stop my craziness i'm your host vivian jaspar and we're here to take a to help protect our kids we need to remember that sexual harassment isn't just what we were talking about the news for the presidential election what donald trump was accused of doing unfortunately it is a bigger and growing problem on college campuses throughout the united states and we're very fortunate to have us today here joseph rano who currently serves as a senior director of faculty relations and title nine coordinator for the colored mary institute of americans for college campuses he also received his law degree from brooklyn law school and his bachelor's degree from syracuse university he is a certified professional and human resources from the human resources certification institute and is also sort aside as a title nine corden leader from the association of title nine administrators welcome joe and my goodness you have so many different qualifications we're just really fortunate because i want parents to be aware part of our message and here at stop my crisis is to raise awareness so tell us first what is a title nine coordinator ah and the big question is what is title line that when i first wrote the roman numeral i x people say for anybody who reads the news which most people do you've seen cases in colleges over the last couple of years talking about title line and referring to sexual harassment sexual saw which is a big focus everywhere but on college campuses specifically so it's nothing new and the wall goes back to nine hundred seventy two so way back and the original law was drafted just to prevent sexual harassment on college campuses but also equity in athletics most people remember there should be as many women's teams as men's teams part of that war was to prevent sex discrimination on college campuses and that includes k twelve school districts and anybody who receives all funding private or public so it's covers a large group so it's only in the last four years that this is really come to the forefront separate  states or california have added additional was to straighten that out but it's always been a concern on college campuses now with the media focusing on these things we have an opportunity to talk a little bit more about it and make sure that students and parents can be guided accordingly when they choose a college and this is a federal law right this is not state by state this is a federal law each state will have an additional wide tach to it new york has the yes means yes law as does california and there's other consequences to sexual harassment and assault but generally wherever you are in the united states title one applies so you had mentioned that this is for universities is total mind specific for colleges and universities or does it protect everyone in educational system from kindergarten on up it does everything from k twelve through college does that also apply to private schools or just public school republic funded anybody who receives public funding so it's also private schools because some private schools don't receive public funds some do and that's the thing but if they don't is there any exemption well be other was that you could apply if there's any harassment or misconduct in the workplace with those who pay really generous amounts of money to a private education i would hate to think that just because it's a private education they could be susceptible and not have  retaliation for being a perpetrator or unfortunately if you're a victim there's other federal laws that would apply but most despite the misnomer of private schools many private schools do accept public funding everything from transportation to so now for all the parents that are sending their kids off to university and of course as we know all levels of education well are the ramifications can you give some examples of what it protects and what can happen if someone is found guilty of one of these crimes that they're committed to the people forget they're actually crimes this because it might be committed by another teenager if you will against someone they think that their teenager just because they're younger they can be immune to it you know and there's and actually just to separate crimes from title nine offenses so for its is my jurisdiction on a college campus would be two things that happened on the campus and keeping the campus safe in my role as title like we need or as all other title coordinators do but you know there's also criminal and for cation so a sexual assault may be criminal it may not be but in our world in the title line world it could be sexual assault discrimination dating violence domestic violence stalking those are all the things that are covered by federal  so her parents digitally fought and now there's a law that every parent and every student can check the crime statistics of every college campus this lets this law this from jean clear where she raped and killed by another see the cleary report that's there and all security reports you can see how many sexual assaults were reported on that campus and he did best the violence that was reported and you could see this is his takes as a parent like we as parents look at everything else that a college has to offer right so is this mandated to be updated by every university and college is it quarterly how frequently is the other times i have to say it's every at least every two years wow so that's not very accurate information that's two years well year i say that's required but the campus climate survey which is also very important shows how the students feel about anything that may have occurred and those are the kind of questions that we ask have has there been a sexual assault how you feel have you been assaulted did you know who to go to who did you tell a lot of times you get well i told my friends and there's percentages some people say well i went to my administrator i went to my professor i went to the title like or data which is what i do and sometimes they don't tell anybody so what happens if their first are so afraid or shocked or just in a state that they don't feel comfortable coming forward is their stetch them attentions not really on our campus it just gets harder to investigate criminally it could continue once someone could report something a year later two years later they have the right to do that on our campus we encourage all students they can go to counseling we encourage them to go to confidential counseling so necessarily doesn't mean that i would know about it but the counselor might encourage them to come forward forward county counselors as well a part of it our role is to moment we know about it to keep the campus safe which could be to remove any possible threat on the campus to make sure the young lady or young man is safe and that they're getting the support that they need it once we know about it that we can separate if there's two parties from classes from dorms let's just call them next question is he what if that's a there's an investigation and because there wasn't enough substantial evidence it goes down twenty fortunately he said she said to be very classic and what if there's just wasn't enough evidence to victor or to say that it was a real situation what happens is that person force and i'll continue to you see that person camp is you know the perpetrator or alleged perpetrator or do they have to go to classes with them is there any way to help protect them if they're not found that they were truly a victim in the eyes of who is and it's a lower standard of proof and i think people don't understand that every knows law and order that ok what's the what's the criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt right of course this is not that standard this is a preponderance of the evidence which is basically fifty percent plus one or more likely than not so we get to look at these things from a standpoint of more likely that this happened or didn't happen and so for investigations we tend to find that some of these things happen harassment salt of the challenges is during the investigation keeping people apart and at the end even if we don't find that there was a sexual assault we may have found sexual harassment we try to separate this is just something we we try to take care of everybody and you also have to keep in mind when there is a complaint investigation you don't know whether the person who's the respondent actually did it right so less so then are you being fair to and let's be a devil's advocate if they were found that there wasn't enough evidence would there be a concern with keeping somebody who had crimes alleged against them out of their classes because what if they took classes or at least one class with the alleged victim now can that be a false reporting no you would be hurting somebody who c falsely reported against that have to be moved from classes or their dormitory wow how do you make sure everybody's treated equally we do our best and that's part of my job that the process is followed fairly equally that we examine it there are several steps so there's an investigator who investigates the matter i review it the student or whoever's involved could be an employee gets to appeal it to a hearing officer and then if they're unhappy they to go to and appeals officer so there are several levels of it while the case goes on though it really has to do with the best evidence we can get one of the challenges is really getting people to speak up just like in any other investigation luckily for us and it's myself other fella todd like winners today students put everything in writing using their cell phone pictures so there's a lot more evidence not necessarily determinative that something occurred but you can get a sense for what was happening before and what was happening after and it makes it a little less challenging but it's challenging to try to for all of us to keep the process fair because everybody has rights the person who is accused has right and you know depending on the state york state we have to make sure we read them their rights of that they have a right to a fair investigation to be treated fairly and the safety goes with obviously the person who may be the victim and in the beginning we treat everybody with respect and try to take care of whatever issues are out there but in the end we do our best to come up with a fair and equitable solution and sometimes most extreme cases we've had expulsions and not only that while our investigation goes on if it's a criminal conduct in the individual wants reports with what foresman we work with our local law enforcement very well there could be criminal charges so we've had someone you know go that route as well but in the end our job is to keep the campus safe so expulsion is pretty serious in new york state to give you an example there's a special one some of the states are considering that if you're are found to be guilty of sexual assault on a college campus in new york state it goes on your transcript oh that's really good so if you check difficult to transfer to another school correct it would be noted that that's what occurred some people and there's both sides are arguing wow that's really severe and someone made a mistake but sexual assault is a serious it is there's but here's my concern i have we've actually we're fortunate to have a guest on our show who is a college professor and what she talked about as a professor of public health is that unfortunately twenty percent of college male students have confessed and actually confessed to deliberately plying females with alcohol to coerce them for sex and they've actually admitted it so therefore is their ongoing smen the tory seminars are ongoing education to a mind unfortunate one in five or what twenty percent is very big numbers what are the ramification that they shouldn't do this so we can get those numbers down of the wonder if they could be eradicated but to think that one in five guys is a knitting to do that and really that's rate because if you're giving a female enough alcohol or any alcohol where they have impaired judgment that is right well it's a serious concern and part of my job coordinators across the country is education and prevention it starts with day one educating the students in orientation winding them know that there's all these different things out there which includes the law  affirmative consent takes it another step forward where you need to say yes ok so people in this and you're in a romantic situation let's say it's a date rape situation but before you're getting raped it's a date so you're perhaps you know starting to get very comfortable at somebody's after dinner or what have you how people don't really say can i do this or can i do that and you're waiting for a yes they don't have to be a verbal yes because i can get a little awkward well so what does it mean depends on the state new york word the use that term of consent so ok we're kissing and that's that's great we both agree that we're kissing but then we move farther than that just because you're kissing doesn't necessarily mean you want to have sex  the process if there's alcohol or drugs the question of becomes how do you deal with well did i give to this person give me consent or not if i'm the male and you have to be very careful and if they're you're the young lady you also have to be very careful can you give consent if you're passed out the you started out being ok with something doesn't mean that you're ok with everything and you have the right to withdraw your consent you have the right to say you know what i don't want to do that but what about if you're in any kind of relationship or this  multiple don't situation and let's say you gave consent previously where you wanted to be intimate but does that mean that the let's be stereotypical for just a second and say that now the man can think of the male can think that well that means that since we had sex before that means she'll always want to have sex how does that figure into your investigations it's as if but it doesn't at the same time you can always just because two parties had sex three times ten times fifteen times or in a dating relate and ship doesn't mean that next time can't be sexual assault it all back incense and you can change your mind just because everybody thought it was ok last week last month last year things change and a young lady or young men could say no i don't want to do it there's no guarantee is it dispositive of that there was a relationship yes was there something different about this last time well i said no and he continued on we look at those things everything is day by day relationship by relationship and minute by minute which is i was ok i have my clothes off and i decided that no i don't want to do it and it's ok to say no thank you talk about this in the training when we do we talk about it with students especially and you know the addition of drugs and alcohol into this conduct is always a challenge while we know we can have a conversation here and we're sober and we're talking in that environment we're mind about staying safe and thinking about what they're doing and knowing what the consequences are not just because what the law says would putting yourself in a position where you no longer control what you're doing or you're not in the best position position to know what's going on now it's also really important i think is to help your friends stay safe i think the best it's i think it's an old adage but it's always going to be true safety in numbers right you know so if you're in any kind of a of social atmosphere a party or just a gathering because so it gives oh it's not really a party we just got together to hang out but you still have to think i mean unfortunate my friend just happens to be the college for such professor she told the story which i really would love to retell she mentioned that when she was at a party with several of her female friends her one friend wanted to separate and be with a guy that she had no she said she's done several times so she  really it's ok just you know we're going to go off with her male friend the guys she was with and so she told my friend and the other girls it's ok i'm fine fine and my friend said she had a bad feeling and they weren't even drinking and she said she still had a bad feeling leaving her alone but she said she was good it was she had consensual situation but she left them alone all the rest of the girls left her alone and she came to find out the next day that her fortune and a friend who went off with the did indeed get raped so i guess the bottom line goes to stay safe in numbers with a group of friends that also let you educate absolutely we were required in the under to your club but we do it it's called bystander intervention and we all know it back from the day watching your friends watching out stay safe we tell our students in orientation we tell the multiple times safety numbers is one way to look at it but putting yourself knowing where you're going planning where you're going watching out for your friend we've all had a situation where maybe a friend's been too tipsy in there with somebody you've never seen before using their gut feeling that's a great example of say it's ok to say are you ok you know what can be are we you don't want to do that  of the things we preach about staying safe is we're all part of the same team we're all trying to help you through our faculty are great they're part of the team you know students come to them and talk to them they heard our students to come forward they're encourage our students to be really safe about what they're doing but a lot of is the same common sense that we would teach our children but this is on a bigger scale and how important it is for someone who's coming into college for the first time they're all excited they're staying in a dorm they're going to parties and they may be missing this you know that we can tell them lots of stuff when they get here so our job is to keep reminding of the training of a bystander intervention is more than just saying you're ok it's intervening and getting that person away oh i noticed my friends about to go in a car with a strange guy i don't know that she want to do that or does he want to do that it happens both ways we tell we tell people you know intervene and if it looks really unsafe you call the police if you're not sure and it's your professor story is one of many across the country that you've seen which yes you know i should've i should have done something i want that should have should have a feeling that you will you allow that right you got it as a parent and as an individual you don't want to be there so better safe than sorry when you go out you watch out for each other you you you look to see what's going on you know where you are if you're at a party with people you've never met before one of the things we always talk about is don't accept an open drink that you haven't seen poured that's been going on for years at college i mean a punch  right the program punch i mean that's had so many movies including back to the future where they you see that one person spank the punch i mean it's a classic story but we're talking modern day security be smarter than that now i've heard recently the unfortunate experienced this but other colleges have another certainly other employers have where someone to get revenge will start posting pictures of you in compromising positions were even sending porn to your office computer to make it look like you're accessing there's there's something that goes on a college campuses i'm sure we haven't seen it so you haven't seen it we haven't really seen it but i know that it's been going on and at other places and right away you know when that happens the person needs to report it and unfortunately if it happens a lot of people don't know that it's revenge porn they think this is really weird i just got pictures of this person and that's when you know college campus safety and you get the police involved because it goes beyond just i'm trying to embarrass somebody knowing about people's careers reputation or social service ruin your whole life right so i know that your college campus is actually several campuses and is rather large and world renowned but what about smaller universities i actually unfortunately bought to my attention yesterday getting ready to speak with you about this today is that unfortunately there's been a story where this girl was raped in a very small town university and because the perpetrator w so well known she couldn't find a therapist she couldn't find the police to prosecute and ultimately six or seven months later i believe it was she committed suicide she did not get help anywhere she turned for therapy for counseling and she didn't want to sh feel safe leaving her hometown that that's where this perpetrator had such a strong influence it literally destroyed your life her life do you know of any statistics at all that talk about what the b suicide rates or depression rates tied to being a victim can being i don't know those rates but this this story that you're talking about is something that's been going on for hundreds of years we have tried to eradicate that you should be wherever you are in any college town if you are sexually assaulted you should have the right to go to the police local authorities counselors to be able to tell your story and to get some level of justice and it's not just about getting justice it's about making the area safe if someone's a perpetrator they're dangerous they could do it to other people and for instance going all the way back to i hate to use a political figure but ted kennedy on martha's  vineyard today that could never happen if that incident occurred there would be an angry and there would be prosecution and all kinds of things fortunately a young lady died in that situation and regardless of whatever the details are people who are rich and powerful or connected shouldn't and most times are not able to cover up those kind of takes that's a real that's just a real shame but what if somebody feels like they're in a very small environment and they're just they just don't get help and when they turn i think that this would be a great time if you could share with us an idea if somebody were to see this and they know somebody who's going through this should they go to a higher level of authorities you know just is there a phone number known as i phones internet this shouldn't be happening what do you suggest if it was a college campus i would say there's the office of civil rights which enforces these laws you can do that for free you could follow a complaint they have jurisdiction over all colleges if it's any kind of federal authority there's there's you know state police outside of that area there's also and you know having been a proxy lawyer for many years go to an attorney find a good attorney who can help you there even though it is out of their immediate area out of the immediate area there's very knowledgeable attorneys about you name the area of law employment law criminal law who can help you but if they can't afford an attorney there's also public aid and there's clinics at different colleges that can help there's so many there's no shortage of resources if you have access to a computer to get help and some of the thing is the challenge of well no one's going to do anything and we get that a lot of colleges doing the campus climate survey well i was going to report it but i do think getting but he would do something we try to change that as all colleges do but in the end the courage that you need to have to do that is is tough but there are so many research resources that you lady on it i'm sure a lot of people would have liked her said gee i wish i would have talked to her or said something unfortunately that can be complicated but that situation we've i think we've already catered why that those mean whatever happen again whatever happened in any of my campuses and i know a lot of colleagues that wouldn't let that happen anywhere else so one last final thought is are there any kind of national hotlines or they're just anybody can access they are nationally because we do internationally have so i can call if they feel that they've been a victim and there's just too afraid to tell anybody because maybe they're just really embarrassed i've heard of one place called rachel's coalition i don't know if you've heard of a rate create a crisis hotline that you could call back where we are an army campus a duchess they are great they're great supporters they they look at everything as if it's very important there's no judgment  act upon it most counties have that and i would say i'm after i would say all counties have that if you're having a problem with local you feel local police or and i'm i love our law enforcement i think they're great in this country if you think you have a perception problem then you go to state police there's always a higher level of you finding another level find another level and you know this is something that everybody should feel confident that if that happens to them especially young ladies a level of confidence there are people out there to help you i mean i'm just one person talking about it then from college campuses but there's so many advocates and counselors that are out there to help people every day because this occurs not just on college campuses this occurs in people's neighborhoods in cities  towns ok and it's very important joe this is been very helpful i think the pair answers feel better to know that there's this many laws regulations and policies in place to keep their kids safe for college and remember this is not something that you just hear about statistics are true for a reason make sure that you're very comfortable research the safety policies of any college you're about to send your child to and if they're already there prepare them make sure they're outspoken encourage them to stay safe in numbers and prevent the crisis that's how you stop it