The Benjamin Higher Education Sexual Violence Prevention & Intervention Action Act
PASS HB 151
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Prevents sexual assault
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Teaches college students consent
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Creates training for staff
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Maintains 52 year old Title IX protections
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Provides resources to survivors
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Makes campuses safer
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Increases public safety
This bill is about transforming campus cultures to end sexual violence!
THIS BILL
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Requires trauma-informed policies and responses by post-secondary educational institutions that receive state funds.
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Creates partnerships between Universities and local rape crisis centers to provide survivors with free access to counseling, medical, and legal services.
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Protects survivors and bystanders from punishment if the school’s student code of conduct was broken at or near the incidence of sexual violence.
TRAUMA INFORMED MEANS...
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Working to ensuring all parties feel safe, supported, and empowered.
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Creating an environment conscious of the different cultural, historical, and gender perspectives impacting how students react.
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Policies that are inclusive of the impacts of trauma and its affects on a person's physical, emotional, or psychological response.
campus survivors
need support now!
NM is one of the top 10 states in the nation for rates of sexual assaults.[1]
26%
of undergraduate women
7%
of undergraduate
men
23%
of trans, genderqueer, gender non conforming college students
have been sexually assaulted[2]
Hazing and sexual violence create campus cultures of silence and fear which destroy the lives and futures of NM students.
We need a long term investment in transforming campus cultures to support survivors and prevent violence before it happens!
[1] FBI, Crime in the United States, by Region, Geographic Division, and State (2017–2018)
[2] Cantor, et. al. Association of American Universities, Report on the AAU Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct (2020).
THIS BILL IS NOT ABOUT PUNISHMENT
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Create new crimes
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Suppress victim reporting
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Prevent reporting to law enforcement
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Interfere with existing protection
- Undermine the 52 year old Title IX process
- Create liability
This bill is about changing campus culture and ensuring survivors are supported at all stages.