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Columbia Students Continue To Probe University's Mishandling Of Alleged Sexual Assaults
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jan 24, 2014
Modified Jan 24, 2014
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jan 24, 2014
Modified Jan 24, 2014
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Last month, it was revealed that Columbia University may have mishandled rape and sexual misconduct accusations three female students lobbied against a male athlete. Now, student-run magazine "The Blue and White" has kicked off an in-depth two-part series examining the experiences of the three alleged victims, highlighting how the university's internal investigation allowed the accused student to walk free.
According to the article, previewed on sister blog Bwog, the accused student athlete—identified by the pseudonym "Tom"—allegedly raped two female students. One alleged victim, "Natalie," had been in a relationship with "Tom," but as per the piece, "Tom often forcefully pinned her arms back against the mattress during sex; Natalie would cry during and after they slept together. Not until months after their break up did Natalie recognize this as non-consensual intercourse." The second, "Sara," had consensual sex with "Tom" twice; a third occasion, though, allegedly turned violent:
Tom grabbed her wrists and pinned her arms behind her head. He pushed her legs against her chest and forcefully penetrated her anus. They had never had anal sex before. They had never discussed it. It was painful. Sara began to struggle, screaming at him to stop, yelling at him to get off of her. He didn’t stop.
Both students chose to report the incidents to the university's Office of Gender-Based and Sexual Misconduct over the police. "I heard so many horrible stories about how badly the police handle cases like these. Columbia also advertises its resources so much that I thought they would really listen to me," Sara told the publication. "I thought I would be taken care of."
But when Sara and Natalie were interviewed by a "neutral third party Title IX Investigator" named Jilleian Sessions-Stackhouse, they feared their stories weren't being taken down in full: Sessions-Stackhouse didn't use a recording device and took her notes by hand. "She would write things down that were abbreviations of what I said,” Natalie said. “Things that weren’t correct. It didn’t come out coherently. It didn’t sound like a strong case.”
Natalie went home for the summer and dropped contact with the investigator; her case was subsequently closed. Sara, who also noted Sessions-Stackhouse took incomplete notes—"I would be describing the position I was in when he raped me and her hand just wouldn’t move. She wouldn’t write it down. That’s important stuff," she said—had her case overturned by a panel comprised of faculty members, and an appeal was later denied.
A third victim told the Office of Gender-Based and Sexual Misconduct that "Tom" had tried to molest her at a party. Though she was able to fight him off, she was concerned that he would attack other women. She won her case, but the university allegedly dragged the case on so long that she graduated prior to the ruling, and he received only a "disciplinary probation” warning.
Columbia University officials have not responded to requests for comment; in December, spokesperson Robert Hornsby told the Post that "the University’s Presidential Advisory Committee on Sexual Assault is planning to meet with the CU Student Dems and other student leaders who have raised issues about additional disclosures in order to learn more directly about student concerns, share perspectives, and explore possible next steps." Meanwhile, The Blue & White piece notes that from 2011-2012 to 2013-14, six men and women chose to report sexual assaults to the university instead of to the police; of those six, only two resulted in a conviction, and none were expelled.
Tagged
columbia university
rape claim
sexual assault policy
Rebecca Fishbein
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