Full Text of HR0209 101st General Assembly
HR0209 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice | 3 | | Statistics found that, on average, 20.5 percent of college | 4 | | women have experienced sexual assault since entering college; | 5 | | and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, Moreover, the National Sexual Violence Resource | 7 | | Center estimates that more than 60 percent of sexual assaults | 8 | | are never even reported to police; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, To address these issues, the U.S. Department of | 10 | | Education's Office for Civil Rights under the Obama | 11 | | administration issued guidelines that instructed universities | 12 | | that they were obligated to combat sexual assault and | 13 | | harassment under Title IX, a 1972 law prohibiting sex | 14 | | discrimination in federally-funded educational programs; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, The guidelines also established a requirement | 16 | | that college disciplinary proceedings rely on a preponderance | 17 | | of evidence when adjudicating cases of sexual assault; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, In 2017, the Trump administration rescinded these | 19 | | guidelines and announced its intention to engage the federal | 20 | | rulemaking process to establish new rules governing the | 21 | | schools' responsibilities concerning sexual harassment and |
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| 1 | | assault complaints; and
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released a | 3 | | proposed rule in November 2018 that would narrow the scope of | 4 | | allegations schools will be responsible for investigating and | 5 | | would enable schools to choose a higher legal standard for | 6 | | considering evidence; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, The Education Department received more than | 8 | | 100,000 public comments on the proposed rulemaking, which the | 9 | | Department is now reviewing in preparation for issuing a final | 10 | | rule; and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined a | 12 | | coalition of 19 attorneys general in submitting a comment | 13 | | letter urging federal officials to withdraw the proposed rule, | 14 | | as it undermines the anti-discrimination protections of Title | 15 | | IX and weakens protections against sexual harassment and | 16 | | violence for students; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, After passing the Preventing Sexual Violence in | 18 | | Higher Education Act in 2015, Illinois now has one of the | 19 | | strongest state laws to protect student survivors of sexual | 20 | | assault on campus; therefore, be it
| 21 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE |
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| 1 | | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 2 | | we urge Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Department of | 3 | | Education to withdraw the proposed rule and instead pursue | 4 | | policies that reflect the concerns raised by law enforcement, | 5 | | create a safe environment for victims to report instances, | 6 | | aggressively address the problem of campus sexual assault and | 7 | | harassment, and broadly address all instances of sexual | 8 | | harassment affecting college students; and be it further
| 9 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 10 | | delivered to Secretary DeVos.
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