Students gathered on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi on Thursday to protest the college’s lack of a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual misconduct. Under the supervision of USM’s police department, protesters chanted, “Zero-tolerance- To the Top!”
“We are staging a protest in favor of enacting a zero-tolerance policy amendment, which would basically require dismissal or expulsion of people found responsible of sex crimes by Title IX,” said freshman of the university and organizer of the protest, Kaitlyn Gooch. “We would like to have a property ban because punishment by suspension doesn’t seem like enough to us. We want to make sure that we can have our second home as safe as possible and feel secure going to our classes and to our rooms. We want to feel safe here.”
Gooch went on to point out statistics on the likelihood of sexual misconduct offenders becoming repeat offenders as the reason suspension was not an adequate solution.
