A-B Tech is actively building awareness of Title IX and sexual misconduct among students and employees, according to Michele Hathcock, Director, Title IX Compliance and Student Life Development.
Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 is a federal law that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." “Many people thought that Title IX only applied to sports equality but the reality is that sex or gender discrimination can occur in all areas of a college”, said Hathcock. “We have built an educational campaign on campus through the implementation of employee and student focused trainings as well as the development of a comprehensive college-wide Sexual Misconduct policy that really gets the core Title IX compliance,” she said,
The new Sexual Misconduct policy replaces the former sexual and unlawful harassment policy. The new policy takes the reader step-by-step through the reporting, investigation and resolution process from the prospective of both the reporting party (known as the complainant) and the responding party (known as the respondent).
“We felt it was important for individuals to fully understand what their options are regarding reporting sexual misconduct. This policy and procedure outlines every step that would happen for someone who is bringing forward an allegation and for someone is responding to an allegation, so that both parties understand their due process rights. The new Sexual Misconduct policy was approved by the A-B Tech Board of Trustees in December and then communicated to students and employees at the beginning of the spring semester by President King. This is something the college takes very seriously,” Hathcock said.
Ease of Reporting
To increase the ease of reporting sexual misconduct, the incident reporting form is available from the college homepage as well as the employee portal. The Incident Report form is located under the Campus Safety tab on the A-B Tech homepage.
There is also information about how to reach Hathcock and how to submit the report, which can be submitted anonymously. “Sometimes individuals wish to put us on notice about a particular action or concerning behavior they have experienced or witnessed but they don’t want to pursue any action at the time, they now have that ability,” she said.
All employees, with the exception of professional counseling staff members, are considered responsible employees and have a duty to report incidents as related to sex or gender-based discrimination, harassment, dating /domestic violence, stalking, sexual violence, and all other forms of sexual misconduct. Reports should be filed immediately to the Title IX office.
Employee Training
College-wide Sexual Misconduct/Title IX training was conducted on March 7, by Sarah Ford of the Parker Poe law firm. A video of the training was made available online to employees unable to make it to the session.
The Department of Education requires that colleges do annual training for employees.
Nationwide statistics from Ford’s presentation included the following:
- One in 4 women are sexually assaulted during their time in college.
- 94 percent are female and 99 percent of perpetrators are male.
- 90 percent knew their perpetrators
- 78 percent of incidents involved alcohol
- 85 percent never reported and those who do, 40 percent delay reporting by an average of 11.3 months.
- The top two reasons for not reporting are that they don’t know how and a lack of confidence in the process.
Resources
Hathcock’s department has also been doing presentations for students. They have brochures around campus about alcohol and sexual violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and how to report it. The College provides students and employees with a number of valuable resources, both on and off-campus, to assist during and after the reporting process.
The college partners with Pisgah Legal Services to do a direct referral program to help students who want to talk to someone related to protective orders as well as housing and other issues.
Campus police have wallet cards to hand out that tells how to report an incident. There is also a main Title IX office number, which is answered by trained individuals in order to ensure a prompt response to all reports of sexual misconduct. That number is (828) 398-7932.