Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced new Trump administration rules about Title IX earlier this year. Under the proposed changes, individuals accused of sexual assault on college campuses will have more due process to respond to their accusers. The group It's on Us, the campus sexual assault organization created by former Vice President Joe Biden, released a video Wednesday morning that portrayed DeVos as the Grinch and declared she was giving a "#OneShiXttyGift” to college students. Actress Alyssa Milano narrated the video, reading from a "#OneShiXttyGift” book. Like the original story "The Grinch," this spinoff includes rhymes and illustrations, but it is a *bit* more graphic. One page includes an illustration a middle finger. I'm not sure how Dr. Seuss would feel about this one.
(warning: graphic language)
This holiday season, Betsy DeVos has #OneShIXttyGift for students across the U.S. Here'a a little story about it narrated by @Alyssa_Milano.
— It's On Us (@ItsOnUs) December 5, 2018
Please watch, and then go here for instructions on how to return this supremely shIXtty gift: https://t.co/LBMmHf8vZl pic.twitter.com/N6NKJqKXwg
It's on Us shared the video exclusively with Cosmopolitan, who explained why college students should sound off about the new policy. For starters, DeVos is altering the language in Title IX to require "much too high of a standard" of accusers to prove they had been assaulted.
"Under the previous Obama guidelines, it was defined as 'unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.' DeVos wants to change it to 'unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to…[an] education program or activity.'"
The editors also explain that reported victims will have to undergo live examination if they accuse someone of sexual assault and that schools can "ignore" incidents that occur off campus, Cosmo writes. Some critics are so against the new guidelines that they have confronted DeVos in public and accused her of "protecting rapists." Cosmo and It's On Us are encouraging readers to share their opinion of the new Title IX policies during the government’s mandatory public comment period before the changes go into effect.
Most Trump critics have been just as angry about the Title IX changes. But some Democrats like Lara Bazelon are openly supporting them and acknowledging there is an "uncomfortable truth" in the current system. The education secretary is taking "important steps" to fix it, she wrote Tuesday in the New York Times.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member