Yale Gets Medieval On Rapists With Written Reprimands And Sometimes Even Suspension

 
 Yale, you seem like a lovely little college, with your charming brick buildings and all that ivy, and a student body filled with young eager minds who use "summer" as a verb and have collectively donated dozens of extracurricular hours teaching inner city youth how to yacht. Oh, and of course your ever-so-sensitive and tolerant policy toward rapists :

The word "rape" does not factor into Yale's new report on how the university is handling sexual misconduct; instead, the act is described as "nonconsensual sex," and it's usually punishable by "written reprimand." [...]

Based on our analysis of the report, Yale has formally found sufficient evidence against six perpetrators of "nonconsensual sex" so far in 2013.* Of these six perpetrators, only one was suspended, and only for one year. Four received "written reprimands," and one is on "probation." To summarize: five out of these six perpetrators of rape will graduate with a slap on the wrist (and an Ivy League diploma!) or stay on campus, and the sixth can come back in a year.

It is admirable that Yale -- one of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the whole nation, a school that has matriculated such fine minds as George Dubya Bush -- would refrain from using such a prejudicial and pedestrian word as "rape" to describe a violent sexual act that is done to a woman when she does not want it. These are complex situations, after all, and mere words cannot "fully capture the diversity and complexity of the circumstances associated with the complaints." And we all know that violent assaults on women are never simple.

Like when a 13-year-old slutty slut only says "no" twice , how is her rapist to know she means she does not want him to rape her? Even sexual harassment is a murky thing, as Sen. John McCain has told us , and protecting a woman's right to not be harassed on a college campus could very well mean violating the First Amendment rights of some young man or professor who might want to sexually harass her.

These are challenging situations that have no clear answer, and that is why we are so very impressed, Yale, that you have taken such a hard stance against rapists by making it quite clear that anyone who practices "nonconsensual sex" might possibly, under certain circumstances, face extremely harsh consequences, like a sternly worded letter. As one young Yale student noted , obviously without even a hint of sarcasm, "What lovely Yale traditions: the Game, Mory's Cups, administrative tolerance for rape." This kind of tolerance is definitely not what unshaven man-hating feminazis mean when they talk about "rape culture" and a general ho-humness about the way rape victims are treated while their assailants get off with little more than a slap on the wrist. Like a brief suspension. Or a written reprimand. Oh no. That is why it is so refreshing to see Yale implement this zero tolerance policy. Not against rape, of course. Er, sorry. Nonconsensual sex. But against actually doing something about it. Way to go, Yale. Lux et veritas 'n stuff.

[ Jezebel / Yale Report ]