by Janie Robbins
Every session, delegates bring very controversial pieces of legislation. This session, Representative Julie Tull’s “Innocent Until Proven Guilty” Act of 2016 will be hitting the floor in the House of Representatives later today.
The bill states that any citizen of Oklahoma cannot be fired from their place of employment of expelled from their educational institution due to being accused of sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, or sexual assault until that individual is found to be guilty of the crime.
When someone is accused of one of these crimes, this is referring mainly to college campuses, they go before a board. This board contains no police officers or anyone that works in a legal field. This means that the individual is being reviewed by this board with no legal representation, which many see as a huge problem.
“There is a massive hole here that needs to be filled,” Tull said. “That’s exactly what this piece of legislation does.”
During her research, she found that it was mostly women that were accusing men. Many times women have been heard saying things such as “if I were a mean person, I would accuse him of raping me,” after regretting a sexual encounter.
“We are so big on women’s rights,” Tull said. “I want men to be just as protected. I want every rapist and child molester to go to prison for what they did, but only if they actually committed the crime that they are being accused of.”
While there are many people for this bill, there are several who are against it. Trails are known to take quite a while. This could mean months of the victim having to be in contact with the accused. But at the same time, the same people are saying that the accused should not be expelled or fired due to just the accusation. It seems to be agreed that there is a problem with the system but they do not believe this is the way to correct it.
The question that needs to be asked here is are we willing to force a victim to work or go to school with their abuser until they can be tried in court? I believe that Representative Tull has the right idea. The fact that these individuals that are being accused of these crimes are being fired and expelled without any actual evidence, other than the victims’ accusation is a major problem. Many times after they are dismissed, they cannot be rehired or readmitted even if they are found to be innocent.
This bill provides a solution to the problem. While some people will find a flaw in every piece of legislation, this bill would provide a protection for those that are wrongly accused.