Victims Too Need Protection : Education code provisions on campus rape cases require reform

The 12-year-old student at a Los Angeles middle school had been raped on campus, during school hours, by another pupil. And as if that violation wasn’t traumatizing enough, there was a further indignity to be faced.

The victim’s family says the girl received little advance notice of a school district disciplinary hearing to determine whether the alleged perpetrator should be suspended or expelled. Worse yet, when the victim arrived for the hearing with her parents, she was told that she would have to attend alone. That meant going solo against the accused, his parents and his lawyer. (A separate police investigation is underway in the case.)

California’s education code rightly affords protection and adult support for the accused in rape cases, but not for the victims. A bill to change that will be considered by the state Assembly this week. It deserves support.

Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) has submitted amendments to the bill, AB 692, that would reasonably require that the student victim of sexual assault or sexual battery be given five days’ notice of a school disciplinary hearing. They would allow the victim to have two adults present, such as parents, guardians, counselors and/or attorneys. Kuehl’s amendments also call for mandatory expulsion of students who have committed sexual assaults. The same is required for students who bring weapons or drugs to school, and sexual assault is clearly serious enough to warrant the same punishment.