US Schools Under Pressure to Deal With Sexual Violence

19 May 2011

Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, in background, last month at the University of New Hampshire

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Federal officials in the United States are telling schools that they need to do a better job of preventing sexual violence and helping victims.

The Obama administration has released the first guidance on how schools should deal with the problem under a nineteen seventy-two law. That law is known as Title Nine. It bars discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

The Department of Education says sexual violence is a form of sexual harassment of students which violates Title Nine.

Last month, Vice President Joe Biden joined Education Secretary Arne Duncan at the University of New Hampshire to announce the new efforts. Secretary Duncan says the problem has not received enough attention.

ARNE DUNCAN: "Sexual violence is one of those issues we all wish didn’t exist. And too often, our society has chosen to ignore it, rather than confronting it openly and honestly. And that denial must end. Every school would like to believe it's immune from sexual violence, but the facts suggest otherwise."

A study found that one in five women is sexually assaulted while in college. About six percent of male college students say they have also been victims.