[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 10 (Wednesday, February 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H388]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 ACCURACY IN CAMPUS CRIME REPORTING ACT

  (Mr. DUNCAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, 2 days ago, USA Today, in its lead 
editorial, strongly endorsed the Accuracy in Campus Crime Reporting 
Act. This bill, H.R. 715, is one that I introduced, which now has 65 
cosponsors, divided almost equally between Republicans and Democrats. 
As USA Today said, ``As long as campus courts operate in secret, 
students committing crimes get a privacy right denied to the rest of 
adults.''
  That is what this bill is all about. It is about opening up the 
records of crimes being committed at campuses. A college or university 
that does not have a crime problem should have no objections to this 
bill. But parents and students should be allowed to know if certain 
colleges are lax about law enforcement.
  Many colleges prefer to discipline student criminals in secret campus 
courts. They use a warped interpretation of Federal privacy laws to 
treat these crimes as private academic records that may not be released 
to the public.
  No one has any business knowing about a student's grades or financial 
aid records, but it is wrong, however, when the definition of privacy 
is used to protect rapists and murderers.
  USA Today summed it up best by concluding ``It is a sad state of 
affairs when an act of Congress is necessary for the Education 
Department to protect students' safety.''
  I encourage my colleagues to cosponsor H.R. 715, a bipartisan bill 
that will change the definition of privacy to exclude campus criminal 
activity.

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