Blog of Rights
Sandra S.
Park

Sandra Park is a staff attorney with the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. She previously worked at the Legal Aid Society, Bronx Neighborhood Office, first as a Skadden Fellow and then as a staff attorney. She also clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in the Southern District of New York. A magna cum laude graduate of New York University School of Law and Harvard University, Park has also worked as a research associate at the Brennan Center for Justice.

09/29/2010

Sexual Assault and Campus Housing: Know Your Rights

By Sandra S. Park, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 12:05pm

The New York Times recently reported that sex offense rates at the campuses and surrounding areas of 12 colleges and universities (including the eight schools in the Ivy League) are 83 percent higher than the overall national average.

This statistic once again highlights the importance of a school’s response to rape. Federal law holds a college or university legally liable when it knows about and ignores sexual harassment or assault in its programs. Because a student who has been subjected to violence or abuse is likely to live near the perpetrator, a key component of any effective response to sexual assault is providing safe housing. However, many schools fail to transfer students into more secure housing or to enforce restraining orders after an assault, jeopardizing students’ safety and rights to equal educational opportunity.

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