California bill to raise standard of consent for student sex

This horrendous bill is far worse than any news article conveys.

This bill would mandate an administrative disciplinary code at every university or post-secondary institution that mirrors criminal rape and assault laws, but THROWS OUT ALL PROTECTIONS built into a criminal proceeding—-NO jury of your peers, NO innocent until proven guilty, NO judge, NO beyond reasonable doubt.

FACT: his bill EXPLICITLY THROWS OUT the criminal “beyond reasonable doubt” standard, replacing it with the civil court standard: “the preponderance of evidence”.

This bill would create an ADMINISTRATIVE HEARING process that mirrors the criminal process. The “judge” would be a university academe or board of academics. An accused person could be found “guilty” and kicked out of the university (or otherwise disciplined) without ANY of the protections afforded by our Constitutional criminal standards.

The administrative standard for “guilt” ELIMINATES “beyond a reasonable doubt” evidence standards. Instead, proceedings would be simply “he said versus she said”.

HENCE, ALL PERSONS WOULD BE WISE TO OBTAIN A SIGNED WRITTEN CONSENT FORM FOR ANY SEXUAL INTERACTION, INCLUDING CONSENT TO MAKE A VIDEO RECORDING TO KEEP AS EVIDENCE. I’m not kidding one bit. Otherwise you would be subject to the whims and mores of the other party without any evidence to protect yourself.

Signed consent alone affords little protection! All an accuser needs is one friend to claim they saw alcohol or drugs being used. By such witness, “the preponderance of evidence” establishes that the accuser could not have legally consented and the accused would be found “guilty”.

AND, the proposed bill GIVES AMNESTY to the accuser (but not the accused) for any illegal drug or alcohol use.

The existence of an ongoing boyfriend/girlfriend relationship is explicitly defined as NOT EVIDENCIARY to any accusation. An angry significant other could easily set up an accusation that destroys the college career and reputation of the accused.

Simply put, almost every normal and healthy sexual relationship VIOLATES THIS BILL or EXPOSES ONE OR BOTH PARTIES to a later accusation. Every kiss or touch not affirmatively consented to IN ADVANCE violates this bill’s text and would subject a person to college-ending discipline. The ONLY protection one could safely rely upon is a SIGNED CONSENT FORM AND A WITNESS OR VIDEO RECORDING. Without a recording or witness present during the entire sexual encounter, ANYTHING could be claimed and it will be your word against their word.