A couple weeks ago, I skeptically said that if young men and their advocates were truly afraid of being deprived of due process in sexual assault allegations, they’d avoid/advise avoiding hookups like the plague, especially hookups occurring during or after drinking. But right now, it’s all griping, no behavior change.
Today, via instapundit.com, there’s a piece out of the Boston Globe, in which a young man of considerable promise describes his encounter with the Yale University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct. On the basis of nothing more than a complaint lodged by an ex-girlfriend, with no investigation, no gathering of evidence, no process of any kind, he was tarred without any way of clearing his name.
And when I say “promise” I mean a young man who was about to interview for a Rhodes Scholarship, until an anonymous “tip” meant the interview was rescinded. So too was a job offer, as well as the prospect of being an NFL draft pick.
Conceivably, this isn’t the university’s fault, but the fault of so many others for giving credence to an anonymous tip. (Did the tip come from the ex-girlfriend, or from a staffer at the university?) But still, a young man was harmed by an accusation which he had no reasonable way of avoiding — unless it’s his own story that’s false.
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