A group of Harvard professors who criticized the campus rape documentary “The Hunting Ground” are being menaced with the possibility of a Title IX sexual harassment investigation intended to silence their criticisms.
“The Hunting Ground,” released early this year, portrays American college campuses as hotbeds of sexual assault where administrators routinely allow perpetrators to get off scot-free. The film has attracted a great deal of criticism, though, both for the data it relies on and for the individual stories it uses to portray the campus rape epidemic.
Last month, a group of 19 Harvard Law School professors published an open letter denouncing it as a “propaganda” film in advance of its airing on CNN. In particular, the professors criticized the film for its treatment of Brandon Winston, a Harvard law student whom the film treats as almost certainly guilty of raping fellow student Kamilah Willingham. In fact, a criminal grand jury failed to even indict Willingham of a sex crime, indicating a severe lack of evidence against him.
Now, though, activists appear to be searching for a way to have the professors silenced by the federal government for criticizing their film.
The activists’ weapon of choice is Title IX, the federal law barring gender discrimination in education. In recent years, the Obama administration has used Title IX to pressure schools on the topic of sexual assault, on the grounds that if a school doesn’t do enough to prevent sexual violence, it is denying women the equal opportunity to participate in education by creating a “hostile environment.” But activists are looking to be even more aggressive, essentially arguing those who counter their narrative are creating a “hostile environment” that amounts to sexual harassment and therefore violates Title IX.
The first sign of this line of thought emerged two weeks ago in a Harvard Crimson article discussing a website set up to defend Winston and argue he is innocent of the accusations against him. The article includes a statement from Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, the director and producer, respectively, of “The Hunting Ground,” who sharply attack the Harvard professors who signed the letter defending Winston.
