Fraternities, Sororities Hectored Out Of "Police First" Rape Investigation Proposal

Mischaracterizations in the press and subsequent backlash has caused the North-American Interfraternity Conference to abandon its proposal to engage university Title IX investigations only after the police and courts had investigated, according to Asche Schow in the Washington Examiner.

Newspapers across the country labeled the proposal and the North-American Interfraternity Conference as a "rape lobby" trying to keep sexual assaults from being investigated. That mischaracterization spread far and wide, even though the proposal was actually sensible: Let the professionals do their job, and punish based on actual evidence instead of a parallel kangaroo court system. That kangaroo system, by the way, has led to more than 100 schools being investigated for allegedly failing the accusers and more than 70 schools being sued for improperly punishing the accused.

Even a mild change yields this kind of hyperbole and overreaction. The use of Title IX to create a separate, secret, due-process-free proceeding is unconstitutional and immoral, and needs to go; a great deal of public education lies ahead.