College campus authorities don’t need no stinking evidence when someone has been accused of sexual assault, just expel them to be safe.
So goes the reasoning of U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, who said during a congressional hearing today that “expelling students based solely on the idea that they might have committed a crime is an acceptable standard,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“I mean, if there’s 10 people that have been accused and under a reasonable likelihood standard maybe one or two did it, seems better to get rid of all 10 people,” Polis said. “We’re not talking about depriving them of life or liberty, we’re talking about their transfer to another university.”
Due Process? Standards of evidence? Not necessary, Polis argued.
Currently, campus administrators only need to be 50 percent sure that a crime has been committed in order to take action against an accused student. Polis says that’s too high.
Administrators should only be 20 percent sure a crime has been committed. In other words, if there’s an 80 percent chance a student is innocent – we’re looking at you, Rolling Stone magazine – a student should still be labeled as a rapist and expelled.
Polis said he wants Congress to create a legal framework that would allow schools to essentially operate as a judicial system using a standard lower than the 50 percent mark to destroy the lives of their students by branding them as rapists based almost entirely on accusations.
Innocent until proven guilty? Not in a Polis court of law!
Think it can’t happen? The Examiner reported that Polis’s comments in the congressional hearing were greeted with applause.