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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A campus sexual assault bill appears to be dead after advocates raised concerns it could involve police in investigations against victims' wishes.

A panel of Utah lawmakers said Monday they were tabling the idea with Republican sponsor Kim Coleman in another hearing during the busy final days of the legislative session.

Coleman has pointed to Utah cases where women reported assaults only to find university officials already knew about multiple allegations against the perpetrator and didn't stop them. She insists that should never happen.

Advocates, though, said even the possibility that college officials could give sexual assault allegations to police without victims' permission could keep them from reporting the assaults at all, undermining work being done to nudge up an anemic reporting rate.

The bill also gives people who report sexual assaults broad amnesty from school honor codes.

Click here to watch the video and read the original article. This piece first appeared on ksl.com

You cannot do this to sexual assault survivors.

(KUTV) -- The Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault announced Friday the launch of a new mobile application called "You Are A Survivor."

Support is offered through the new app to sexual assault survivors and their families with information, resources, and links to service providers.

It is available free of charge on the Apple Store and Google Play Store.

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SALT LAKE CITY – Utah lawmakers are preparing a bill aimed at improving the way emotional trauma victims are treated in the criminal justice system.

If passed, the bill would standardize trauma-informed practices across government agencies.

It would devote resources to learning more about the ways victims are affected, as well as addressing some of the pressing problems already identified. The bill will also put in place “trauma-informed practices” for all levels of the justice system, including police officers, medical first responders and the legal courts.

Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, and Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, said bettering the criminal justice system is a bipartisan issue, which is why the two have come together to sponsor HB177. As of Jan. 29, the bill has yet to be heard by a committee.

Escamilla and Ivory oversaw a panel discussion on the topic on Capitol Hill Jan. 16.

The panel was split into three different sections. Sexual assault survivors were at the forefront of the evening, telling stories about how the justice system had failed them. The panelists drew rapt attention from the crowd.

Jennifer Livsey and her daughter Rhiannon are all too aware that the justice system needs to reform the way it treats victims of trauma.

Rhiannon’s stepfather sexually abused her for over a decade. After he was arrested, a police officer told Jennifer to come and talk to him in his car. Jennifer remembers blacking in and out of the conversation as the officer told what her husband had been doing to her daughter.

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SALT LAKE CITY — A bill that would codify college students' legal right to active counsel in campus sexual assault hearings was narrowly struck down in committee Tuesday.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 5-6 against a measure to send HB82 to the House floor after a hearing that lasted for more than two hours.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Kim Coleman, R-West Jordan, explained that since her bill passed the same committee last year, the Utah System of Higher Education created a policy that does what her bill does: It permits students the right to active counsel during such proceedings.

However, she reasoned, "policies do not afford the same legal protections and represent the same force of law that a rule does or that the actual code does."

Coleman clarified that she was not before the committee to criticize the policy, but only to "make sure that in areas of certain civil rights that students have the protections afforded by law."

Speaking in support of the bill, Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, said: "OK, this (hypothetical) person has been accused and in a world where a college degree is more necessary, more valuable than perhaps ever before in our lifetimes. … What are the options of the accused?"

Ivory said when the system in place doesn't work, "it's very serious for the accused student as well."

Turner Bitton, executive director of the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, argued against the bill.

"A student already has the right to have a nonactive adviser. What this does is create a courtroom-style brawl every time that there is an administrative proceeding," Bitton said.

Rep. Lowry Snow, R-Santa Clara, said he didn't want to subject victims to an environment that invited in lawyers who would treat the proceedings as criminal cases.

Ultimately the committee struck down the bill by one vote.

This article originally appeared in the Deseret News. Click here to visit the original article.

CEDAR CITY — (KUTV) - Taylor Cella didn’t know the guy, and she certainly didn’t want a picture of his penis, but the man, via SnapChat sent that image anyway, “and then the next day I’m get a picture from him,” says Cella, “why do I have to see that when I don't know you we don't have a relationship,” she says.

Cella is the victim of a growing, and disturbing phenomenon, men sending pictures to women, uninvited, of their genitals. It is a problem that is often ignored, or laughed off, but Turner Bitton with the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, says it is a serious affront to women, and can be called nothing else but sexual harassment, “the person who is motivated to do this sort of thing is motivated by a desire to have power and control,” says Bitton.

It might be the next battleground in the MeToo Movement.

ON-LINE CANCER: Increasingly, woman are getting inappropriate, unsolicited pics from men. Its often ignored, laughed off. Experts say it's #sexualHarassment, & next battle ground in the #MeToo movement. A #CedarCity woman tells us her story, @KUTV2News @10.

— Chris Jones (@jonesnews) January 6, 2018

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A small group of activists on Friday stood silent along a busy Salt Lake City street, duct tape covering their mouths. Red rope tied their hands. Some had tears in their eyes as they held signs scrawled with sobering statistics of how frequent sexual abuse happens in Utah.

Harvey Weinstein. Al Franken. Charlie Rose.

The last several weeks have been filled with a seemingly endless line of allegations against high-profile celebrities, politicians and businessmen, and as more victims come forward, even more appear. Sexual harassment is a phenomenon that just happens in other places and other industries—until it happens close to home, too.

“Suddenly, I [as a victim] don’t need to worry as much about the politics or my standing and relationship with my superiors; I can make this claim, because look at these other individuals who have come forward and made the claim and it’s been positively received. It’s empowering and it’s encouraging,” says Ryan Nelson, Utah president of Employers Council. “Seeing all this happening and the positive news reports and people coming out and condemning the behavior is extremely empowering and gives courage for an individual to report.”

This rising tide of revelation and accusation has many business leaders holding their breath. Will my organization be the next to be hit with a sexual harassment scandal?

As awareness grows on a subject that has been something of an open secret in many sectors of business, victims feel increasingly comfortable about speaking up. And as the ripples of newfound boldness and accusations expand, it’s more important than ever for employers and employees alike to know how to recognize sexual harassment and keep it from happening in their own workplaces.

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