Title IX investigations in US colleges continue to increase but in spite of the vast growth, development and even the cases themselves remains to be hidden from public knowledge.
As of this writing, there is a total of 315 sexual assault cases undergoing official Title IX, federal anti-discrimination law investigations. 246 of the said investigations are presently handled by the US Department of Education.
The figures may have been underreported as some cases of Title IX investigations are not actually reported to the Education Department. This is because if a case falls under sexual harassment classification and is not considered sexual assault, the case will not be included in the list given to the department.
Universities also said that they are not discussing the ongoing Title IX investigations on their students as they have nothing to discuss yet while the federal investigations are ongoing.
But this idea does not seem to be good to some concerned citizens especially the victims.
Alyssa Peterson, policy coordinator for know Your IX, an educational advocacy group thinks that it is rightful for schools to make their students aware if there is an ongoing sexual harassment investigation over the school. However she also believes that not many colleges will be more concerned about the harassment of their students than their school reputation, The Huffington Post reported.
A low number of Title IX investigations report does not necessarily mean a low number of actual cases. Kenneth Starr, Baylor University president was demoted and a football coach got fired after mishandling the sexual assault complaints filed against some of their football players.
The effect of under-reported Title IX investigations manifested in some of the sexual assault victims of Notre Dame. A victim transferred to another school after the incident but filed a case against the offender to keep the same thing from happening to other students. But the investigation was not publicized. Years later she found out that the same incident happened to multiple undergraduates.
"A climate that doesn't take harassment seriously is going to be the same kind of climate where sexual violence cases go wrong," said the former victim, The Washington Post reported.
