Proposed bill addresses underreporting of sexual violence at colleges

School authorities would have to report all on-campus sexual assaults and hate crimes to the police with the consent of the victims, if a newly introduced California bill becomes law.

California state Assemblyman Mike Gatto is pushing for the bill, Assembly Bill 1433, to address the underreporting of cases of hate crimes and violent crimes, such as homicide, rape and robbery, at universities.The bill aims to ensure crimes occurring on campus are handled appropriately and investigated thoroughly by officials, Gatto said.

Two California universities, Occidental College and University of Southern California, have recently come under federal investigation for failing to report cases of sexual assault. UCLA is currently one of four California public universities being audited for its compliance to Title IX requirements.

Gatto said the misconduct of these schools’ administrators was what motivated him to propose the bill.

“It was the sum total of reading about these (crimes) again and again, feeling for the victims,” Gatto said.

Gatto sought feedback from student sexual assault survivors while drafting the bill, leading to the additional requirement for victim consent. Some students from UCLA were involved in this process, including Savannah Badalich, Undergraduate Students Association Council Student Wellness commissioner.

“If a victim wants to remain anonymous, then nobody should force that data be sent to police,” Gatto said.

Currently, under the Clery Act, all schools are required to disclose the number of various crimes that occur on campus annually to the U.S. Department of Education. In 2012, UCLA recorded 21 cases of sexual assault on campus.

But the number generally does not match police records, said Pamela Thomason, UCLA’s Title IX officer.

Universities are also required under current Title IX legislation to prohibit all forms of discrimination based on sex, including the handling of sexual assault cases. Reporting the crimes to the police, however, is not mandatory under Title IX, Thomason said.

The bill would complement the Clery Act by ensuring law enforcement experts are kept in the loop when universities have to deal with crime cases, Gatto said. The collaboration is important because police have information – such as a recent relocation of registered sex offenders into the neighborhood – that school administrators are unaware of, he said.

Even with the bill, however, many incidences of sexual violence could still go unreported if victims do not inform their school in the first place.

Currently, 95 percent of rapes on college campuses are not reported to the police, according to a Department of Justice report. In general, of cases that are reported, only 3 percent of perpetrators are ever convicted, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

Badalich said Gatto’s bill may mean well, but it does not address other causes of underreporting – fear of the police and of being shamed during the investigation process.

As a vocal advocate for campus sexual assault policy reform and a victim of sexual assault herself, Badalich said she understood firsthand the anxiety and shame often felt by sexual assault victims.

In her campaign against sexual assault – 7000 in Solidarity – Badalich said she heard from more than 70 survivors about their experiences. Most survivors, she said, are so traumatized they don’t think of going to the police and prefer to talk to mental health support staff and counselors first.

Badalich felt victims often think police officers will be insensitive toward sexual assault victims, and they are discouraged by the low rate of conviction for perpetrators she said.

Currently, all officers in UCLA’s university police department undergo sensitivity training, said Nancy Greenstein, a UCPD spokeswoman.

Gatto said that he thinks the bill is needed to encourage victims to report crimes and allow them to be investigated.

Now that the bill has been introduced, it must pass through both state assembly houses and then the governor before becoming law.