An interesting fact is that this so call rape crisis and rape culture is occurring at the same time that reported rapes are at a 33 or 34 years low.
The problem of violence against women has received renewed attention since the NFL has been forced to confront a number of domestic abuse problems.
"The fact is from sport leagues to pop culture to politics, our society does not sufficiently value women," Obama said.
Both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden said the problem of sexual assault is not just a women’s issue, and it is up to men to stand up and help protect and support victims of assault. At the White House they announced the launch of the “It’s On Us” campaign, aimed at making schools more accountable and encouraging men to join the cause.
“It is on the parents of young men to teach them respect for women, and on grown men to set an example and be clear on what it means to be a man,” Obama said.
http://www.wistv.com/story/26568831/clemson-drops-survey-that-asks-about-students-sex-lives
CLEMSON, SC (WYFF) -
Following criticism from the conservative group, Campus Reform, Clemson University has suspended an online training course that includes a survey in which students are asked about their sex lives.
Thursday afternoon, university officials released a statement saying, "Clemson University has suspended an online Title IX training module to further review the content.
"‘This online course, used by other universities across the country, was selected to be given to undergraduate students this summer and fall as part of a comprehensive effort to prevent sexual discrimination, harassment and assault in response to growing concerns about these incidents on campuses across the nation and to meet federal requirements,' said Shannon Finning, dean of students and associate vice president for Student Affairs.
"We learned of concerns about some anonymous questions in the module for undergraduate students. We have suspended the training until the content is further reviewed and revised to ensure that it meets our goal of making Clemson a safer campus for all students, faculty and staff, while also respecting individual privacy.
"Individual responses to the questions posed during the training are anonymous and cannot be seen by Clemson or the vendor that provided the training module."
The suspension of the course followed an article on posted on campusreform.org that says, "In screenshots obtained exclusively by 'Campus Reform,' the South Carolina university is asking students invasive and personal questions about their drinking habits and sex life as part of what they've billed as an online Title IX training course.
"'How many times have you had sex (including oral) in the last 3 months?' asks one question.
"'With how many different people have you had sex (including oral) in the last 3 months?" asks another.
"In a campus-wide email, the South Carolina university announced that all students, faculty, and staff would be required to complete a mandatory, one-hour long Title IX training course by Nov. 1."
Campus Reform is a project of the Leadership Institute, an organization with a mission statement that says its goal is to "increase the number and effectiveness of conservative activists and leaders in the public policy process."
The statement says in order to accomplish its goals, the Institute identifies, recruits, trains, and places conservatives in government, politics, and the media.
The Leadership Institute says, "As a watchdog to the nation's higher education system, 'Campus Reform' exposes bias and abuse on the nation's college campuses. Our team of professional journalists works alongside student activists and student journalists to report on the conduct and misconduct of university administrators, faculty, and students. 'Campus Reform' holds itself to rigorous journalism standards and strives to present each story with accuracy, objectivity, and public accountability."
Copyright 2014 WYFF. All rights reserved.
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The questions were included among other slides related to campus resources and exercises in how to deal with potential scenarios, Finning said. On the whole, the course was intended to address requirements under Title IX to make students aware of resources for dealing with sexual violence and how to report sexual misconduct, she said.
Schools that receive federal funding are required under the Violence Against Women Act to provide sexual violence education to new and returning students and employees. Guidance under Title IX issued by the Office for Civil Rights in 2001 and 2014 also makes clear that schools should be providing educational programs on sexual violence to their student body, said Nancy Chi Cantalupo with the professional group Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.
Surveys are not required by Title IX and VAWA, and schools do not have to purchase surveys or educational programs from third parties, Cantalupo said. There are several models schools can adapt, including White House guidelines.
http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/California-adopts-yes-means-yes-sex-assault-rule-5787273.php
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown announced Sunday that he has signed a bill that makes California the first in the nation to define when "yes means yes" and adopt requirements for colleges to follow when investigating sexual assault reports.
State lawmakers last month approved SB967 by Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, as states and universities across the U.S. are under pressure to change how they handle rape allegations. Campus sexual assault victims and women's advocacy groups delivered petitions to Brown's office on Sept. 16 urging him to sign the bill.
De Leon has said the legislation will begin a paradigm shift in how college campuses in California prevent and investigate sexual assaults. Rather than using the refrain "no means no," the definition of consent under the bill requires "an affirmative, conscious and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity."
"Every student deserves a learning environment that is safe and healthy," De Leon said in a statement Sunday night. "The State of California will not allow schools to sweep rape cases under the rug. We've shifted the conversation regarding sexual assault to one of prevention, justice, and healing."
The legislation says silence or lack of resistance does not constitute consent. Under the bill, someone who is drunk, drugged, unconscious or asleep cannot grant consent.
Lawmakers say consent can be nonverbal, and universities with similar policies have outlined examples as a nod of the head or moving in closer to the person.
(good luck to male CA college students])
Advocates for victims of sexual assault supported the change as one that will provide consistency across campuses and challenge the notion that victims must have resisted assault to have valid complaints.
"This is amazing," said Savannah Badalich, a student at UCLA, where classes begin this week, and the founder of the group 7000 in Solidarity. "It's going to educate an entire new generation of students on what consent is and what consent is not... that the absence of a no is not a yes."
The bill requires training for faculty reviewing complaints so that victims are not asked inappropriate questions when filing complaints. The bill also requires access to counseling, health care services and other resources.
When lawmakers were considering the bill, critics said it was overreaching and sends universities into murky legal waters. Some Republicans in the Assembly questioned whether statewide legislation is an appropriate venue to define sexual consent between two people.
There was no opposition from Republicans in the state Senate.
Gordon Finley, an adviser to the National Coalition for Men, wrote an editorial asking Brown not to sign the bill. He argued that "this campus rape crusade bill" presumes the guilt of the accused.
SB967 applies to all California post-secondary schools, public and private, that receive state money for student financial aid. The California State University and University of California systems are backing the legislation after adopting similar consent standards this year.
UC President Janet Napolitano recently announced that the system will voluntarily establish an independent advocate to support sexual assault victims on every campus. An advocacy office also is a provision of the federal Survivor Outreach and Support Campus Act proposed by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Susan Davis of San Diego, both Democrats.
In fact, Good2Go could contribute a dangerous new element to those he-said she-said rape cases. What Good2Go doesn’t tell users is that it keeps a private record of every “I’m Good2Go” agreement logged in its system, tied to both users’ personal phone numbers and Good2Go accounts. (Records of interactions where users say “No” or just want to talk are not logged in this way.) Allman says that regular users aren’t permitted access to those records, but a government official with a subpoena could. “It wouldn’t be released except under legal circumstances,” Allman told me. “But it does create a data point that there was an occasion where one party asked the other for affirmative consent, that could be useful in the future … there are cases, of course, as we know, where the accused is an innocent party, so in that case, it could be beneficial to him.”
That record may help the falsely accused, but it's unlikely to aid a real victim. Good2Go may remind its users that consent can be revoked at any time, but there are still judges and juries that will take evidence that a person said “yes” to sex at one point, and conclude that they were asking for whatever happened later that night (or the next). Compared to that scenario, talking about sex doesn’t seem so scary.
Nicely ignoring that men are very often the victims of sexual assault, and that women are often the abusers...
Molly Shattuck charged with rape and sexual contact with minor
November 5, 2014
Molly Shattuck, the former Ravens cheerleader who was married to onetime Constellation Energy CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III, was arrested Wednesday and charged with third-degree rape and unlawful sexual contact with a 15-year-old boy, Delaware State Police said..
The 47-year-old mother of three, who has been active in local charities such as the United Way of Central Maryland and the Baltimore School for the Arts, is accused of giving alcohol to the boy, who is her son's classmate, and performing oral sex on him at a Delaware beach house over the Labor Day weekend, according to an affidavit for a search warrant filed in Baltimore County District Court.
Shattuck was arraigned Wednesday morning in Sussex County Superior Court in Georgetown, Del. She pleaded not guilty and was released on $84,000 bond — on the condition that she have no contact with the alleged victim or other minors except her own children, according to the Delaware attorney general's office. She was also required to turn in her passport, officials said.
"She is maintaining her innocence," said Shattuck's defense lawyer, Eugene Maurer, of Wilmington, Del. "She is obviously quite distraught." Shattuck is due back in court Dec. 3 for a case review, Maurer said.
A Delaware grand jury handed up a nine-count indictment against Shattuck on Monday, and it was unsealed Wednesday. She was charged with two counts of third-degree rape, which carries a potential sentence of two to 25 years in prison on each count; four counts of unlawful sexual contact in the second degree, with a penalty of up to three years in prison, and three counts of providing alcohol to a minor, which carries a fine of $100 to $500 and could lead to an order of community service or imprisonment of up to 60 days.
According to the affidavit, the boy — a student at the McDonogh School — told police that Shattuck began a flirtation with him on the social networking site Instagram in May.
The Baltimore Sun does not name alleged victims of sexual crimes.
The McDonogh School issued a statement Wednesday saying that administrators contacted police in late September as soon as they learned of allegations involving a student and a parent of another student.
"The safety and well-being of our students is our greatest priority at all times," Headmaster Charles W. Britton wrote to parents of McDonogh students in an email Wednesday. The letter said the parent — who was not named — had been banned from campus.
Shattuck, a self-styled fitness and lifestyle guru who was the oldest cheerleader in the history of the NFL, began sending provocative messages to the boy in the spring saying, "we would have fun together," according to the affidavit.
The two had sexual contact in the parking lot of a Columbia movie theater, the affidavit said, and also drove to a middle school parking lot where they kissed in the back seat of Shattuck's Cadillac Escalade.
In the summer, she would pick up the boy during his lunch breaks from a class and drive him to the parking garage of the T. Rowe Price building in Owings Mills where they would "get in the back of the car and kiss or 'make out,'" according to the affidavit.
Over Labor Day weekend, the boy joined Shattuck and her three children — who range in age from 11 to 15 — and their friends at a Bethany Beach rental home, according to the affidavit. The boy, who had traveled to the beach separately, asked his father for permission to spend the night with Shattuck's family. Shattuck, documents say, assured the boy's father that "there was no alcohol or drugs at the residence and she was the only adult."
However, she shared wine with the alleged victim while he played "music and games" with the other boys, according to the affidavit. Around 2 a.m., Shattuck left the younger children asleep in the rental home and took the alleged victim and other teenagers to a liquor store and purchased Miller Lite and Bud Light beer for them, the document states.
Back at the house, Shattuck asked the alleged victim to help her walk the dog. Once they got outside, she began kissing and fondling him, then performed oral sex on him, according to the affidavit. The boy then went up to a rooftop deck, where he and the other teens drank alcohol.
Shattuck then "came up and said that [the alleged victim] needs to go to bed," according to the affidavit.
The boy then went into Shattuck's bedroom, where she stripped to her underwear, performed oral sex on him again and told him she would be willing to have intercourse, the affidavit states. He decided to leave the bedroom. The boy's father picked him up in the morning, and the boy has not had contact with Shattuck since the incident, according to the affidavit.
According to the letter from the headmaster of the McDonogh School, he learned of allegations against a parent on Sept. 24. Britton said in the letter that he immediately reported the allegations to Baltimore County police.
"I want you to know that the parent has been prohibited from entering McDonogh's campus," he wrote, "and additional security measures have been in place to assure the safety of our students since the incident was reported."
Delaware authorities said in a statement that Baltimore County police contacted them Sept. 26 to report that the 15-year-old had said he had an inappropriate relationship with a woman later identified as Shattuck.
Delaware State Police searched Shattuck's North Baltimore home Oct. 1, seizing items they identified as "pertinent to the investigation." The affidavit gave police permission to seize Shattuck's cellphone, computers and other electronic devices as well as the "pink lace bra and underwear" that the alleged victim said Shattuck wore at the beach house.
Howard County police said Wednesday that the alleged incident at the Columbia movie theater was not reported to authorities at the time.
Police are investigating the allegations, said Howard police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn.
Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger said his office had "reviewed the facts and the circumstances of the allegations" but was deferring prosecution due to the "seriousness of the allegations in Delaware."
"Should additional facts come to light or circumstances change in the case in Delaware, this decision will be revisited," Shellenberger said.
A spokeswoman with the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore said Shattuck had not been charged by that agency. The agency will neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation, she said.
No one answered Shattuck's front door — still decorated with black and orange streamers for Halloween — at her home Wednesday morning. Neighbors either declined to comment or said they did not know the Shattucks well.
Mayo Shattuck, who before joining Constellation was chairman of the board of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, referred calls to a family spokesman, George P. Stamas, also formerly with the investment firm.
"Mr. Shattuck is shocked and saddened about the allegations against his ex-wife, from whom he is divorced," said Stamas, now a senior partner at the Kirkland & Ellis law firm in Washington. "He is focused on the care and welfare of his children, who are with him, and is deeply concerned about others affected by this. He requests that the privacy of his children be respected."
Mayo Shattuck is now chairman of Exelon Corp., the Chicago-based energy giant that acquired Constellation in 2012.
Michelle N. Lipkowitz, a Baltimore-based attorney representing Molly Shattuck, said her client has resigned from all of her nonprofit boards, including the Baltimore School for the Arts, United Way and the National Children's Museum.
"It is a difficult time for all involved," Lipkowitz said, declining further comment.
The United Way of Central Maryland said Molly Shattuck, who sat on their board and was "a longtime volunteer," is barred from any future participation with the organization, according to spokeswoman Danielle Hogan.
The allegations about Molly Shattuck had circulated through Baltimore for weeks before the indictment was handed up. As rumors spread, a website promoting her book, "Molly Shattuck Vibrant Living," went into maintenance mode and her various social media accounts were shut down.
The allegations about Molly Shattuck had circulated through Baltimore for weeks before the indictment was handed up. As rumors spread, a website promoting her book, "Molly Shattuck Vibrant Living," went into maintenance mode and her various social media accounts were shut down.
"It's the talk of the town. It's probably the most sensational thing that's ever hit Baltimore," said Lainy LeBow-Sachs, executive vice president at the Kennedy Kreiger Institute and a prominent player in the local philanthropic community." I think it's a very sad time. It's sad for the children and the family, and it's sad for her. The whole thing is just pathetic."
Adam Rosenberg, executive director of the nonprofit Baltimore Child Abuse Center, said people mistakenly tend to trivialize the impact of sexual abuse on a teenage male. Speaking not about the alleged victim in the Shattuck case but about teenage boys in general, he said, "Even though he may look and act like an adult, his brain is not there yet. A 15-year-old doesn't know he is being manipulated, he is being taken advantage of and ultimately exploited."
Rosenberg suggested that parents closely monitor their children's use of social media.
"It takes a community to protect children," he said. "If other adults and children are seeing behavior between adults and children that doesn't seem right, they need to report it."...
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-ae-molly-shattuck-20141105-story.html#page=1
do you think this is a case of false allegation made by the 15 year old
I dont think this 15 yo made an allegation...
Delaware authorities said in a statement that Baltimore County police contacted them Sept. 26 to report that the 15-year-old had said he had an inappropriate relationship with a woman later identified as Shattuck.
is woman has taken " think young, act young, be young" to an extreme that is almost pathological. She needs help, but not for giving a lucky young guy almost certainly the best blowjob he has ever had.
Funny you can't see that this woman is a a sexual predator, given how she enticed this child, including with the use of alcohol, if this is how you think about it.
in exactly the same way as a 47 year old man who acts in a similar manner with a 14 year old female child.
She was a sexual provider, free from what I can tell, she is the opposite of a predator...
Quote:do you think this is a case of false allegation made by the 15 year old
I dont think this 15 yo made an allegation, I think this 15 yo had a great time doing what he wanted to do and does not consider himself to be a victim so there is no abuser to accuse . He then made the mistake of blabbing about it. Eventually after a few weeks the principal found out about it and reported the allegation,that being the principal's allegation.
It was a blowjob, it is not a big deal to me. You will recall that I think that 15yo's should be given their sexual freedom. I am more concerned that this 47yo is providing alcohol to and I think drinking with a group of underaged boys. This woman has taken " think young, act young, be young" to an extreme that is almost pathological. She needs help, but not for giving a lucky young guy almost certainly the best blowjob he has ever had. Lets give this woman some counselling, and this young man a backslap.