A Michigan house bill is awaiting the Governor’s signature.
The legislation, House Bill no. 4125, would prohibit public schools from expelling or suspending a student who reports that they are a victim or a witness of a sexual assault. The provided recommendation within the bill tells schools to follow the guidance of the Title Nine Coordinator in addressing an accusation.
However, the bill does not apply to students that are proven to have submitted a false report or have committed a crime such as attempted murder, criminal sexual conduct, aggravated assault and possessing a weapon.
The bill sponsor and Democratic Representative Carrie Rheingans said she hopes the bill will ensure students feel confident in reporting and allow leeway for the schools’ decision in the process.
“We want to make laws that have guidelines, and the guardrails to keep us from going off the cliff,” she said. “But there does need to be space for nuance, and space for discussions to happen on the ground. Because there is no way we can actually comprehend or create in our minds, every possible scenario.”
The legislation came about before Rheingans election last fall. She said the previous representative was approached by the Student Advocacy Center based in Ypsilanti saying they had received complaints from students and families who have had “adverse situations” occur at school – mostly as a result of being sexually assaulted.
“It really takes a trauma informed view of student development and how that might impact their behaviors,” Rheingans said. “And what kind of traumatic things have happened or are continuing to happen to students that might contribute to whatever behavior led to them having some adverse outcome at school.”
The advocacy center noticed many of the students they were working with exhibited behavior that was related to or around the time of being sexually assault.
Therefore, Rheingans said if a student that had been sexually assaulted or was a witness and they were to show behavior such as “punching, or physically having a response to the person who assaulted them, or somebody who was around and didn’t stop it …” these could be considered an understandable trauma response for adolescents.
This legislation also applies to students being in a location where they are not meant to be within the school. This means if a student were to be a witness or a victim of sexual assault, they would not be in trouble for that, Rheingans said.
The bill does not give specific circumstances for a reason. Instead, Rheingans said they tried to narrow it down to the context of behavior that immediately follows or could be tied to the incident.
“The reason we are doing this is to make sure there is that little bit of gray area where all the parties concerned can come together, the parents, the student, the school administrators, and really try to figure out … how can we make this a better outcome than strict expulsion, black and white?” Rheingans said.
The different factors that schools will need to consider when going through an investigation are the student's age, disability status and their previous disciplinary record. Rheingans said one of the most important factors is the seriousness of the student’s behavior or violation.
“This is to make sure that this is codified here in this bill, because it gives the schools a little bit of an exception to justify the expulsion if they still need to,” she said. “But it also adds a little bit more burden for them, to have to justify it. And this helps protect students from longer term expulsions and suspensions, because there is that little extra burden there.”
The bill is currently in the process of being enrolled and printed for Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s approval. She will be required to give a response within 14 days of receiving the bill. If the bill is passed, it will be officially enacted 90 days afterwards.