our country to function.
Believing that all accusers have the right to be heard is not the same as believing they are automatically telling the truth.
The unfortunate fact is that some people do falsely accuse others of sexual assault. If Biden pursues policies that assume guilt in sexual assault cases, false accusers will become even more common.
Our statement on President Biden’s Title IX executive order:
“These basic American protections should not be controversial or partisan.”https://t.co/Pdwx7X5E5c #TitleIX pic.twitter.com/dA4nOeksot
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) March 9, 2021
In addition, C.D. Mock said that a return to the Obama-era policies would also be a return to schools feeling threatened.
“This is where the Obama administration weaponized the schools because they basically said, you know, ‘If we find that you have not acted properly in these situations, we’re gonna remove your federal funding,'” he said.
While nothing is ever certain, the likelihood is that a fair hearing will ensure a more fair result. Once all the facts are revealed, it is much more likely that the correct decision will be reached.
There is no crime where the accuser should be automatically believed without a fair trial. Due process is ensured to all Americans for a reason.
Contrary to what the Biden administration may have you believe, supporting the rights of the accused does not mean that you are silencing alleged victims.
It simply means that you believe in the process outlined in our Constitution.
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