The Student Press Law Center’s latest example of college administrators misusing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) involves the University of Houston sexual-assault case.
As The College Fix noted, the school is being sued by students who were expelled following a sexual-assault investigation and adjudication that they claim lacked due process. They said they were “kept in the dark about the investigation and given little chance to defend themselves,” as the Houston Chronicle reported.
SPLC’s FERPA Fact website, which judges dubious uses of the law, calls BS on the school’s claim that it can’t comment on the lawsuit because of FERPA. Attorney Advocate Adam Goldstein says:
I go back and forth on whether I think this kind of excuse is only somewhat false or entirely false. Refusing to comment on a lawsuit because you might disclose the contents of education records is a bit like refusing to go to the bank because you might rob it: ordinary good judgment and self-control ought to be enough to avoid the outcome in question.
If administrators are this confused about the nature of student-privacy law, there’s a decent chance they don’t have a good grasp of due process either.
(On a side note, the Chronicle cites a statistic I haven’t previously seen in a media report or from victim advocates: “Multiple studies have shown that 5 percent of college women are victims of rape or attempted rape every year.” It’s not clear where that comes from, though a Baltimore Sun op-ed last month cited a Ms. magazine report that said only 1 in 4 women who were raped or the attempt of rape actually “identifies her experience as rape,” which produces figures between 1-in-16 and 1-in-20.)
Read the full FERPA Fact post.
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