Recent editorials from Alabama newspapers:
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May 12
The Times Daily on revised U.S. Education Department guidelines relating to campus sexual misconduct investigations:
The U.S. Education Department last week issued revised guidelines that will hopefully restore due process to investigations of sexual misconduct on college campuses.
“Today we release a final rule that recognizes we can continue to combat sexual misconduct without abandoning our core values of fairness, presumption of innocence and due process,” said Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in announcing the long-awaited changes. “This empowers survivors with more tools than ever before.”
The new rules are a much-needed course correction from those put into place during the Obama administration, which in seeking to protect victims of sexual harassment and rape on college campuses, erred too far in the opposite direction, demanding stringent rules that turned investigations of sexual misconduct into a Kafkaesque exercise in which the accused had virtually no rights at all and were sometimes subject to punishment on the basis of little more than an accusation.
Colleges and universities that didn’t live up to a strict interpretation of the Obama administration’s guidelines risked losing federal funding, which encouraged institutions of higher education to go even further than the guidelines required.
The result was that at some universities, investigations of sexual misconduct resulted in virtual star chambers, where the accused were presumed guilty and had to prove their innocence.
Some of the accused students have eventually sued the colleges that denied them due process, derailed their careers and, in some cases, ruined their lives.
A 2017 story in The Atlantic magazine details the case of Kwadwo “Kojo” Bonsu, who won an undisclosed settlement with the University of Massachusetts after the university made him a pariah on campus over unsubstantiated claims.
Yet DeVos’ return to common-sense standards in dealing which sexual misconduct claims elicited outrage from the usual quarters.
“If this rule goes into effect, survivors will be denied their civil rights and will get the message loud and clear that there is no point in reporting assault,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center. “We refuse to go back to the days when rape and harassment in schools were ignored and swept under the rug.”
No one is calling for rape and harassment on college campuses to be ignored.
College students have had their lives ruined on the flimsiest of accusations. Returning due process to colleges campuses was long overdue.
Online: https://www.timesdaily.com
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May 5
The Times-News on Mental Heath Awareness Month:
Before the global pandemic killed more than 400 Alabamians and confined people to their homes, Alabama ranked fortieth in the nation in mental health according to The State of Mental Health in America report by Mental Health America.
Coping with this crisis challenges those who have never struggled with anxiety or depression. Many of those who struggle with such issues are likely overwhelmed, especially with no clear end of this crisis in sight.
For those who battle depression, this may feel like the end of the world.
For those who suffer from anxiety, the gloves and masks and hand sanitizer and washing and cleaning and disinfecting … it’s a lot to handle.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and in this uncommon time, it is necessary for all of us to have a greater awareness about mental health as well as physical health and take appropriate steps where possible to help one another.
Start with yourself. Your life might have been flipped upside down in the last few weeks. These sudden changes have been difficult for everyone and it is OK to acknowledge that.
The World Health Organization recommends reducing the amount of news you consume.
Find one or two trusted sources and not inundate yourself with information overload.
Next, take care of your family and friends. Those people that may have needed help in the past and will still need it now.
Take care of your home. The time for open, honest expression of feelings and how to cope with those feelings is just as important now as it was before this pandemic.
All around our nation, participants will wear the color green to represent this purpose.
The green symbolizes the aim to “break the stigma.”
The overall support and awareness for those with mental illness has been significantly crucial.
Many communities, such as ours, can make a huge difference.
Online: https://www.valleytimes-news.com
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May 3
The Cullman Times on a pet-friendly shelter being offered during severe weather events:
The majority of Americans consider their pets to be part of their families. So when disasters strike, they would no more leave Fido or Fluffy behind than they would a son or daughter. The City of Cullman recognized this and took action to protect pets and their owners during severe weather.
Judging from the comments online to the story in The Times, the transformation of a pet-friendly shelter is a welcome one indeed. When the worst someone can say about a government action is “it’s about time,” it’s a pretty clear indicator it was the right thing to do.
Chief Kenny Culpepper said they considered building a separate shelter for pets, but the cost of meeting tornado-safe standards was too great to make it a feasible solution.
Instead, the police department converted one of the five tubes in the tornado shelter at Sportsman Lake Park into a shelter that will accommodate dogs, cats and their owners. The pet-friendly shelter is not accessible by the other tubes, protecting anyone with allergies from fur and dander. The shelter will accommodate 90 people and their pets, provided they are smaller dogs and cats. There is only space for two large dogs and one medium-sized dog. Owners need to bring their own carriers.
The city should be commended for identifying a barrier to people seeking shelter and finding a solution to overcome it. Time and again in emergency situations such as floods, hurricanes and tornados, pet owners say they didn’t want to leave for safer shelter if it meant abandoning their animals. The city found a solution that allows people to be safe with their furry family members.
It’s something other agencies should be looking at as well. Pet ownership, while providing emotional, physical and social rewards, can also be a barrier to obtaining needed services.
Homeless shelters, for example, don’t allow pets, and even when temperatures drop below freezing, some people will choose to stay out in the cold rather than leave their animal companion.
Women seeking sanctuary from abuse are also sometimes loath to leave a beloved pet behind. Not only can their pets become targets of angry abusers, animal companionship also provides emotional support during a very emotionally fraught time.
Opening the doors to people and animals wholesale is not the answer either. Human allergies to animals is a concern, and there are also concerns for the animals, such as behavioral issues and unvaccinated pets coming in contact with diseases.
There are some examples across the nation for addressing these issues - providing animal crates in homeless shelters, creating a network of people willing to foster dogs or cats for a period of a few months so owners know their pets are at least safe - but the important thing is to talk about the barriers and identify solutions.
No solution is going to be 100 percent perfect, but creating some options where people feel their fur baby is safe is a good start.
Online: https://www.cullmantimes.com
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