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601 S. Henderson Road, Suite 205 King of Prussia, PA 19406-3596 tele: (610) 768-9330 Assault victim speaks out (The Daily Press; 10/05/02) U.S. Department of Education Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) website FERPA Statute (20 USC 1232g) |
October 10, 2002
Mr. LeRoy Rooker, Director Family Policy Compliance Office U.S. Department of Education 400 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20202-4605
Re: Victim Redisclosure Of Campus Court Rulings
Dear Mr. Rooker:
Colleges and universities across the country are continuing to abuse the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in order to hide campus crime information from their students and the public.
If student victims of violence at the hands of other students attempt to speak out about how a school handled disciplining their assailant they face threats of disciplinary action themselves and other measures meant to silence them.
Most recently, the College of William and Mary removed from their campus a poster identifying by name a student who had been suspended for allegedly raping another student, but who is going to be allowed back on campus.
The college told the victim, who had posted the information in an effort to change campus policy and warn her fellow students, that what she had done was in violation of FERPA. A newspaper article from the Daily Press dated October 5 of this year detailing this situation is enclosed for your review.
These unconscionable abuses of power shouldn't still be happening. As you know, in 1998 Congress amended FERPA to allow the public release of "final results" from campus court proceedings where a student is found to have broken school rules with respect to an alleged crime of violence. The language used by Congress was universal and unambiguous. "Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit an institution of postsecondary education from disclosing the final results" is the exact language used.
Despite this universal exemption, regulations issued by the Department of Education continue to prohibit the victims of these crimes from publicly redisclosing the "final results" not only if it is found no school rules were broken, where FERPA still does afford confidentiality, but even if it is found that school rules were broken and there is no longer a confidentiality protection found in the law.
The Department needs to immediately make it clear to colleges and universities that victims of violent crimes in cases where it is found that school rules were broken can publicly redisclose the name of their assailant, what they were accused of, and the disciplinary action, if any, taken by the school. The regulations should also be rewritten as soon as possible to make it clear that there are no longer any legal grounds to prohibit victims from redisclosing the "final results" of their cases when school rules are found to have been broken.
The Department also needs to take a very serious look at the non-redisclosure regulations applied to cases where schools don't find rule violations. Schools are using rules meant for entirely different situations, third party contractors with no legitimate personal interest in the records for example, to silence the legitimate concerns of crime victims who want to seek justice. This must not be allowed to continue.
We look forward to the Department taking prompt action to rectify these egregious situations. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
c.c.: U.S. Rep. Mark Foley Judge Eric Andell |
