The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. May 7, 2020 New Campus Sexual Assault Rules Bolster Protection for Accused Students ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Education Secretary Betsy De Vos on Wednesday unveiled new sexual assault policies for college and school campuses that weaken the rights of sexual violence survivors while bolstering protections for people accused of sexual harassment or assault. The new rules - set to take effect in August - also reduce the legal liabilities against colleges and schools, and narrow the scope of which cases schools and colleges are required to investigate. Advocacy groups supporting survivors of sexual violence have vowed to fight the new policies. Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, denounced the rules, saying, "This is all part of this administration's ongoing attempts to undermine the civil rights of students. All students deserve an educational environment free from sex discrimination and violence." .