>> c-span's "washington journal." every day, we take your calls live on the air on the news of the day and discussed policy issues that impact you. coming up saturday morning, a conversation with ashanti goal are about her podcast. and part of our spotlight on magazine segment, we will talk with unite america's executive director on his piece in the atlantic part primaries must go. watch "washington journal" live at 7:00 eastern sunday morning. join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, texts, and tweets. >> middle and high schools students participated in c-span's student cam competition, telling us what issues the president and congress should address this year. all month, we're featuring the winners. our second prize middle school

winners are 3 students from eastern middle school in silver spring, maryland, where c-span is available through comcast. their winning entry is titled pervasive, how violence is becoming textbook in schools and colleges. >> vice president mike pence was in the chair to break the tie on the nomination of betsy devos to be education secretary with his vote. she is confirmed. one of the most highly debated and awaited new rules around sexual assault and harassment on campus, was made public by the trumpet ministration. the government requires colleges and universities to hold hearings and cross examinations involving the accused and the accuser. the era of rules by letter when -- is a -- is over. >> when title ix was written in 1972, it professed sick,

equality for all students regardless of sex. while title ix helped eliminate gender bias in activities such as sports and clubs, it has not changed the growing rate of sexual misconduct in schools. because of these statistics, former president obama released a letter in 2011. >> at its heart, a very strong encouragement for institutions to take issues of sexual violence seriously. >> when president trump was elected, he chose betsy devos to be secretary of education. she immediately took action to revoke the letter, and drafted a new set of rules to help with several men's rights groups. she believed it would grant equal rights to those -- sexual predators and survivors. >> another area i thought was a decent improvement was the burden of proof no longer on the student. it is on the school. the school has to prove that the

student is responsible. >> these changes sparked outrage among parents and students. at the time, about 96% of america approved the new regulations. 125,000 comments were submitted and we found the majority of them were on our side. we didn't want to see these changes happen because we knew fundamentally, the changes proposed would be harmful to survivors as well as harmful to campus safety at large. >> the attempt to placate the public, betsy devos tabled the idea until a later date. three years after the department of education proposed it, the coronavirus struck. 60% of the public was blissfully unaware, betsy devos put the law under the radar in it went into effect august of 2020. >> rule changes happening in the middle of the school -- this global pandemic, there hasn't been enough guidance from the department of education and to explain how they are supposed to

protect students during covid. >> after the law was passed, democratic legislators were devastated. seven states sued betsy devos but the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge. in a letter to the department of education, vice president elect kamala harris, urged betsy devos to abandon the harmful protocol and start over in order to draft a rule with requirements of title ix that truly would address sexual assault. title ix advocates united and have been extremely open about their position. they staged marches and rallies to protest the new law. even colleges and universities have come under fire for perpetrating rape culture are against it, and many don't have enough money or resources to pay for lawyers. >> the new title ix regulations, as they are currently written, really turned colleges and

universities into legal courtrooms. >> first of all, it requires colleges and universities to set up a whole judicial apparatus they are not prepared and not very good at doing. >> in addition to cross-examination, the law provided narrow definition of sexual assault and harassment. >> to be able to report sexual harassment in title ix is that. -- it has to happen multiple times, and it needs to have denied your access to education. >> the betsy devos regulations are a setback of protection of students and survivors. it has stripped away their rights and protections and especially without consideration for the global pandemic. >> the regulations limit where the sexual assault can take place and where it can be reported to. students were halted -- investigations were halted due to covid and had to take a different route.

some of the cases were thrown out because they did not meet the standards. what do you think president-elect biden should do about this? >> the definition of sexual harassment needs to be revised. cross-examination should be eliminated, or revised to truly place equitable, objective season place. >> our hope is the biden administration can take robust approaches, creating -- but ensure any student going through a misconduct process in schools has fair rights, equitable process, and is not denied access to education. >> all winning entries are available online at studentcam.org. >> the heads of the world bank and world health organization joined other leaders in looking at challenges facing developing countries and distributing coronavirus vaccines.