The following posting by Pierce Harlan, appeared on Community of the Wrongly Accused. Pierce is speechless. I am speechless, almost. But first let me reprint Pierce’s words:
I am speechless. No discussion is necessary to underscore the evil behind Amanda Childress’s comment. She should be fired for it, if indeed the quotation is correct.
Amanda Childress, Sexual Assault Awareness Program coordinator at Dartmouth College, [said] campus policies aren’t going far enough to protect students. “Why could we not expel a student based on an allegation?” Childress asked at the panel, before noting that while 2 to 8 percent of accusations are unfounded (but not necessarily intentionally false), 90 to 95 percent are unreported, committed by repeat offenders, and intentional. “It seems to me that we value fair and equitable processes more than we value the safety of our students. And higher education is not a right. Safety is a right. Higher education is a privilege.”
Thankfully, there was a real lawyer present: “I think the ability of our communities to rely on the processes on both sides of the equation is inextricably connected to a fair, equitable process that is thorough and based on evidence, not just conjecture, speculation and rumor,” said Gina Smith, a partner at Pepper Hamilton Law Firm who consults with campuses on how best to address sexual assault and comply with federal laws. “We cannot in individual cases just punt to statistics.”
For the record, Ms. Smith summed up the philosophy of this blog. Childress’s comment is something we are seeing with alarming frequency among feminist writers: there is no necessity to worry about the wrongly accused because there are so few of them. The chilling suggestion is that we can adjudicate a specific case based on statistics — since it rarely happens, due process is unnecessary.
Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/02/12/disagreement-campus-judicial-systems
Here at A Voice for Men, we tried repeatedly, by phone and email, to reach Amanda Childress of Dartmouth College for comment, and to see if she wanted to retract her remarks, or somehow clarify her words in case she was somehow taken out of context. After almost a week she has not responded to any inquiries. We’d like to say we find that surprising, but we’re not; hateful ideologues rarely want to answer pointed questions, and it appears that “hateful ideologue” describes Amanda Childress of Dartmouth College perfectly.
It is interesting times we find ourselves in, where institutions of higher learning, which are both directly and indirectly funded by the government, do not feel obligated in any way to respect either the right to free speech or the right to due process. It is an inversion of justice: education is not a right so, therefore, you can destroy a man’s life with but a word?
Make no mistake, an expulsion, especially from a prestigious university like Dartmouth, is a very big deal. The ridiculously costly tuition monies will most likely not be returned. Word of the expulsion will reach other Ivy League and comparable prestigious institutions, and so once word gets out, other colleges may refuse you admission. The shame, humiliation, and mocking alone might drive some young men to suicide but, in any case, their academic and post-academic careers will be profoundly and negatively affected, possibly over for good, losing scholarships and/or finding themselves in massive college tuition debt they cannot pay. This is not to be dismissed, as if the destruction of these men’s lives is as insignificant as swatting a fly from the air.
While a few of my Libertarian pals won’t like this, and will be inclined to say “but it’s a private institution, they can do whatever they want!” I call bullshit: not only are all these institutions of higher learning receiving substantial government funding, giving them a higher obligation than “whatever the market will allow,” what we are talking about here should be seen as an illegal contract. Outlawed. With the full weight and penalty of law. If you eject a student, you need to give them their tuition money back, period, and you should on top of that be subject to a lawsuit for the damage you’ve done.
You can’t just take someone’s money, trash their reputation, then throw them out. People doing this sort of thing should not just face lawsuits, they should risk time behind bars for it and, at the very least, have their government funding stripped.
But we all know that will not fly in the current climate and “the free market” will not fix the problem by itself. In fact, the unfree market, as it is currently rigged, actually incentivizes this behavior: take a young man in, take his money, then chuck him out the door. Everybody wins but that young man, right?
Well, there’s one way the market could fix it: young men could start refusing to go to college at all. They’re increasingly opting not to, as women are a steadily-increasing overwhelming majority on most of our campuses. Maybe it’s time for Dartmouth and other colleges to face an incoming Freshman class of zero males.
Except we all know that won’t happen either. Most people are still caught up in the delusion that boys are failing in education because there’s something wrong with them, rather than something wrong with the system, and parents will continue to pressure their sons into entering the modern Factory Farm University that routinely grinds up inconvenient young men that is the modern American university.
So there’s also another way to fight the system:
As we all know, if you think you’ve been raped or sexually assaulted, you probably have been. Indeed, Paul Elam, Publisher of A Voice for Men, recently took the brave step of admitting that he may have a memory of being sexually assaulted by Amanda Childress of Dartmouth College. He has taken the courageous step of coming forward with his possible memory.
Here at A Voice for Men we want you to know that if, like Paul Elam, you think you have a memory of being sexually assaulted by Amanda Childress of Dartmouth College or, really, anyone else at Dartmouth College, you should be brave too. With some hunting, we followed links from Amanda Childress’ department at Dartmouth College, and found their anonymous reporting form. We all know how valuable and empowering anonymous reports can be–you can have courage without even identifying yourself!
Here at A Voice for Men strongly that if you have ever been sexually assaulted, or just made to feel creeped out and afraid of, Amanda Childress of Dartmouth College, or anyone else at Dartmouth College, you should take the courageous step of reporting Amanda Childress or anyone else for sexually assaulting you or making you feel afraid and creeped out, and give explicit details of what she or anyone else at Dartmouth may have done to you.
Remember, if you think you may have been sexually assaulted you probably were. And if you even think it may possibly have happened, and you don’t take the brave step of anonymously reporting, you are helping to promote Rape Culture. So be brave and report!
