McCaskill Introduces Legislation to Reduce Sexual Assaults on College Campuses

This from KMOX CBS St Louis:

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill has introduced legislation aimed at reducing campus sexual assaults—the result of a massive survey earlier this year that showed a startling number of schools hadn’t investigated a rape claim in years.
The survey also revealed that many schools have little to no services for victims.

Though most of the provisions are reactive—they help students after they’ve been raped—McCaskill says the next step is trying to change rape culture.

“We need everyone on campus to understand that it doesn’t matter how much you had to drink, or what you wore ,or who you were with, or where you went, you can’t be assaulted,” she says. “That doesn’t give anyone permission to break the law.

If passed, the bill would increase penalties for schools that don’t report sexual assaults and also establish more standards for victim care on campuses.

“What current law is, the only penalty they have is take away all of their federal funding, which is an unrealistic penalty and all the universities know it,” McCaskill says.

Under the new law, the fine could be as much as 1 percent of the school’s general operating budget. So a school like Harvard, that has a $4 billion operating budget, could be threatened with a $40 million fine.

McCaskill says she’s optimistic the legislation could get a vote in September.