American higher education has a rape problem. It also has a silencing problem that allows sexual assaults to be swept under the rug. Remarkably, the state Legislature doesn’t seem in any rush to fix it.

Since a former Cornell University student detailed how she was allegedly raped by seven fraternity brothers, women across New York have spoken up about their own sexual assault. Some of them were just freshmen in college, young women who had their virginity taken in horrible, violent acts, forever changing who they are.

Yet, so many of them can’t speak publicly about their assailant or even confide in their parents about what happened to them. The reason? They were coerced into signing a non-disclosure agreement that prevented them from ever exposing the details of what happened, and at whose hands.

New York law bans NDAs in settlement agreements “except at the request of the survivor.” This........

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