Campus Safety Sexual Assault Policies
-
All forms of harassment are contrary to basic standards of conduct between individuals and are prohibited by state and federal law, as well as these policies, and will not be tolerated. The College is committed to providing an academic and work environment that respects the dignity of individuals and groups, and shall be free of sexual harassment and all forms of sexual intimidation and exploitation. The College shall also be free of other unlawful harassment.
The College seeks to foster an environment in which all employees and students feel free to report incidents of harassment without fear of retaliation or reprisal. Therefore, the College also strictly prohibits retaliation against any individual for filing a complaint of harassment or for participating in a harassment investigation. Such conduct is illegal and constitutes a violation of these policies. All allegations of retaliation will be swiftly and thoroughly investigated. If the District determines that retaliation has occurred, it will take all reasonable steps within its power to stop such conduct.
Board Policy (BP) Administrative Procedure (AP) Title BP 3410 AP 3410 Nondiscrimination BP 3430 AP 3430 Prohibition of Harassment AP 3435 Discrimination and Harassment Investigations BP 3500 AP 3500 Campus Safety BP 3515 AP 3515 Reporting of Crimes BP 3520 AP 3520 Local Law Enforcement BP 3540 AP 3540 Sexual and Other Assaults BP 5200 AP 5200 Student Health Services BP 5529 Student Conduct BP 5531 Due Process - Student Disciplinary Action To see all District and College policies and procedures, visit our Board of Trustees Board Policies website.
-
The "Clery Act" is named in memory of 19 year old Lehigh University freshman Jeanne Clery who was raped and murdered while asleep in her residence hall room on April 5, 1986. Jeanne's parents, Connie and Howard, discovered that students hadn't been told about 38 violent crimes on the Lehigh campus in the three years before her murder. They joined with other campus crime victims and persuaded Congress to enact this law, which was originally known as the "Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990". The law was amended in 1992 to add a requirement that schools afford the victims of campus sexual assault certain basic rights, and was amended again in 1998 to expand the reporting requirements. The 1998 amendments also formally named the law in memory of Jeanne Clery. The law was most recently amended in 2000 to require schools beginning in 2003 to notify the campus community about where public "Megan's Law" information about registered sex offenders on campus could be obtained.
In March, 2013 President Obama signed a bill that strengthened and reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Included in that bill was the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (Campus SaVE), which amends the Jeanne Clery Act. The changes add categories to the required reporting; requires agreements with local law enforcement; includes language similar to AB 967 regarding the adjudication of cases; requires educational campaigns similar to AB 967.
For COC's Clery Act Disclosure, please visit the Campus Safety website.
-
Students are expected to comply with the general law as well as College policies.
A student may be disciplined for various causes which may occur on either College site or elsewhere off-site. In cases involving alleged rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence or stalking, in which both the alleged complainant and the accused are both students, College jurisdiction extends to matters which may occur either on or off campus, and not necessarily in conjunction with a College-sponsored activity or event. A list of grounds for disciplinary action are fully outlined below in Policy 5529 (Student Conduct).
Any student found in violation of the student conduct code may be subject to disciplinary measures in accordance with Policies 5530 and 5531.
Board Policy (BP) Title BP 5529 Student Conduct BP 5530 Disciplinary Action BP 5531 Due Process - Student Disciplinary Action -
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities operated by recipients of Federal financial assistance. Sexual harassment of students, which includes acts of sexual violence, is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX.
Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature. It includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Sexual violence is a form of sexual harassment prohibited by Title IX.
Title IX protects students from sexual harassment in a school’s education programs and activities. This means that Title IX protects students in connection with all the academic, educational, extracurricular, athletic, and other programs of the school, whether those programs take place in a school’s facilities, on a school bus, at a class or training program sponsored by the school at another location, or elsewhere. For example, Title IX protects a student who is sexually assaulted by a fellow student during a school-sponsored field trip.
Schools may have an obligation to respond to student-on-student sexual harassment that initially occurred off school grounds, outside a school’s education program or activity. If a student files a complaint with the school, regardless of where the conduct occurred, the school must process the complaint in accordance with its established procedures. Because students often experience the continuing effects of off-campus sexual harassment in the educational setting, schools should consider the effects of the off-campus conduct when evaluating whether there is a hostile environment on campus. For example, if a student alleges that he or she was sexually assaulted by another student off school grounds, and that upon returning to school he or she was taunted and harassed by other students who are the alleged perpetrator’s friends, the school should take the earlier sexual assault into account in determining whether there is a sexually hostile environment. The school also should take steps to protect a student who was assaulted off campus from further sexual harassment or retaliation from the perpetrator and his or her associates.
U.S. Department of Civil Rights “Dear Colleague Letter”
This document ties Title IX to protection against sexual harassment; requires a Title IX Coordinator; requires the publication of nondiscrimination statements; requires grievance procedures to be published; requires similar education efforts as found in the Clery Act; and requires staff training.