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Lax Federal Enforcement in Campus Sexual Assault Cases
Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office Rarely Investigates and Almost Never Sanctions Schools
WASHINGTON
The
Education Department is charged with enforcing laws on how schools deal
with sexual assault, but its Office of Civil Rights rarely investigates
student allegations of botched proceedings. When cases do go forward,
the civil rights office rarely rules against the schools, and virtually
never issues any sanctions against institutions, according to an
investigation by the Center for Public Integrity.
Officials
at the civil rights office have said punishing schools is unnecessary
and impractical; the office's ultimate potential penalty of rescinding
federal funds is enough to scare schools straight with a few
well-placed words. And by law, the office has few tools for
intermediate sanctions; it can't issue fines, for instance. But critics
see it differently; they say the office's enforcement of how schools
handle cases involving alleged sexual assaults is overly friendly,
which ultimately lets colleges - and rapists - off the hook.
The story, "Lax Enforcement of Title IX in Campus Sexual Assault Cases," is the second of three new pieces being released this week as part of the Center's Sexual Assault on Campus
series. A story released Wednesday revealed that students found
"responsible" for sexual assaults on campus often face little or no
punishment from school judicial systems, while their victims lives are
frequently turned upside down. Three earlier pieces in the series ran
last December.
The
Center's package marks a number of significant collaborative efforts,
including a series of three stories and a Talk of the Nation call-in
program from National Public Radio News. The NPR Series
was produced by a special NPR Investigative Unit with reports airing on
Morning Edition and All Things Considered. The Center for Public
Integrity also collaborated with the Investigative News Network,
a coalition of some two dozen news organizations dedicated to watchdog
journalism. The Center's pieces will be accompanied by localized campus
assault stories from five members of the network - the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, Texas Watchdog, the Rocky Mountain News Network, and Investigate West.
The
network was formed last summer following a three-day meeting of mostly
nonprofit investigative journalism groups in New York. The mission of
the network is to facilitate the work and public reach of its member
organizations, to foster high-quality, original investigative
journalism, and to hold government and corporate power accountable at
the local, national, and international levels.
The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit organization dedicated to producing original, responsible investigative journalism on issues of public concern. The Center is non-partisan and non-advocacy. We are committed to transparent and comprehensive reporting both in the United States and around the world.
LATEST NEWS
Scott Pelley Details Weiss 'Push to Air 'State Propaganda' on CBS News
"She was putting a thumb on the scale on behalf of the administration. Constantly looking out for the views of the president."
Jun 08, 2026
Days after being fired from the CBS News program '60 Minutes' for speaking out against the dismissal of several top correspondents and declaring that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss was "brought in to kill" the show, veteran journalist Scott Pelley described in detail the right-wing former opinion columnist's efforts to push for political coverage that centered the White House's point of view—regardless of the facts.
"There was a thumb on the scale for the president’s version of events that I felt was a level of political influence that I had never seen in 37 years at CBS News," Pelley told The New York Times' Lulu Garcia-Navarro Sunday.
Pelley was interviewed after he and his former colleagues spoke out against what fired correspondent Cecilia Vega called "censorship" at the 58-year-old program since Weiss took the helm of CBS News last year. Weiss was installed following a White House-approved merger of parent company Paramount and Skydance Media, owned by the son of President Donald Trump backer Larry Ellison.
The new editor-in-chief, who first gained notoriety as a student at Columbia University when she led a campaign against pro-Palestinian professors and later railed against "cancel culture," arrived at CBS last fall with promises to promote "journalism that reports on the world as it actually is" and that is "fair, fearless, and factual."
But in his interview with the Times, Pelley expanded on his earlier accusation, made in a statement released last week after he was fired, that Weiss had demanded that he "inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story"—revealing that the coverage in question dealt with the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis in January.
Good was shot in her car by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent after several officers gave her conflicting instructions, and footage of the shooting showed an agent approaching the front of her vehicle as she turned the wheel to the right. Pretti was shot by Customs and Border Protection agents in another incident, after he approached a woman one officer had thrown to the ground. Top administration officials accused both victims of being violent and called Good a "domestic terrorist" while barring state officials from investigating the killings.
Pelley said that before Weiss intervened in the coverage of the fatal shootings, he had pushed to use images "in which we see the protesters acting aggressively."
"I felt it was very important to identify that the protesters themselves were being very aggressive and that they were half of these confrontations," he told Garcia-Navarro. "We also included a picture of Alex Pretti before he was killed kicking out a taillight on a police car and made a point of saying, this is Alex Pretti and this is what he did."
But Pelley's push to get ahead of any criticism that '60 Minutes' was being biased against the agents or the Trump administration didn't stop Weiss from emailing the show's executive producer hours before the story was set to air, asking that producers "make the protesters look more violent" and even promote a false claim about Good that was pushed by the White House.
Pelley said the message from Weiss was, "You need to describe her as driving toward the officer."
This is a devastating interview.
Scott Pelley tells the NYT that Bari Weiss directly put a “thumb on the scale” for Trump over the killing of Renee Good.
Here’s his explanation of exactly what happened. pic.twitter.com/Kh56P1q7rM
— Niall Stanage (@NiallStanage) June 7, 2026
"This is not what you see on the video," Pelley told Garcia-Navarro. "On the video, you see the officer standing slightly off the front of the car. And you clearly see Ms. Good’s wheels turned completely as far as they will go, away from the officer. But he shoots her in the head, kills her."
Pelley said he refused to make the changes, and did not hear from Weiss about the piece after it aired. A CBS spokesperson told the Times that the suggestions Weiss had made "had no political motivation and were proposed solely to make the piece as strong, fair, and accurate as possible."
Pelley told Garcia-Navarro: "My impression at the time was that she was putting a thumb on the scale on behalf of the administration. Constantly looking out for the views of the president. We’re reporting those views. There’s nothing wrong with reporting those views, but it was never enough."
The story on Pretti and Good came weeks after Weiss pushed the show's producers and correspondents to change a segment on Trump's deal with El Salvador under which hundreds of immigrants have been deported to the country's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center after being falsely accused of being gang members.
Pelley's revelation about the exchange with Weiss was called "devastating" by The Hill reporter Niall Stanage, while the grassroots progressive group Our Revolution said Pelley had described "a CBS News editor demanding reporters change facts to match Trump’s version of events to help justify the murder of a US citizen.
"That isn’t news. It’s state propaganda," said the group. "Bari Weiss is not a journalist. She is an asset of the Trump administration. She should be sued and removed and Paramount should answer for installing her."
Scottish historian William Dalrymple added that Pelley's interview revealed Weiss as "a major threat to truthful journalism."
The chaos at CBS has intensified as Paramount Skydance has pushed for a merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN—raising alarm that the cable network could soon see a significant shift toward reporting that blatantly centers the White House's viewpoints.
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Senate Dems Demand Release of Legal Opinion Behind Trump Lie That Iran War Has 'Terminated'
"Is there something in the rationale they don't want us to see?" asked Sen. Tim Kaine.
Jun 08, 2026
As a fresh exchange of attacks between Israel and Iran over the weekend and into Monday threatened to plunge the region deeper into war, dozens of Democrats in the US Senate are demanding that the Trump administration publicly release its legal justification for declaring the war "terminated."
"The ongoing naval operations and related efforts to conduct a blockade against Iran constitute hostilities," the Democratic lawmakers wrote in a letter to President Donald Trump on Sunday. "Furthermore, the United States and Iran, and their associated partners and proxies, have continued to use lethal force in contravention of the ceasefire, which also constitute hostilities."
Trump claimed in a notification to Congress in early May that the "hostilities" he launched against Iran in late February—without approval from lawmakers as required under the US Constitution and War Powers Resolution of 1973—have "terminated" due to the ceasefire deal reached in April. Trump administration officials have also asserted that the truce, which critics have said is a ceasefire in name only, paused the WPR's 60-day clock, after which the president is required to immediately withdraw US forces from hostilities.
The Democratic lawmakers—led by Sens. Adam Schiff (Calif.), Tim Kaine (Va.), and Chuck Schumer (NY)—wrote in their Sunday letter that "we would not need to discuss the War Powers Resolution if this were a war authorized by Congress, but it is not." The senators demanded the release of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion underlying the administration's claim that the Iran war has "terminated," along with any other relevant documentation.
"Your administration has not explained to the Congress or the American people why you believe the Constitution permits launching a war of this magnitude—including the loss of US servicemembers’ lives, scores of civilians killed in Iran and the broader region, and staggering economic and geopolitical costs—without authorization from Congress as Article I requires," the senators wrote. "The facts, history, and law affirm that the hostilities that began on February 28 are active and ongoing, in violation of international law and the War Powers Resolution of 1973."
The letter was sent days after the House of Representatives approved a war powers resolution aimed at pushing Trump to end the Iran war, which has roiled global energy markets, threatened a global food crisis, and driven up costs in across the US economy. Three Republicans broke ranks to support the resolution.
The House-approved measure was a "concurrent resolution," meaning it would not have the force of law even if the GOP-controlled Senate also passed it. In May, the Senate advanced a separate resolution led by Kaine that would have legal force, but Trump would be able to veto the measure if it reached his desk.
During a Senate hearing last week, Kaine pressed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on why the administration has not allowed lawmakers to review the OLC's formal legal opinions pertaining to the Iran war.
"Is there something in the rationale they don't want us to see?" Kaine asked.
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'Now Is the Time to Organize,' Says Medicare for All Coalition
"The American people are hungry for bold ideas that reform fundamental institutions that have failed them for too long. And they are looking for leaders who will take on powerful interests and fight for working people."
Jun 08, 2026
As Americans endure the high prices of food, gasoline, housing, medication, and more under President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress, a coalition of over 325 organizations argued Monday that "now is the time for Medicare for All."
"Our democracy is struggling, and the status quo is not working. Too many corporate-backed politicians continue to push for a 'business as usual' approach while wages stagnate, public goods and services erode, and billionaires amass grotesque amounts of wealth," says the coalition's open letter.
"How can one feel optimism for our future when over 40% of us are carrying around the burden of medical debt?" the letter asks, citing data from KFF. "How can we plan for our futures when we can't afford to go to the doctor or cover rent?"
According to the coalition:
We need an agenda that working-class people and everyday Americans can rally behind. Without one, far-right, fascist politicians are filling that void. This fascist agenda redirects people's rightful anger at our system’s failures to unjustly place blame on immigrants, low-income people, and people of color. It's time to acknowledge that failing to provide transformational policies and hope to the working class has allowed fascism to rise and hold on to power. It's time to challenge the corrupt CEOs who profit off despair. To show people real solutions that can work.
No one can fix our rigged economy overnight. Our structural inequality is decades in the making. But one piece of the solution is to take on one of the largest industries in our country: healthcare.
On Capitol Hill, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) have repeatedly introduced the Medicare for All Act. While support for the bill among elected Democrats and the US public has grown, the legislation hasn't progressed in either chamber, which are both narrowly controlled by the GOP.
However, "we may face a once-in-a-generation opportunity to legislate on healthcare in 2029," notes the letter. While the midterms are less than five months away, enacting a federal Medicare for All system would likely require electing more members of Congress and a new president who would support such legislation in the November 2028 election.
"We need to rally behind the boldest possible reform, Medicare for All, that brings together the broadest possible movement, not overly complex incremental measures that prop up the same systems we're seeing fail under the weight of attacks by Trump and Republicans," the groups argued. "The American people are hungry for bold ideas that reform fundamental institutions that have failed them for too long. And they are looking for leaders who will take on powerful interests and fight for working people."
"Now is the time to organize and inspire!" the coalition stressed. "A small minority of skeptical healthcare policy wonks may try to convince us to scale back, that structural change isn't winnable. The reality is that alternative proposals don't move us towards Medicare for All and complicate our already broken system. Halfway measures allow corporations to continue profiting off the sick."
The letter urges members of Congress "to stop listening to the political consultants and start listening to the people," and Americans nationwide to "join us in dreaming of an economy that works for all of us. Where workers get paid a living wage and have expanded and enforced rights. A future where people can afford safe, healthy, and affordable housing and utilities. Where schools are robustly funded."
"A core part of that vision is making healthcare a human right," the letter emphasizes. "Americans understand we must get corporate greed out of our healthcare system once and for all."
The letter was circulated Monday by the consumer watchdog Public Citizen, whose healthcare policy advocate, Eagan Kemp, said in a statement that "the massive momentum for Medicare for All should serve as a wake-up call to all who profit from our broken healthcare system and those who do their bidding."
"Everyday Americans are tired of watching the pigs at the healthcare trough gorge themselves day after day while hundreds of millions of people in the wealthiest country in the world suffer from inadequate access to care, delays and denials, and crushing medical debt," Kemp argued. "Medicare for All would end the ability of corporations to put greed ahead of people's needs and would finally guarantee that everyone in the US can get the care they require."
"The movement for Medicare for All is growing by leaps and bounds because the people are demanding change," he added. "It is time those in power meet the moment and fight for the healthcare system we need and that the people are demanding, Medicare for All."
Coalition members include the Democratic Socialists of America, Indivisible, MoveOn, National Nurses United, National Organization for Women, One Fair Wage, Our Revolution, People's Action Institute, Physicians for a National Health Program, Progressive Democrats of America, RootsAction, Sunrise Movement, United We Dream Action, and other organizations that advocate for people with disabilities, seniors, women's rights, workers, and more.
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