Sexual aSSault LEGAL ADVOCACY MANUAL - Texas Association ...

Formal Disciplinary Action
A formal disciplinary proceeding is the principal procedure colleges use to investigate and issue
punishments for sexual assault. It is neither a criminal prosecution, nor a civil lawsuit. Instead, it is an
internal procedure that helps the school decide whether and how to punish its students for offenses
ranging from plagiarism to rape. Possible sanctions include suspension, expulsion, revocation of
scholarships, and more.
However, very often campus disciplinary proceedings are ineffective or irrelevant for survivors. As noted
earlier, most sexual assaults on college campuses are perpetrated by people known to their victims, and
survivors rarely report the incidents to their schools. We have already discussed the difficulty district
attorneys have in prosecuting acquaintance-rape cases (p. 46, Prosecutorial Discretion), but colleges are
far less equipped to perform investigatory and prosecutorial functions. Therefore, it is unsurprising and
tragic that for the assaults colleges find out about, a formal disciplinary proceeding usually proves to be an
inadequate remedy.
For that reason, advocates should usually take care not to focus on a formal disciplinary proceeding at
the expense of other remedies that could ultimately mean more for the survivor’s safety and financial and
emotional wellbeing.
Nevertheless, advocates and survivors should be familiar with local schools’ policies regarding
disciplinary hearings. The Campus Assault Victim’s Bill of Rights is a set of provisions in federal law
that requires educational institutions receiving federal financial aid to establish procedures for oncampus
disciplinary proceedings for sexual assault. Individual schools might administer the proceedings
differently in some ways, but the law sets out some basic requirements for all schools:
• The accuser and accused must have the same opportunity to have others present during the proceeding.
• The accuser and accused must both be informed of the outcome of the proceeding.
• The school must include any sanctions it awards regarding rape or any other forcible or nonforcible
sex offenses in its annual security report, required under the Jeanne Clery Act. (p. 119)
If a survivor has questions about how disciplinary proceedings work at her or his school, she or he should
contact the school’s Dean of Students or an on-campus counseling service. Federal law requires colleges
to make their policies on disciplinary proceedings available to students. And as always, survivors should
expressly request absolute confidentiality.
Civil Protective Orders
The fact that a sexual assault occurs on a college campus or is perpetrated by a student does not affect the
survivor’s ability to pursue a sexual assault protective order under Chapter 7A, Code of Criminal Procedure
(or a dating violence protective order, if applicable). Even if a student sexually assaults another student at
his or her same school, a court can subject the perpetrator to a protective order. Refer to the earlier chapter
on “General Civil Remedies” for a full discussion of legal requirements and other considerations related to
sexual assault protective orders. (p. 96, SAPOs)
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