The Hill: Schools adjusting to remote learning are leaving survivors of sexual violence behind

February 3. 2021

ERA attorney Maha Ibrahim contributed to an op-ed published today on The Hill, alongside NWLC’s Shiwali Patel and Amy Leipziger of Queens Legal Services.

“Maha Ibrahim, an attorney with Equal Rights Advocates, detailed the experience of one survivor who was told she’d have to sit through an 8-hour hearing about her sexual assault from her home on Zoom. Her school told her that her abuser had a right to watch her during the hearing, until her attorney intervened. Because the hearing officer still had to watch her during the hearing, she bought two devices so that her camera was running on one, and her speaker on the other. The school also had not planned for her to meet with her advocate privately, until her attorney advocated that the parties have separate ‘Zoom Rooms.’ Ibrahim noted that these virtual hearings can be triggering for survivors as they are forced to confront their abusers on a platform that is their only access to education now and for the foreseeable future.”

Read the full article.