Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Linda Langford" <>]

Wendy -

 

I agree with you that institutions should explore the options you were
talking about.  When I said "institutions can't control content," I was
thinking specifically of something like a town meeting or series of
small discussions or maybe letters to the editor -- organized BY
students FOR students -- in order to facilitate dialogue about their
values related to an issue. For those types of activities, the
administration wouldn't tell students what the content of the meeting
(or whatever) has to be.....but could certainly help prepare the
students to facilitate discussions of this type, or perhaps do something
like provide an outside facilitator if the students wanted that. I was
trying to brainstorm what other avenues might exist for institutional
action in addition to rules and technological options.

 

Linda

 

Linda Langford, Sc.D.

Associate Center Director, Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other
Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention

 

From: 

 
[mailto:]
 
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 1:10 PM
To: Langford, Linda; 
;
 

Subject: Re: OCR complaint involving Juicy Campus

 

 

These educational ideas are wonderful, Linda - but the truth is, schools
CAN control content, just as they can block access to child porn.

Filters are better than ever - and even if they don't  work well -
schools can and should explicit set forth policies against speech that
rises to the level of harassment - 

just having a rule about it is better than nothing - and most schools
have nothing

students will think twice about harassing any student based on race,
gender etc - if they think they could get in trouble - 

wendy 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Linda Langford 
<>
To: 
;
 
;
 

Sent: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:02 am
Subject: RE: OCR complaint involving Juicy Campus

 
One approach to this issue is to look at the institution's legal 

responsibilities, and I think we should do that. In addition to the
institution 

acting within its abilities to prevent and sanction directly, I wonder
how 

institutions might also help create opportunities for *students* to
express what 

kind of environment they'd like to live in and how they feel about
certain types 

of speech. For example, researchers have collected data showing that
most 

students feel uncomfortable around sexist and racist speech, and many
think they 

are more uncomfortable than other students (i.e., "I am uncomfortable,
but 

others around me are ok with it.") Often there are students on campus
who feel 

strongly about these issues and want to take leadership in raising them
for 

discussion, and they could make good use of data like these in
generating 

dialogue. Given the limits of what institutions can (and perhaps should)


mandate, it seems like we should also try to think about ways to support


students in creating a community discussion among themselves about what 

behaviors and words are offensive and/or harmful. Obviously the
institution 

cannot control the *content* of these discussions, but certainly can
provide 

time, space, data, advisors, etc. I've heard of campuses responding to
bias 

incidents this way, e.g., with town meetings, vigils, etc. in which
students are 

able to publicly express their negative feelings about what happened and
their 

support for the victim. There are certainly risks with this approach,
especially 

with specific situations which might evoke a "blame the victim"
response, but I 

do think it might have potential for addressing cyber-communication in 

particular. 




Has anyone tried something like this approach who could speak to how it
worked (or didn't)?




Linda




Linda Langford, Sc.D.

Associate Center Director, Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other
Drug 

Abuse and Violence Prevention

www.HigherEdCenter.org

55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA  02458-1060

voice (800) 676-1730 x2719 OR (617) 618-2719 (direct line)

fax (617) 928-1537




-----Original Message-----




From: 

[mailto:
<mailto:?>
 ] 

On Behalf Of 


Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 1:57 PM

To: 
;
 


Subject: Re: OCR complaint involving Juicy Campus




How do universities stop graffiti hate-harassment speech - painted on
the walls 

of campus buildings?




Do they punish known offenders for violating the rights of black
students if the 

writer uses prolific N-word and KKK speech to express their hatred in
spray 

paint all over campus?




wendy




-----Original Message-----




From: 


To: 
;
 


Sent: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 10:30 am

Subject: Re: OCR complaint involving Juicy Campus




Wendy,




?




I agree that online harassment is vexing, but with no control over the 

harasser or the harassment, how can a Title IX complaint stick?? Also,
how 

can a university respond to vicious postings without running afoul of
the 1st 

Amendment?

?




Regards,

Brett A. Sokolow




Brett A. Sokolow, J.D.

Attorney-At-Law




"Best Practices for Student Health and Safety"




The National Center for Higher Education Risk Management, Ltd. 

(a not-for-profit corporation)

20 Callery Way 

Malvern, PA 19355-2969

Tel.(610) 993-0229 

Fax (610) 993-0228

www.ncherm.org




2009 President, The National Behavioral Intervention Team Association
(www.nabita.org)




?




In a message dated 2/9/2009 1:26:15 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, 


 writes:




As I mentioned last week - Juicy Campus shut down its website after I
filed an OCR complaint against a university that refused to take steps
to stop the brutal sexual harassment of a female student.




As predicted, however, another 

  site popped up immediately - and began disseminating the same 

  information.




Thus, we are pressing ahead with our OCR complaint.? 




I wanted to let you all know because the case I filed is unprecedented 

  and would require schools to take steps to prevent the use of the
internet as 

  a venue for the dissemination of harmful speech based on race, gender,


  ethnicity, religion - etc - something that I have not yet seen (at
least not 

  in the context of sexual harassment speech)




The IT experts with whom 

  I've spoken have given me lots of simple ideas for ways schools can
easily 

  prevent sites like Juicy Campus from facilitating sexual harassment.
If any of you have ideas - feel free to send them backchannel.




Wendy Murphy

617-422-7410

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