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Who We Are »
Betsy Combier

Help Us to Continue to Help Others »
Email: betsy.combier@gmail.com

 
The E-Accountability Foundation announces the

'A for Accountability' Award

to those who are willing to whistleblow unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status. They ask questions that need to be asked, such as "where is the money?" and "Why does it have to be this way?" and they never give up. These people have withstood adversity and have held those who seem not to believe in honesty, integrity and compassion accountable for their actions. The winners of our "A" work to expose wrong-doing not for themselves, but for others - total strangers - for the "Greater Good"of the community and, by their actions, exemplify courage and self-less passion. They are parent advocates. We salute you.

Winners of the "A":

Johnnie Mae Allen
David Possner
Dee Alpert
Aaron Carr
Harris Lirtzman
Hipolito Colon
Larry Fisher
The Giraffe Project and Giraffe Heroes' Program
Jimmy Kilpatrick and George Scott
Zach Kopplin
Matthew LaClair
Wangari Maathai
Erich Martel
Steve Orel, in memoriam, Interversity, and The World of Opportunity
Marla Ruzicka, in Memoriam
Nancy Swan
Bob Witanek
Peyton Wolcott
[ More Details » ]
 
Students File Title IX Sexual Assault Complaint Against Columbia University
After months of advocating for changes in the way the administration handles cases of sexual assault, 23 Columbia and Barnard students have filed a federal complaint that alleges violations of Title IX, Title II and the Clery Act by the university. Twenty-three Columbia and Barnard students have filed a federal complaint that alleges violations of Title IX, Title II and the Clery Act by the University. The complaint comes after months of students advocating for changes in the way the administration handles cases of sexual assault.
          
   Columbia University, New York City   
Students File Title IX Sexual Assault Complaint Against Columbia University
Eliana Dockterman @edockterman April 24, 2014
LINK

After months of advocating for changes in the way the administration handles cases of sexual assault, 23 Columbia and Barnard students have filed a federal complaint that alleges violations of Title IX, Title II and the Clery Act by the university

Twenty-three Columbia and Barnard students have filed a federal complaint that alleges violations of Title IX, Title II and the Clery Act by the University. The complaint comes after months of students advocating for changes in the way the administration handles cases of sexual assault.

The 100-page complaint alleges that the University allows accused perpetrators of sexual assault to remain on campus, has too-lenient sanctions for perpetrators, discourages victims from reporting assault and denies accommodations to students with mental health disabilities (which they say result from their attacks). The students also claim that LGBTQ students are discriminated against in advising, counseling and Greek Life.

Title IX protects students from gender-based discrimination, including sexual assault, on campus. The Clery Act requires all colleges and universities to disclose information about crime on or near their campuses. Title II protects students from disability-based discrimination. By filing all three complaints, the students hope to hold the university responsible for not only allegedly mishandling rape cases but also for the way they deal with students who have mental health issues after being attacked.

“We’ve seen two town halls and a couple of emails, and as a survivor and an ally to survivors, that’s not enough,” Mary Seitz-Brown, a senior and one of the students who filed the complaint, told the Columbia Spectator. “That’s not enough to make me feel safe. We’re afraid, to be honest, that when the summer comes, that’ll be an excuse not to follow through on these promises.”

She added, “The thing to highlight here is how much this is not just about sexual violence but mental health as well.” One of the complainants said that she was placed on disciplinary and academic probation because she was a “mental health liability” after she was allegedly assaulted.

Another student complains in the filing that the University failed to accomodate him as a transgender student. He says there is a “general ignorance and hostility towards my gender identity … even (the) dismissal of my rape because it didn’t fit the normative ‘boy-rapes-girl’ narrative.”

In January, student Anna Bahr interviewed three sexual assault survivors in Columbia’s Blue and White. All three women alleged that they were assaulted by the same man, and all said they had bad experiences with the administration after reporting their assault. One student said she was raped anally and her testimony was questioned by a “specially trained panelist” who didn’t “understand how it’s possible to have anal sex without using lubrication first.”

Columbia’s President called for increased sexual assault transparency after the story was published. He claimed that several initiatives were already on the way.

But that’s not enough for students. “I don’t trust the University to take my experience or my safety more seriously than they take their own public image,” Cami Quarta, one of the Columbia complainants said in the filing.

If Columbia is found in violation of the Cleary Act, it will have to pay $35,000 per violation. If it is found in violation of Title IX and Title II, it will be subject to federal review and could lose federal funding.

Students at Columbia join several of their peers at other schools in filing Title IX complaints: sixteen students filed a complaint against Yale University in 2011; complaints were filed against University of North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Amherst, UConn in 2013; and a student filed a Title IX lawsuit against Northwestern in February—to name a few. The proliferation of complaints has prompted a White House task force to protect students from sexual assault.

Students File Complaints on Sexual Assaults at Columbia University
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑAAPRIL 24, 2014

23 Students File Complaint Against Columbia for Mishandling Rape

After several truly infuriating accounts of the Columbia administration mishandling and neglecting sexual assault reports became public, the University pledged to clean up its act. But, as is so often and so alarmingly the case, this seems to have just been a PR smokescreen: the administration's first concern was salvaging its reputation, not the health and safety of its students.

In response, 23 Columbia students have filed a federal complaint alleging violations of Title IX, Title II and the Clery Act. Title IX protects students from gender-based discrimination, which includes sexual assault and harassment on campus; Title II protects them from discrimination on the basis of disability. The group alleges numerous violations — including but not limited to "administrators discouraging survivors from formally reporting, LGBTQ students facing discrimination in counseling, advising, adjudication, and Greek life, serial offenders remaining on campus, inadequate disciplinary sanctions, and discrimination against survivors, denied accommodations based on mental health disabilities."

In an article for Columbia's The Blue and White published in January, student Anna Bahr interviewed three sexual assault survivors, all of whom were assaulted by the same man. All of their cases were mishandled horrifically: one victim, who was anally raped, has her testimony called into question by a "specially trained panelist" who said he didn't "understand how it's possible to have anal sex without using lubrication first." (Uhhh, maybe because the victim was forcibly penetrated against her will?) Another suffered from depression in the aftermath of her assault/subsequent botched investigation and received Incompletes in half of her classes as a result. The perpetrator was never punished, even though the administration knew he was a serial offender.

More students have since come forward with similar horror stories: one survivor, Rakhi Agrawal, says she was on disciplinary and academic probation at the time of her assault because the school considered her a mental health liability. After it occurred, she was afraid to seek counseling because she didn't want to risk being suspended or expelled. She told Youngist, "I was desperate. I tried to kill myself. I needed the support and protection of my Barnard community – but instead they put me on disciplinary probation for my suicide attempt."

Columbia's ineptitude at handling its student's mental health issues is hardly exceptional — colleges nationwide have an abysmal track record at doing so — however, the decision to file a Title II complaint alongside Title IX and the Clery Act is. In doing this, Columbia students are holding their administration accountable not only for its deeply inadequate response to sexual assaults, but also for its utter inability to provide appropriate accommodations for those students who suffer mental health trauma in the aftermath of sexual violence. "Sexual violence and mental health are inextricably linked," Zoe Ridolfi-Starr, a lead complainant in the filing, told Youngist. "By ignoring, denying, and discriminating against survivors who express mental health care needs, we cannot fully support them."

Marybeth Seitz-Brown, another complainant, says that the filing was a result of the administration not taking survivor concerns seriously enough. "We've seen two town halls and a couple of emails, and as a survivor and an ally to survivors, that's not enough," she told the Columbia Spectator. "That's not enough to make me feel safe. We're afraid, to be honest, that when the summer comes, that'll be an excuse not to follow through on these promises." The hope is that the federal suit will galvanize Columbia into action and turn the administration's empty promises into something actually efficacious.

"For me personally, filing is a way to force administrators to take immediate action to making campus safer," said an anonymous complainant. "But it's just one step for us: I want to see us meaningfully talking about how our communities excuse and enable violence and how we respond to and support survivors in addition to all the bureaucratic and procedural changes that need to happen."

 
© 2003 The E-Accountability Foundation