In the recent wake of the Rolling Stone/UVA campus rape story controversy, Virginia Delegates and Senators have hopes, in the form of two bills, to help combat sexual assault on college campuses.
In the recent wake of the Rolling Stone/UVA campus rape story controversy, Virginia Delegates and Senators have hopes, in the form of two bills, to help combat sexual assault on college campuses.
The first bill (HB1343), introduced by Delegate Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax Station), was actually introduced all the way back in 2012.
HB1343 would require mutual agreements between college campus police and law-enforcement agencies to notify the Commonwealth of any investigation involving felony sexual assault which occurred on property of a higher education institute. Investigations must be reported within 48 hours.
Filler-Corn said she was prompted to submit the bill to committee because the subject rang so personal to her.
“Well, being a mom comes first for me; way before being a delegate,” said Filler-Corn. “I have a couple kids in college right now and it’s being brought up now as a big problem in schools all across the country. This bill and concept has been getting tossed around since 2011 and has been a long time coming.”
Filler-Corn firmly believes HB1343 will move forward this session due to the importance and relevance of its content.
“The bill has been killed off a number of times in a number of committees for a number of reasons usually pertaining to confidentiality. But with this UVA scandal still up in the air, now is the perfect time.”
Filler-Corn said keeping kids safe at college was part of the General Assembly’s duty, but admitted her bill wasn’t perfect. “We have lots of work to do still but I think it could be a really progressive step forward.”
Another bill currently in the Education and Health Committee is SB712. Introduced by Senator Dick Black, this bill similarly deals with sexual assault reporting on college campuses.
The main difference is that SB712 would require any faculty member, administrator, or full-time staff member employed by a public institution of higher education who obtains information alleging that a sexual assault has occurred during his employment to report such information to law enforcement within 48 hours.
The bill provides that the person in violation of the reporting requirement would be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
“There were a couple of reports I read regarding rape cases that stuck me as odd that the schools didn’t have to report the cases to law enforcement,” said Black. “I wanted to do something about it, which is where the bill comes in.”
Now, Senator Black is teaming up once again with Virginia’s National Organization for Women and The Perk Kit Action Project to support this bill.
He worked with these groups last year on SB658, which allocated additional funds to be put toward testing rape kits which were gathering dust and not being examined.
While SB712 isn’t very well-known to the public at the moment, Black has high hopes that he will receive a lot of support.
“Preventing rape, whether in schools or on the streets, has always been important,” said Black. “The Rolling Stone [article] might bring some added attention to SB712 by the media, but I believe that the public has always felt it was an important issue and has always been supportive of doing whatever is reasonable to prevent it and bringing perpetrators to justice.”
Both HB1343 and SB712 are being discussed in committees right now. Whether they pass will depend on support from Virginia schools and the amount of lobbying efforts that are devoted to the issue.
Regardless, these bills may be worth keeping an eye on during this session.
