Kirk Watson files bills to address sexual assault on college campuses
An Austin lawmaker has proposed a suite of legislation that would protect victims of sexual assault on public and private college campuses and address loopholes in statute.
Among the bills that state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, filed on Tuesday included Senate Bill 967 that would change the definition of consent in sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault charges. Under the bill, a victim couldn’t give consent if the victim is unaware that the sexual assault is happening and is “incapable of appraising the nature of the act,” and if the perpetrator knows the victim has withdrawn consent but continues anyway. The bill also would no longer allow perpetrators to mistake consent if a reasonable person should have known or understood that the victim did not consent.
“‘No’ means no,” Watson said in a news release. “But the absence of ‘yes’ should also mean no.”
According to the release, Watson’s bills were in response to high-profile sex assault scandals at public and private universities, including Stanford and Baylor. The cases at Baylor led to the departure last year of the university’s then-president Ken Starr and head football coach Art Briles over reports that they botched investigations into sexual assaults by Baylor football players.
Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/kirk-watson-files-bills-address-sexual-assault-college-campuses/IymLQBSGRdUSDEcleoO8oJ/
