Safer Schools Sexual Assault Task Force Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

City College of San Francisco, 50 Phelan Avenue, Multi-Use Building, Room 330

San Francisco, CA 94112

Participants:

Task Force Members

Captain Una Bailey

Amelia Gilbert

Minouche Kandel (on behalf of Department on the Status of Women, filling in for Luoluo Hong)

J. Ocean Mottley

Marisa Rodriguez, on behalf of the District Attorney’s Office

Leslie Simon

Stacey Wiggall

Janelle White

Denise Sicat Wong

 

Consultant

Julia Weber

 

Members of the Public

Andre Barnes, Chief of Police, City College of San Francisco

Leilani Battiste, Deputy General Counsel and Title IX Coordinator, City College of San Francisco

Shella Cervantes, Project Survive

Emberley Cross, Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic

Sau Hsu, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach

Maggie McHale, Department on the Status of Women

Lauren Muller, Trauma Recovery, City College of San Francisco

Becky Perelli, Student Health Services

Sophie Raynor

Rachel Sutton

Amelia Wiederaenders, Women Get It Done

 

1. Welcome, Introduction, Agenda Review

   Action: Approved the meeting agenda [Kandel/Mottley]

 

2. Approve Minutes from November 4, 2016 Meeting

Action: Approved the November 4, 2016 meeting minutes.

 

3. Presentation from Andre’ L. Barnes, City College of San Francisco Chief of Police

Chief Barnes presented to the group on the City College policy on sexual assault, the response of the Campus Police Department, the annual security report/ Cleary Report, and how the Police Department works with organizations like Project Survive.   He clarified the difference between a criminal investigation and a school investigation. The Campus Police Department tries to make sure that those who come to them reporting sexual assault are aware of other organizations on campus that can provide services, in addition to the criminal report. All the campus police employees are trained on how to interview and work with victims of sexual violence. Calls can come in directly from a victim or from some other organization on campus (Project Survive, Health Center, deans, Title IX coordinators, college officials). Campus police will do preliminary investigations of sexual assault and refer cases to the San Francisco Police Department for follow up through their MOU. If it is out of the realm of criminal activity or the victim does not want to pursue a criminal case, then the City College Police Department will not follow up.  If a report is made to campus police, it will not automatically be sent to the San Francisco Police Department. The furthering of the investigation is the decision of the survivor. A survivor may have two cases going on, one through the school that deals with the code of conduct and one with the Campus Police Department. The campus police do their best to avoid 2-3 repetitive interviews of the survivor, when one can be used for both a conduct investigation and for a criminal investigation.

 

City College of San Francisco publishes an annual security report, which details the definition of crimes and how to report assaults or how to receive help. Within the report, it is stressed that reporting to the police is not the only way to get help. Although the Campus Police Department tries to be victim-centered, it is important that victims understand due process laws, which is why the annual security report explains due process. The MOU not only provides follow up from SFPD for sexual assault cases, but also allows Campus Police to receive training from the SFPD. The most common types of incidences that the Chief encounters are stranger assaults, domestic violence assaults, and stalking.

Students receive information about the report on the school’s website or through the annual security report. There is no mandatory orientation for everyone. The City College of San Francisco does not officially track how many people report to them a sexual assault but do not want to pursue the criminal process. Due to federal privacy laws regarding educational records (FARPA), the college cannot easily share information about perpetrators.

 

4. Presentation on Project SURVIVE and CCSF Policies and Procedures (Leilani Battiste, Becky Perelli, and Leslie Simon)

The SMART Team (Sexual Misconduct Assault Response Team) primarily covers harassment, sexting issues, and other sexual misconduct (which they find more common than sexual assault) among students, faculty, and staff. The Title IX Coordinator, the Dean of Student Affairs and Wellness, the Director of Student Activities, and the Chief of Police will meet periodically to talk about triage situations at the college.

Punishment for sexual assault can be expulsion. If a student is suspended it won’t be on their student record; student records will only record an expulsion.  Other colleges will have access to student records if the student transfers. One of the pros for reporting to the police is that the record and the identity of the perpetrator may be accessible to other police departments, whereas internal reporting would stay internal. However, the Police Department cannot take the report just to put the perpetrator’s name in a database.  They can only take the name of the perpetrator if a report is being filed and will be followed up on.  

•  Perelli and Leslie Simon spoke to the group on Project Survive. Project Survive is more on the prevention end and deals with bystander intervention and training providers. Every month there is a newsletter and every month there is something in that newsletter about sexual assault. It is not always clear to students who is a mandated reporter, so it would be helpful to understand ahead of time which staff they can speak to that can keep confidentiality. To become a peer educator through Project Survive you take two classes and are then are eligible for a paid job on campus. Project Survive also offers self-defense classes and gives presentations to the San Francisco Unified School Districts 9^th grade classes.  The High School presentations are called Expect Respect. The presentations happen over three days with two days of presentations by Project Survive and one day presented by a Community Based Organization. The program has a 60% representation of students of color, which is almost representative of the 70% representation of students of color in the school. Students need a social security number or tax payer ID to work, which does create a barrier for students without documentation.

 

5. Discussion of Materials Identifying Current Status of Policies

The group looked over the chart that Julia created on San Francisco’s Colleges and Universities and their information on Title IX and other policies and made suggestions:

• Add more detail in the mandated training box: a breakdown of who is getting training and what kind of training is happening. There may be a gap from the trainings colleges are mandated to provide and who or how many actually attend the trainings.
• It would be helpful to have data regarding the trainings and any pre and post surveys after the trainings.  

 

Once the document is updated, Task Force members can outreach to schools that do not have MOU’s. The following schools either have an MOU or a pending MOU:

• City College of San Francisco
• San Francisco State University
• University of California, San Francisco
• University of California, Hastings College of Law
• Academy of Art University        
• San Francisco Conservatory of Music
• University of San Francisco

 

6. Priorities for January- March 2017 and Task Force Work Plan

The group discussed the Work Plan and made the following suggestions:

• Break up the day set for prevention, response, and follow-ups into three separate sections.
• Have a deep dive on to 1 or 2 campuses to show what is currently happening on campuses in more detail.
• Have a deep dive into the differences between reporting on campus and reporting off campus.
• Provide an easy-to-complete assessment for colleges to do to see where they are in their efforts to end sexual assault on college campuses.
• Incorporate student views into each section.  

• Distinguish between best practices on campuses, and city policies to help campuses adopt those practices.
• Include a component of best practices for each of the categories.

 

The following Task Force members volunteered to chair upcoming meetings:

• Denise Wong will chair the February meeting.
• Amelia Gilbert would be happy to chair a meeting on best practices for evaluation.
• Denise Caramagno will chair the UCSF deep-dive meeting in March.

 

 

Next meeting:

January 24, 2017

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm

San Francisco State, Room TBD

1600 Holloway Ave, San Francisco, CA 94132