Notre Dame University has been hit with a second charge of under-investigating sexual assault. Image: Flickr / paul_everett82 / CC-BY

Notre Dame is a prestigious Catholic University. However, for the second time in a few months, Notre Dame has a sex assault complaint, and the families are claiming it was under-investigated. The Education Department has stepped in to investigate Notre Dame’s actions.

Suicide follows first Notre Dame sex assault complaint

The Notre Dame police department is a service that covers all of Notre Dame, Indiana. The city is home to both Notre Dame University and St. Mary’s University. On Sept. 10, 2010, 19-year-old Elizabeth Seeberg committed suicide after complaining that Notre Dame was not “aggressively” pursuing her complaint of sexual assault. A second family, who has asked to remain anonymous, has spoken out against Notre Dame. The family members claim that their daughter’s complaint has been “buried” in order to protect Notre Dame University. The United States Department of Education has opened an inquiry into the investigation processes of Notre Dame.

The second sex assault complaint against Notre Dame

The second complaint of under-investigated sexual assault was made to the media only recently. The alleged attack took place on Sept. 4, and the victim met with police and indicated she wanted to press charges on Sept. 11. Within the last week, Prosecutor Michael Dvorak announced that the case would not be prosecuted. Dvorak indicated that there was simply a lack of evidence in the case. In both cases, the accused attacker was not interviewed for almost two weeks.

Sexual assault in higher education

Higher education institutions — colleges and universities — face a very difficult challenge with sexual assault. Notre Dame’s second sex assault complaint includes an admission that the victim had been drinking before the attack. Though drinking in no way justifies or excuses sexual assault, it often complicates the question of consent. In both of the Notre Dame sex assault complaints, the alleged attacker indicated that the encounters were consensual. A statement released by Notre Dame indicated:

“We regret that some are critical of our handling of sexual misconduct allegations, and we understand the pain these families are experiencing. At the same time, we stand behind the thoroughness, integrity and objectivity of our investigations, as well as the comprehensive services available to students who are subjected to sexual misconduct.”

Sources

Chicago Tribune
ABC News

John Tyner to TSA: “If you touch my junk, I'll have you arrested.” (Photo Credit: CC BY-SA/Nick Richards/Flickr)

Airport security screening is more up close and personal than ever, and people like John Tyner have had enough. According to ABC News, the 31-year-old programmer was attempting to get on a flight at San Diego International Airport. Tyner objected to the full body scanner, then objected to a patdown on the inner thigh (a procedure he called “sexual molestation”). Ultimately, he was escorted out of the airport by TSA officials.

‘If you touch my junk, I’m going to have you arrested,’ said John Tyner

Passengers like John Tyner have decried the painfully slow process of airport security screening for some time. Now that TSA has authorized more aggressive patdown procedures with the front of the hand, both passengers and pilots are equating the practice to sexual molestation or sexual assault. John Tyner recorded his 30-minute ordeal with TSA security via a cell phone video camera, and now it’s a hit on YouTube.

Tyner’s candid ultimatum to TSA officials – “If you touch my junk, I’m going to have you arrested” – may have been delivered half tongue-in-cheek, but TSA officials took it quite seriously, as one might expect. John Tyner wasn’t going to readily submit to an invasive search. A clip from the video contains the following dialogue:

TSA Supervisor, in regards to the groin patdown: “If you’re not comfortable with that, we can escort you back out and you don’t have to fly today.”

John Tyner: “OK, I don’t understand how a sexual assault can be made a condition of my flying.”

TSA Supervisor: “This is not considered a sexual assault.”

John Tyner: “It would be if you were not the government. … I’d like only my wife and maybe my doctor to touch me there.”

Opt Out Day – clogging the system with patdowns

As a protest to Homeland Security and TSA’s policy of using either the Advanced Imaging Technology that strips people naked in a virtual sense or submitting to “enhanced” patdowns, Brian Sodegren and the online group Opt Out Day are encouraging Thanksgiving fliers to take a stand. Opt out of the quick scan option and produce the kind of patdown gridlock that will make the government take notice, suggests Sodegren.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is urging customers to “use some common sense,” but clearly the backlash of anger from pilots, flight attendants and passengers like John Tyner has rocked the (air) boat.

Sources

ABC News

John Tyner’s story

Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota votes for people over corporations. (Photo: flickr.com)

Following one of the more vile incidents against a woman in American history, the Senate has voted in favor of Sen. Al Franken’s amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that gives the government the right to withhold defense contracts (no small cash loans, either) from companies like Halliburton/KBR (not just that company) that deny employees from taking “workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court,” reports Think Progress.

If you aren’t already aware, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR co-workers in Iraq during the year 2005. After the tragic incident, she was imprisoned in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed. If small cash loans could have bought a human conscience, perhaps her captors could have found it within themselves to stop.

Talk and Lose Your Job

Furthermore, she was told that if she went against the company’s mandatory arbitration clause and sought treatment and justice outside, she’d lose her job. Apparently Jones was not alone in receiving this type of treatment. Considering that multiple source tend to corroborate that Halliburton/KBR’s record with cases that went to their “independent” arbitrator, one wonders why they even bothered with the charade of mandatory arbitration clauses.

Here’s What Sen. Franken Proposed

And Here’s the GOP Rebuttal

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) called it “a political attack directed at Halliburton,” and Franken’s response (read the amendment yourself) was that “This amendment does not single out a single contractor. This amendment would defund any contractor that refuses to give a victim of rape their day in court.”

(Photo: wikipedia.org)

For the record, here are the 30 who voted against the Franken amendment:

• Alexander (R-TN)
• Barrasso (R-WY)
• Bond (R-MO)
• Brownback (R-KS)
• Bunning (R-KY)
• Burr (R-NC)
• Chambliss (R-GA)
• Coburn (R-OK)
• Cochran (R-MS)
• Corker (R-TN)
• Cornyn (R-TX)
• Crapo (R-ID)
• DeMint (R-SC)
• Ensign (R-NV)
• Enzi (R-WY)
• Graham (R-SC)
• Gregg (R-NH)
• Inhofe (R-OK)
• Isakson (R-GA)
• Johanns (R-NE)
• Kyl (R-AZ)
• McCain (R-AZ)
• McConnell (R-KY)
• Risch (R-ID)
• Roberts (R-KS)
• Sessions (R-AL)
• Shelby (R-AL)
• Thune (R-SD)
• Vitter (R-LA)
• Wicker (R-MS)

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If you’re interested in telling your senator what you think, I encourage you to do so. You elected these officials, and they are accountable to you. If you need small cash loans to pay for the ever-increasing cost of postage or Internet bandwidth, click the button to apply. Be a citizen of a representative democracy.

Jaime Leigh Jones’ Response

Jones made an appearance with Sen. Franken following the vote. “It means the world to me,” she said. “It means that every tear shed to go public and repeat my story over and over again to make a difference for other women was worth it.”

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