U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state is calling for a Department of Education official to be fired after the official made comments that appeared to doubt the legitimacy of “90 percent” of campus sexual assault claims.
The Hill reports that Murray believes Candice Jackson should be removed as the head of the civil rights division at the department despite Jackson's apology last week after a public outcry over her remarks.
Murray says she has a number of other concerns about Jackson, including that she has “worked to narrow the role of the office” and reverse efforts to protected transgender students.
“Despite her apology following a public outcry, Ms. Jackson’s callous, insensitive, and egregious comments regarding sexual assault on college campuses crossed a serious line and highlighted her clear biases in this area in a way that, to me and many women and men across the country, should disqualify her from service in the position of top Department of Education protector of students’ right to be safe at school,” Murray said in a statement.
Jackson told The New York Times last week that she believes the rights of students accused of sexual assault are ignored, and that male students are labeled rapists “when the facts just don’t back that up.”
"The accusations — 90 percent of them — fall into the category of ‘we were both drunk,’ ‘we broke up, and six months later I found myself under a Title IX investigation because she just decided that our last [time] sleeping together was not quite right,’ ” Jackson said.
Murray issued her statement on Twitter:
