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Virginia students face new transcript penalties for sexual-misconduct allegations

UPDATED

Virginia is adding a scarlet letter to the transcripts of students who are punished in some way for alleged sexual misconduct.

WHSV reports that new laws went into effect Wednesday, and they not only require schools to quickly notify local law enforcement of any sexual-assault investigation and employees to quickly notify the school of any allegations:

Any student under investigation for an offense involving sexual violence will have a special notation on their transcript.

As Ashe Schow of the Washington Examiner noted, however, the law also requires schools to devise procedures for removing the transcript notation for a student “subsequently found not to have committed an offense.”

 

The wording is a bit unclear as to whether students who are suspended before a final judgment will have notations put on their transcripts right then and there:

[The school] shall include a prominent notation on the academic transcript of each student who has been suspended for, has been permanently dismissed for, or withdraws from the institution while under investigation for an offense involving sexual violence under the institution’s code, rules, or set of standards governing student conduct stating that such student was suspended for, was permanently dismissed for, or withdrew from the institution while under investigation for an offense involving sexual violence under the institution’s code, rules, or set of standards.

Contrast this with the notation-removal language further down the paragraph:

[The school] shall adopt a procedure for removing such notation from the academic transcript of any student who is subsequently found not to have committed an offense …

The use of the “found not” language implies that a final determination is required to remove the notation – the omission of parallel language (such as “who has been found to have committed”) at the top of the paragraph leaves that ambiguous as to when the notation goes on.

Schow told The Fix on Twitter that she talked to a representative who said students “simply under investigation won’t have the notation” on their transcripts.

Read the story and the law.

CORRECTION: The law requires schools to adopt procedures for removing the transcript notation if a student is later exonerated. WHSV omitted the exoneration clause in its reporting. The headline, article and excerpt have been amended to reflect this.

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About the Author
Associate Editor
Greg Piper served as associate editor of The College Fix from 2014 to 2021.