Rape

• Ron DeSantis had his way, the word “woke” would be banished from public use and memory.
• As he promised in Iowa in December 2023 during his failed presidential campaign, “We will fight the woke in education, we will fight the woke in the corporations, we will fight the woke in the halls of Congress.
• Back then, the word was used as a warning to be aware of racial injustices in general and Southern white folks in particular.

The early days of wokeness

• Examples of its use – in various forms of the word “awake” – date back to before the Civil War in Freedom’s Journal, the nation’s first Black-owned newspaper.
• Because education and literacy were “of the highest importance,” the editors wrote, it was “surely time that we should awake from this lethargy of years” during enslavement.
• In a 1904 editorial in the Baltimore Afro-American, for instance, the editors urged Black people to “Wake up, wake up!” and demand full-citizenship rights.
• Wake up Africa!” At around the same time, blues singers were using the word to hide protest messages in the language of love songs.

A miscarriage of justice

On March 25, 1931, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, falsely accused a group of
several Black young men of rape.
Based on their words, the nine Black men – ages 12 to 19 years old – were immediately arrested and in less than two weeks, all were tried, convicted, and with one exception, sentenced to death.

• All the cases were appealed and eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
• In its 1932 Powell v. Alabama decision, the court overturned the verdicts in part because prosecutors excluded potential Black jurors from serving during the trial.
• But instead of freedom, the cases were retried – and each of the “Scottsboro Boys” was found guilty again.

How woke became a four-letter word

• Over the years, the memory of the Scottsboro Boys has remained a part of Black consciousness and of staying woke.
• Two years later, a documentary on the group was called “Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement.”

• When asked to define the term in June 2023, DeSantis explained: “It’s a form of cultural Marxism.
• Civic literacy requires an understanding of the social causes and consequences of human behavior – the very essence of being woke.

Ronald E. Hall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Independent Women's Voice Ambassadors, all who have been directly impacted by the erasure of women, spoke at the press conference.
• I am grateful to New Mexico lawmakers for advancing Independent Women's Voice's Women's Bill of Rights—ensuring that single-sex spaces continue to protect incarcerated women and give them a voice."
• Women's Bill of Rights model legislation, first announced in March 2022 , was drafted by Independent Women's Voice and Independent Women's Law Center (IWLC) in collaboration with the feminist organization Women's Liberation Front (WoLF).
• Independent Women's Voice fights for women by expanding support for policy solutions that aren't just well intended, but actually enhance freedom, opportunities, and well-being.

• Over the past decade, reports of sexual misconduct by Australian health practitioners against patients have increased.
• Now, Australian health ministers have agreed to consider three amendments intended to protect patients in each state and territory.
• Read more:
  How can the health regulator better protect patients from sexual misconduct?

What are boundary violations?

In health-care regulation, health practitioners’ boundary violations (or boundary crossings) cover a spectrum of sexual transgressions against patients. These obviously include serious or criminal sexual assaults and exploitation. However, they also cover innuendo, intrusive questions and inappropriate physical examinations. Then there are sexual relationships with former and current patients – consensual or not.

• The Medical Board of Australia’s guidelines for sexual boundaries describes how boundary violations breach patient trust, undermine patient safety, and erode public confidence in the medical profession.
• As much research indicates, patients who are violated while seeking health care may endure profound distress and experience lifelong trauma.

How common are boundary violations?

• Still, Australia’s national regulator of health practitioners, known as Ahpra,
  received 841 notifications about 728 registered practitioners concerning boundary violations in 2022-2023.
• Independent analysis of Australian tribunal cases for boundary violations indicates between roughly 65% and 80% of those accused are male.

Why now?

• Media reports have described practitioners engaged in exploitative sexual relationships, as well as inappropriate touching and physical examinations.
• For instance, Tasmania’s inquiry into child sexual abuse examined evidence of Ahpra’s response to sexual abuse by a paediatric nurse.

1. More public information about past violations

• This would raise “red flags” on the public register about certain practitioners, which a patient could access.
• Currently, regulatory impositions – such as practice conditions, reprimands, suspensions or deregistrations – are recorded on the register but usually removed once they lapse or expire.

2. Consistent reinstatement of deregistered practitioners

• This seeks to harmonise across the country how deregistered health practitioners are reinstated.
• Currently, only New South Wales law requires disqualified health practitioners to obtain a “reinstatement order” from a civil tribunal before applying to the relevant health profession council for reinstatement.

3. Banning non-disclosure agreements

• While such agreements would likely be unenforceable, they may lead patients to falsely believe they are legally bound to silence.
• This proposed reform seeks to prohibit health practitioners using non-disclosure agreements to eliminate any chance they might stop or dissuade patients from reporting misconduct.

What would the proposed changes mean?

• Many publicised boundary violation cases involve practitioners who have been reinstated after disqualification for previous misconduct.
• Currently, many patients who have been harmed by serial offenders have no way of knowing a practitioner had been previously sanctioned for the same or similar misconduct.
• However, analysis of the available Australian data indicates repeat offending is “the norm rather than the exception”.

Christopher Rudge was engaged as a special research officer at the Medical Council of NSW in 2018.

• Over the past decade, reports of sexual misconduct by Australian health practitioners against patients have increased.
• Now, Australian health ministers have agreed to consider three amendments intended to protect patients in each state and territory.
• Read more:
  How can the health regulator better protect patients from sexual misconduct?

What are boundary violations?

In health-care regulation, health practitioners’ boundary violations (or boundary crossings) cover a spectrum of sexual transgressions against patients. These obviously include serious or criminal sexual assaults and exploitation. However, they also cover innuendo, intrusive questions and inappropriate physical examinations. Then there are sexual relationships with former and current patients – consensual or not.

• The Medical Board of Australia’s guidelines for sexual boundaries describes how boundary violations breach patient trust, undermine patient safety, and erode public confidence in the medical profession.
• As much research indicates, patients who are violated while seeking health care may endure profound distress and experience lifelong trauma.

How common are boundary violations?

• Still, Australia’s national regulator of health practitioners, known as Ahpra,
  received 841 notifications about 728 registered practitioners concerning boundary violations in 2022-2023.
• Independent analysis of Australian tribunal cases for boundary violations indicates between roughly 65% and 80% of those accused are male.

Why now?

• Media reports have described practitioners engaged in exploitative sexual relationships, as well as inappropriate touching and physical examinations.
• For instance, Tasmania’s inquiry into child sexual abuse examined evidence of Ahpra’s response to sexual abuse by a paediatric nurse.

1. More public information about past violations

• This would raise “red flags” on the public register about certain practitioners, which a patient could access.
• Currently, regulatory impositions – such as practice conditions, reprimands, suspensions or deregistrations – are recorded on the register but usually removed once they lapse or expire.

2. Consistent reinstatement of deregistered practitioners

• This seeks to harmonise across the country how deregistered health practitioners are reinstated.
• Currently, only New South Wales law requires disqualified health practitioners to obtain a “reinstatement order” from a civil tribunal before applying to the relevant health profession council for reinstatement.

3. Banning non-disclosure agreements

• While such agreements would likely be unenforceable, they may lead patients to falsely believe they are legally bound to silence.
• This proposed reform seeks to prohibit health practitioners using non-disclosure agreements to eliminate any chance they might stop or dissuade patients from reporting misconduct.

What would the proposed changes mean?

• Many publicised boundary violation cases involve practitioners who have been reinstated after disqualification for previous misconduct.
• Currently, many patients who have been harmed by serial offenders have no way of knowing a practitioner had been previously sanctioned for the same or similar misconduct.
• However, analysis of the available Australian data indicates repeat offending is “the norm rather than the exception”.

Christopher Rudge was engaged as a special research officer at the Medical Council of NSW in 2018.