Glimpse into the eye of the storm...

[orangeluvr]

I've never been found "Quilty" of anything.

:lolabove: Someone is paying attention. Mistake has been corrected. :hi:

 

[dillyo51]

no comment!

I'm shocked.

 

[madtownvol]

Jennings may be vindicated in the end. The more that gets leaked about the story, the worse the UTAD department looks. There could be a major transformation in the admin and coaching staffs before all is said and done:

Tennessee Coach Called Sexual Assault Whistleblower A Traitor, Lawsuit Claims

This story is now up on ESPN as well:

Butch Jones told Tennessee WR he 'betrayed the team' for helping alleged assault victim

 

[Voluble2]

The best case scenario is the suit is thrown out , could happen. If tried next best is title IX will be amended to limit the universities responsibility to the expulsion of the alleged perpetrator and informing local law enforcement officials.

Why? University officials and campus police are not qualified and equipped to conduct criminal investigations.The standards and burden of proof are much lower and decisions favor the accuser. guilt or innocence is better left up to the court system. :dunno:

You can't throw someone out just because an allegation is made. Stop and think for a moment what sort of chaos that would cause. There are already over 100 lawsuits pending across the country where students accused of sexual assault have been denied their due process rights. In some of those cases the accused have not even been allowed to know what they were accused of, or who was accusing them.

The DOE, in a wholly illegal power grab, tried to cram a bunch of stuff under Title IX, including things like a "yes means yes" standard and denying those accused of sexual assault the right to a hearing, or counsel, or to gather and present evidence of their innocence. Universities were faced with the choice of losing federal funding or opening themselves to lawsuits by the expelled students that they are now losing. The plaintiffs in this case are very clear about wanting the deny due process rights to the the accused. It is in their complaint and was front and center in The Tennessean article written by the reporter who is the mouthpiece for the plaintiff's lawyer.

The plaintiffs say that UT’s administrative hearing process, which is utilized by public universities across the state, is unfair because it provides students accused of sexual assault the right to attorneys and to confront their accusers through cross-examination and an evidentiary hearing in front of an administrative law judge.

Whatever their legitimate claims, shoehorning that into the lawsuit just makes the whole thing more a political exercise than anything else. Tennessee has some of the strongest due process protections in the country and if they can break UT then they win without ever having to actually pass any legislation. That is the subtext to all of this. It is the motivation just as much as any monetary settlement. And you can't understand what is happening here without knowing all of this background.

Rape is a serious crime and I agree it should be handled by the police and court system. If you want to execute rapists then I think men would be far more likely to agree that is a just punishment than even women. But if the university is going to punish someone then you have to have a fair process to sort out legitimate claims from illegitimate ones. You can wait until someone is convicted and then expel them, or you can provide a fair avenue for them to prove their innocence. Those are your only two choices. What the plaintiffs are asking for is a star chamber where allegations are just rubber stamped.

It has gotten so bad that some universities have these cases decided by people who believe that regret=rape. That is not the case in Tennessee, but it is becoming more common elsewhere in the country and was a major issue in the recent case at Brown University.