California universities’ sexual assault policies: clear or murky?
California is a vanguard state for taking the lead on many matters of national importance.
Today (and in our immediately following blog post of this week), we take a look at one such matter that is unquestionably significant across the country and most assuredly in need of a broadly purposeful response from authoritative figures and officials.
The officials we centrally refer to are college and university administrators.
The subject matter: Sexual assault, including rape, on college campuses.
That topic is a troublesome and persistent focus in higher-level schools across the country, and California was the first state to respond to it by crafting law that directly addresses it.
To wit: State lawmakers passed legislation last year mandating that all colleges in the state implement policies geared toward reducing instances of rape and all other unwanted sexual contacts between California students.
As noted in one media article focusing upon the sexual assault policies, centrally notable is the duty that each college address affirmative consent, which is statutorily defined as an “affirmative, conscious and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity.”
Those words have raised the eyebrows of some critics and drawn strong praise from victim advocacy groups, respectively. A representative comment from the former camp is that the standard is too subjective to be practical. A common rejoinder from advocates of sexual assault victims is that any standard based upon open communication between two people prior to any sexual contact is a salutary development and minimizes the potential for misunderstandings.
We’ll take a closer look at affirmative consent and related issues in our next post.
Serving clients throughout the Greater Los Angeles and Southern California area, we represent victims in a variety of civil litigation cases. If you or a loved one has been injured, turn to an experienced Los Angeles personal injury or sexual assault lawyer.
Find out more about Taylor & Ring.