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

 ah - sorry - i was taking your message to mean there were no technical 
options - only conversational/educational ones - 
i think we can agree schools can do both - 

but my concern is that nobody appears to be trying when it comes to 
harassment on these gossip sites - 

if anyone knows otherwise - please let me know

wendy



 


 

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

Sent: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:49 am
Subject: RE: OCR complaint involving Juicy Campus






















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 someth
ing 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:]
 

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=0
A




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=2
0harassment.

If any of you have ideas - feel free to send them backchannel.





Wendy Murphy

617-422-7410

_______________________________________________