Jess Davidson, Executive Director of End Rape on Campus released the following statement:
“On the final day of the comment period, the Department of Education silenced survivors’ and advocates’ voices and failed to properly capture comments. This technical error repeats this administration’s pattern of harm that disproportionately hurts survivors and other communities that face systemic barriers. We pointed out to the Department they were violating the law by not giving access to survivors to participate in our democratic processes.
“We are pleased that the Department is conceding they were failing to properly administer notice-and-comment and are opening the comment period for an additional 24 hours this Friday, February 15. We’ll mobilize our communities to utilize this opportunity to make our voices heard. But, this is not enough. If the Department was really serious about soliciting feedback on the rule, they would have been more intentional about listening to survivor voices and the voices of those most impacted by this issue. And, they would strike the rule — one that was written not just with a lack of understanding of the population most impacted by it, but a policy that expresses disdain for survivors, and a desire to make their lives as difficult as possible. This rule is clearly not informed by survivors’ experiences, and the massive response to it — more than 104,000 comments — shows that.”
