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KitSileya

(4,035 posts)
Thu Jun 19, 2014, 02:37 PM Jun 2014

James Madison University Punished Sexual Assault With 'Expulsion After Graduation'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/18/james-madison-university-sexual-assault_n_5509163.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

James Madison University punished three fraternity members for sexually assaulting a female student and sharing their video of the attack by banning them from campus -- after they graduate.

The school found the men responsible for sexual assault and harassment in the spring break 2013 attack on Sarah Butters, and determined that they shared the video widely with others on the JMU campus in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The unusual "expulsion after graduation" sanction allowed two of the men to graduate on time in May. The third plans to remain on campus for his senior year in 2014-15.

Butters' complaint to federal officials about the school's handling of the attack has prompted an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. JMU is among four universities in Virginia and 63 nationwide to face federal scrutiny on sexual assault cases. The investigation, opened on June 4, will review whether JMU violated the gender equity law Title IX.

...

Butters said she filed a complaint with the Education Department on April 30, because of the sanction and because she believed the men were afforded more rights than she was, allowing them more time to file appeals and more access to relevant documents. She said the fears the school's response will prevent other sexual assault victims from coming forward.


Rape culture doesn't exist, you say? What else do you call a culture where rapists have free access to campus while their victim is a student there? Where letting a rapist finish his degree is more important than protecting other students? Where his victim is forced to drop out of school because she has to fight so much to have her video-taped rape punished, that it causes her grades to drop enough that she loses her scholarship? When the school she goes to, a school that agrees that they are rapists, is more concerned with letting her rapists finish their education than her?
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