Republican Sen. Michael Lee was “a little nervous” last Wednesday as he stepped up to present one of his bills to the Senate education committee.
“Because I’m nervous, I’m going to just read something to you,” he told his fellow lawmakers before sharing the story of Annie Clark, who was sexually assaulted as a first-year student at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2007. Clark has been public about the event and was a lead complainant in a 2013 Title IX complaint against UNC-CH; the university was later found in violation of the federal anti-discrimination law.
Lee noted that the university’s investigation into Clark’s assault happened in private, as is typical of such proceedings. But “she got to choose, years later, when and how to make it public,” he said.
Lee argued that students who are victims of sexual misconduct on campuses today don’t have the same autonomy due to the state Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling against UNC-CH that requires universities to release information about disciplinary proceedings against perpetrators. He says that’s why he’s again pushing the “Protect Campus Survivors Act,” which would exempt records of disciplinary proceedings that contain personally identifiable information as defined under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) from disclosure under the state law on public records.
Republican senators first introduced the bill last year and later included it in the chamber’s budget proposal, which never got a vote in the House amid long-stalled spending negotiations. Lee took issue with the headlines the bill generated last year, arguing that the stories framed the proposal as one that would protect perpetrators. Instead, Lee said, his intent is to protect survivors by ensuring that information that could inadvertently identify them is not subject to release.
“This is a really important provision, and it got a lot of controversy when we went through it before,” Lee said. “And it never passed as a result because people were afraid of bad press.”
Some advocates for survivors of sexual assault and misconduct agree with Lee. The N.C. Coalition Against Sexual Assault posted on social media last week: “This bill will protect survivors on campus to have control over when and if they share their assault.”
Skye David, staff attorney with the organization, noted that this year’s version of the bill is “stronger” than the one considered last year because it would allow the universities to release aggregated data, summaries, and other information from disciplinary proceedings that would not identify the students involved. David said that’s in line with how several other states handle the issue under rulings from their courts.
Still, others remain concerned that the bill would shield perpetrators and universities from scrutiny. Hugh Stevens, the lead lawyer who represented The Daily Tar Heel and other media outlets that sued UNC-CH over its refusal to release disciplinary records, noted that the outlets did not seek information about victims in the case and the court did not require the university to release it in its ruling.
Stevens said the information being secret would be a disservice to students because they wouldn’t know if their classmates had been found responsible for misconduct or assault. And it could prevent the public from knowing whether universities properly handle the investigations, he said.
“Secrecy is just the enemy of real justice,” Stevens said.
The bill received a favorable report in the education committee last week and was sent to the Senate appropriations committee. Since the bill includes unrelated provisions for K-12 education that would require appropriations, Lee said, it is likely to end up in the budget. Lawmakers plan for this year’s spending bill to be introduced as a conference report between chambers, which is negotiated behind closed doors and cannot be amended once it’s introduced.