Several recent cases illustrate how costly not having or not enforcing a policy to deal with sexual assault is to colleges and universities. In each instance, schools that failed to protect their students or to adequately address misconduct were penalized heavily by the courts.
State of New York V. Dominican College of Blauvelt (06/12/09)
Case Overview: This past June, Dominican College in New York was forced to pay $20,000 to the state of New York and to overhaul its sexual misconduct policy for misreporting sexual assault data in their student handbook. This discrepancy was first reported by Gloria Allred, the mother of Megan Wright, a former student at Dominican who committed suicide in the months following an alleged sexual assault that occurred on campus during her freshman year. Allred also filed a $10 million suit against Dominican for its poor handling of the alleged assault.
In More Detail: In 2006, two Dominican College athletes and one of their friends sexually assaulted Megan Wright during her freshman year. Following the assault, one of the alleged perpetrators held up a sign to the dormitory surveillance camera saying “I WANT TO HAVE SEX,” purportedly with Wright’s signature. The next day, Wright went to a local hospital and a physical examination revealed significant injury to her vaginal area.
Wright reported the assault to the school, but Dominican College did not conduct its own investigation. They directed Wright to contact a local police detective who, unbeknownst to Wright, was employed by the school as an instructor. The detective did scant investigation into the case, for example he did not interview any of the witnesses Wright identified. After completing a handwriting test in which the investigator told Wright to write the phrase "I WANT TO HAVE SEX," he deemed it close enough to the handwriting in the recorded sign and proceeded to close the case.
Months following the assault, Wright committed suicide. Gloria Allred, Wright’s mother, said that the "actions and inactions of the university led to her untimely death," and filed a $10 million suit against the university.
Allred’s actions fueled an investigation into Dominican College’s crime data and investigators discovered discrepancies between the crime data Dominican College filed with the federal government and those contained in the student handbook.
The New York Attorney General’s office discovered that "over the course of several years, Dominican had erroneously reported the number of crimes that occurred on campus in their student handbook” and that “Dominican did not have adequate procedures in place to ensure accurate reporting." After the attorney general’s office pressed charges against Dominican for this blatant violation of the Clery Act, Dominican settled for $20,000 and agreed to the following provisions:
- Require all employees responsible for campus security to attend a training program regarding crime reporting issues including the classification and definition of crimes, the collection of crime reports, timely warning requirements and annual disclosure requirements.
- Designate officials to oversee and coordinate the collection of all campus crime reports to ensure that they are properly categorized and maintained to create an accurate crime report.
- Designate officials to ensure that crime statistics are accurately published in the annual campus crime report.
- Designate an official who is responsible for ensuring that grievance procedures are in place for students.
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J.K. v. Arizona Board of Regents (02/26/2008)
Case Overview: A student at Arizona State University was expelled for sexual harassment; however, ASU readmitted him. He then allegedly sexually assaulted the petitioner in J.K. v. Arizona Board of Regents, and she sued ASU for violating her Title IX rights. In early 2009, a settlement forced ASU to pay the petitioner $850,000 and appoint a Student Safety Coordinator to reform the school’s policy on sexual assault.
In More Detail: Darnel Henderson, a football player at Arizona State University (ASU), harassed, threatened, and physically grabbed several women students during a pre-freshman transition program. He also exposed himself to a staff member. ASU expelled him for these actions. At the protest of ASU’s football coach, however, Henderson was readmitted to ASU under a “zero-tolerance” policy and he was allowed to live in the freshman dorms.
The following spring, Henderson entered the dorm room of fellow freshman J.K and allegedly sexually assaulted her. Following an investigation conducted by the school, Henderson was found guilty and expelled from ASU again.
J.K. sued ASU and effectively argued that the school was responsible for the assault since ASU readmitted Henderson even though he had proven to be a clear risk to female students.
A federal court rejected ASU argument that it was not responsible for what happened under Title IX, establishing that the university is responsible under Title IX for the behavior of students if the university possesses "actual knowledge" of the risk the student poses in creating an environment hostile to equal opportunity for women.
The case settled for $850,000, and ASU agreed to appoint a statewide Student Safety Coordinator to review and reform policies for reporting and investigating incidents of sexual harassment and assault.
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Simpson v. University of Colorado (08/24/2006)
Case Overview: Two students were sexually assaulted by football players and recruits and they sued the university in Simpson v. University of Colorado. A federal court found that there was sufficient evidence to suggest that CU acted with “deliberate indifference” with regard to the students. The University settled the case in December of 2007, paid $2.5 million in damages, agreed to hire a new counselor for the Office of Victim’s Assistance, and appoint an independent Title IX advisor.
In More Detail: In December 2001, Lisa Simpson was allegedly raped by University of Colorado (CU) football players and recruits and she filed a complaint with the university. Instead of charging the football players with sexual misconduct, the university charged the players with more mild violations. Additionally, Colorado’s football coach continued to recruit one of the alleged perpetrators.
Simpson sued the University for violating Title IX and creating a sexually hostile environment for female students. Her case was consolidated with Anne Gilmore, who had similar complaints against the university.
A federal court found that there was sufficient evidence to suggest that CU acted with "deliberate indifference" with regard to the plaintiffs. The University settled the case for $2.5 million and they agreed to hire a new counselor for the Office of Victim’s Assistance, appoint an independent Title IX advisor.
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