Title IX's Sexual Harassment Guidelines & Beckett Brennan's 60 Minutes Story

by Nate Parham on Apr 25, 2011 8:00 AM EDT in Sports & Society

For the full video, click here.

An April 17 CBS News 60 Minutes story (above) described the case of former University of the Pacific women's basketball player Beckett Brennan, who was sexually assaulted in 2008 and eventually stopped playing basketball as a result.

It's a complex case with plenty of issues to discuss in depth and the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA) has an outstanding follow-up interview with Joelle Gomez, Executive Director from the Women’s Center of San Joaquin County. However, one of the things not mentioned in the CALCASA piece or in detail by 60 Minutes is how exactly Brennan's case relates to the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights new guidance document to prevent and respond to sexual harassment, which is part of the federal effort to address this problem that Couric alludes to.

The DOE's new document was released about two weeks prior to the airing of the 60 Minutes piece and merely clarifies the pre-existing requirements that Title IX set forth. That was presumably the "Title IX Requirements Related to Sexual Harassment/Violence" document that UOP distributed at a panel event with university leaders on the night after the 60 Minutes broadcast, according to The Pacifican.

The Title IX blog recently laid out the major points of the document in addition to examples of appropriate and inappropriate institutional responses to sexual harassment. What's most relevant to Brennan's case is that Title IX lays out the procedures that institutions are supposed to follow when presented with a sexual harassment grievance. Yet of particular interest in light of Brennan's case is the following excerpt:

Title IX Blog: OCR "Dear Colleague" Letter Addresses Sexual Harassment in Schools
The guidance reminds schools that pending outcome of criminal or university investigation, they should take immediate steps to protect the complaining student, such as changing students' living arrangements and schedules, while minimize the burden on the complaining student, and providing the complaining student with access to counseling and support.

Among the most troubling parts of the 60 Minutes story is how it concluded: the perpetrators who were found guilty by UOP's judicial review board were essentially allowed to continue their lives as usual after short breaks from basketball while Brennan had her "life shattered", as described by Gomez in her interview with CALCASA. For all that the NCAA cracks down on in the name of their nebulous prin ciple of amateurism, the outcome of this case is unsettling to say the very least.

Yet a large part of what shattered Brennan's life occurred after the discipline was meted out to the guilty parties.

"I wanted my life back," Brennan said in the 60 Minutes interview when asked about what it was like to return to UOP in the summer of 2008. "I wanted to play basketball again. I wanted my friends...It was kinda one of those situations where you felt like everyone on campus knew."

Regardless of whether we agree with the judicial review board's final decision, what deserves equal attention in Brennan's story given what Title IX outlines is that despite the university's effort to follow procedure, there was nothing in place to "minimize the burden" on Brennan's life after the case was "over" - ironically, she continues to suffer the consequences for the event while the perpetrators themselves have been able to move on. The ongoing stigma of being "the accuser" and being blamed by her peers for new restrictions imposed by the athletic director for her safety only compounded the trauma of the entire event in leading her to abandon the thing she loved and worked so hard to attain: her basketball career.

Brennan's case serves to reinforce both the importance of Title IX in supporting gender equity on college campuses beyond sports participation and the practical limitations of legislation in correcting for well-entrenched social inequities that institutions didn't create. There is no way to legislate that predominately 18-22 year old peers won't ostracize someone who experienced sexual assault. Yet rather than a reason to further critique the legislation, it's a reason for increased vigilance from those who advocate for gender equity: as Gomez said at the end of her interview, that's why it's so important that Brennan both came forward to report the case in the first place, has remained persistent, and was willing to have her story aired nationwide on 60 Minutes.

The saddest statement that I've heard her say is that, 'If I knew what I know now I probably would never have gone through that process'. To me, that's a stinging statement for all of us in the rape crisis movement to understand - we still have a long ways to go. Yet again, another victim has been let down by the system but we're a part of that system.

And so I think that gives me the motivation and the inspiration to say she may not see the justice at the end of the day in her case but my hope is by her participation as well in the 60 Minutes segment, she will give voice and I think she will give inspiration to so many more who are silent. We all know that stat - that one in five college women will experience a sexual assault before they graduate and over 95% of them will not report. We need to do our work even better and even more focused in making sure that our victims' voices are heard.

Beyond universities and rape crisis counselors, everybody from fellow students to coaches are part of the broader social system that need to work hard to prevent cases like Brennan's from happening on college campuses and respond in a way that is supportive and not further dehumanizing.

Title IX Blog: OCR "Dear Colleague" Letter Addresses Sexual Harassment in Schools

Pacific Facts: Jane Doe Sexual Assault - University of the Pacific

60 Minutes - Sunday, Apr 17, 2011 (transcript)

Advocates’ duty to partner with universities - CALCASA - California Coalition Against Sexual Assault

The University’s Response to 60 Minutes - The Pacifican

Gomez Video Interview: Women's center collaborates with university to improve resonse to campus rapes

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Comments

This is an unfortunate event and I have some things to say on it

1. Student run honor and student conduct/judicial councils are part of post-high school education now for over 200 years.
Since Thomas Jefferson helped found the first student run honor code at The College of William and Mary in 1779, a large number of schools have some form of this (don’t lie, cheat, or steal) generally governed by students (some schools may have faculty guidance as well), as well as a judicial/student conduct council, again, mostly student run (and with faculty/staff guidance) which would handle matters that aren’t necessarily honor code violations but are still behaviors that aren’t acceptable and against the school’s rules. The purpose of these systems are to give students (almost all of them are legally adults) some self governance, and it is also an educational experience for everyone involved (both the board members as well as the parties directly in this process. One of my friends did serve in a judicial council in college, and she didn’t take this job lightly. I understand that sometimes the future of a college student could end up in the fate of a board of mostly peers, and the service academies have gotten criticism for this because a cadet/midshipman could essentially get expelled by a group of other cadets/mids, but these decisions can be appealed to a dean if there is a legitimate reason to, by either party. And not to mention, this is a long time tradition/system for most schools out there. Removing it completely could make a disciplinary procedure in college like high school, where a dean/vice principal assumes a student is guilty until proven innocent.

2. It was appropriate for the council to question Brennan’s actions and behaviors.
Any fair council in a disciplinary proceeding should question her, it is a serious matter, and they need to do their due diligence. Period.

3. Perhaps rules should be changed on sexual misconduct at colleges.
These guys got different punishments almost certainly because the rules had such flexibility. Maybe schools should have rules that require expulsion if they are guilty of such misconduct, but at the same time no accuser and his or her family should try to strong arm or pester the school into punishing the accused a certain way.

4. This case is one of those “he said she said” cases that involve alcohol and colleges need to be active in combating these types of issues.
Unfortunately in this case, I don’t feel 100% sorry for Beckett because of the choice she made to essentially binge drink that night (and she didn’t give any indication that she was hazed to do so). Perhaps she was flirtatious when she was drunk even if she can’t recall that now, since after all, she did have six shots of vodka so she didn’t put herself in a good situation to begin with. As for the men, they also may have been drunk, and who knows what happened. Then again, hindsight is 20/20 because the damage has been done and lives have been altered because of it.

Conclusion
The men’s basketball players involved have been able to move on from this incident at least by continuing their college education and their basketball careers, and I truly hope that they’ve learned not to get themselves into such situations in the future because it could have been worse. They are very fortunate not to see their names, addresses, and workplaces listed on the National Sex Offender Registry. As with Beckett, I hope she’s been able to continue college somewhere else, and hopefully also by continuing her basketball career elsewhere since we’re not really told about what she’s doing now.

Sexual assault under any circumstance is wrong and sexual assaults on college campuses need to be minimized as much as possible. This case shows the dangers of alcohol, especially binge drinking and raging hormones with 18-22 year olds which resulted in what we see now. Campus awareness programs need to be mandatory in regards to this issue, not only during freshmen orientation, but perhaps every semester. Having a program like One in Four is a good step in this direction to make men and women more aware and empathetic of sexual assault on college campuses and how to minimize them.

www.oneinfourusa.org

by thewiz06 on Apr 26, 2011 6:51 PM EDT reply actions