Huffington Post
3.6.16 | Tyler Kingkade
No-contact orders are involved in almost every college assault case -- but are often shockingly ineffective.
In most college sexual assault cases, schools take the early step of instituting a no-contact order between the alleged victim and the accused assailant. The order, similar to a restraining order, serves as an interim accommodation for the person reporting an assault. It helps keep the two parties away from each other before, during or after an investigation by the school.
Yet students who have filed federal civil rights complaints against colleges, especially small liberal arts schools, often say that administrators fail to address violations of no-contact orders by their accused assailants.
"I would definitely say it's one of the most common problems we've seen," said Sofie Karasek, co-founder of the activist group End Rape on Campus.
Considering that fewer than a third of students found responsible for sexual assault are expelled, these no-contact orders are sometimes the most stringent restriction put in place for assault cases.
A Vassar College student, Margot Mayer, publicly accused her school last week of failing to enforce a no-contact order with her assailant. And in a case that was opened for a federal investigation last month, Skidmore College is accused of failing to punish a student who a dozen times violated a no-contact order in place between him and a woman who accused him of assault.
