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[Monster Zero]

In December 2013, Amherst College imposed its first major sanction under a new get-tough sexual misconduct policy, expelling a 21-year-old senior after a disciplinary board concluded that he had forced a female classmate to perform oral sex during an alcohol-infused encounter nearly two years earlier.

In April 2014, however, the expelled student presented the college with new evidence — a series of text messages the woman sent to two other male students immediately after the alleged rape, according to a lawsuit. To one, a dorm counselor, she described the sexual encounter in language that suggested it was consensual and she wrote, “It’s pretty obvi [obvious] I wasn’t an innocent bystander.’’

To the other student, she sent text messages inviting him over later that same night to “entertain” her — an invitation that resulted in a second sexual encounter, according to text messages and an affidavit by the male student. The accuser testified during the disciplinary hearing that she had texted a friend to come over after the alleged attack.

In the texts, which extend over several hours, Jones and the dorm counselor exchanged the following messages:

Jones: “Ohmygod, I jus[sic] did something so [expletive] stupid.”

Counselor: “What did you do?”

Jones responded that she had sex with Doe. Then she expressed concern that her roommate would find out, noting that her roommate’s friends had witnessed the start of the encounter.

The counselor’s recommendation was to blame Doe for the encounter. Her reply: “But I mean [roommate] knows me it’s pretty obvi I wasn’t an innocent bystander.’’

As she was texting with the counselor, Jones was also texting another male classmate to come to her room: “I mean I happen to have my room to myself this weekend if you wanted to come over and entertain me.”

Hours later, Jones had another text exchange with the counselor that indicated she and that classmate had sex after hours of conversation.

In an affidavit he signed in April 2014, the classmate, who turned over his text messages to Doe early last year, said he had sex that February night with Jones, who was friendly and flirtatious, and did not appear “anxious, stressed, depressed or otherwise in distress.’’

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/05/29/amherst/4t6JtKmaz7vlYSrQk5NDyJ/story.html

Now and days it seems like schools/companies just wanna keep shit quiet as quickly as possible and just bulldoze through the legal process. Oh well, he's gonna get a nice suit out of this.

 

[FZZ]

Welp school fucked up

 

[Megalosaro]

Wait. Why did the counselor tell the chick to lie

 

[jwk94]

The Counselor recommended she falsely accuse him of rape?! WHAT?

 

[Fuchsdh]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/05/29/amherst/4t6JtKmaz7vlYSrQk5NDyJ/story.html

Now and days it seems like schools/companies just wanna keep shit quiet as quickly as possible and just bulldoze through the legal process. Oh well, he's gonna get a nice suit out of this.

I'm a bit surprised at this point that higher ed isn't trying to get the Title IX interpretation challenged in court. At this point they either lose government funding or they get hit with expensive settlements.

This part was an interesting wrinkle I haven't seen in other cases though:

Citing the text messages, Stern charged in his lawsuit that Amherst’s investigation of the episode by an outside lawyer was “grossly inadequate,’’ overlooking signs that Stern says would have cleared his client. What’s more, the lawsuit also asserts that the action taken against John Doe, who is Asian-American, is part of a pattern since 2013 in which the college has sanctioned only “male students of color’’ for sexual misconduct.

They don't actually mention Amherst's record in regards to the alleged perpetrators though.

The stuff about inviting over another guy, though, seems a bit iffy in that I can see where it's used as evidence she wasn't distraught and raped but also feels a bit like it's just attempting to say she's promiscuous. Maybe I'm reading that part wrong.

 

[Dr.Acula]

I don't like schools dealing with these kinds of situations. If a student killed another student, would everyone be happy if it was "handled internally?" Sexual assault is a pretty big deal, why are schools so reluctant to involve police?

 

[USC-fan]

This why you alway video tape it!

 

[Switch Back 9]

The stuff about inviting over another guy, though, seems a bit iffy in that I can see where it's used as evidence she wasn't distraught and raped but also feels a bit like it's just attempting to say she's promiscuous. Maybe I'm reading that part wrong.

I think it's probably a bit of both, but that implication is definitely there at least a little.

 

[Siegcram]

nvm

 

[turtle553]

I don't like schools dealing with these kinds of situations. If a student killed another student, would everyone be happy if it was "handled internally?" Sexual assault is a pretty big deal, why are schools so reluctant to involve police?

Because every murder is a crime and not every sexual encounter is. It's a little crazy that something from two years earlier can get you in trouble without any evidence.

 

[DoktorEvil]

Meanwhile, the expelled student is in academic and professional limbo. His transcript, which he would need to finish his degree or get a higher position, says he was expelled for disciplinary reasons, according to the lawsuit.

Now 22, he was looking forward to a career that probably would have been enhanced by a degree from one of the country’s most prestigious liberal arts colleges

For now, he said in an interview, he works at a small company where he started as an intern last year before getting his first promotion.

His superiors wonder why he did not finish college. And he said he is so embarrassed about what happened that he stays home at night, and is so ashamed of being seen by former classmates that he wears sunglasses when riding the subway.

He has a teenage brother. “I had wanted to be a good role model for him, so this is so disappointing,” he said, as his eyes filled with tears. His father knows he was expelled, but not why.

He asked that he not be identified. Though he wants his name cleared, he said he does not want notice of the case to follow him on Google for life. As for his accuser, it is the Globe’s policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual assault unless they decide otherwise.

The sexual encounter that is now in dispute occurred in the early morning of Feb. 5, 2012, months before Amherst became prominently ensnared in a national maelstrom over insensitivity to women students who had been sexually assaulted.

In October 2012, a former student, Angie Epifano, published a harrowing account of how Amherst had her involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility after she resisted pleas by Amherst’s sexual assault counselor to forget about her rape and forgive her alleged assailant. In 2011, Amherst was one of 55 colleges and universities threatened with the loss of federal funds unless they moved quickly to investigate and punish sexual abusers.

With alacrity, Amherst shifted gears: It forced out the sexual assault counselor. It adopted tough new guidelines governing student behavior and the reporting of sexual misconduct. And it implemented a new disciplinary process designed to deal expeditiously and forcefully with sexual misconduct, in part by adopting the “preponderance of the evidence’’ standard. Doe was the first Amherst student tried under that standard.

WELP.

Amherst fucked up big time.

 

[entremet]

Universties have proven to be terrible at dealing with this stuff of late.

 

[daviyoung]

Now and days

 

[Skeyser]

Am I reading it right? The girl was afraid her friend would find out, so the insane fucking counsellor solution was to tell her to lie about it being a rape? Wtf...

 

[The Llama]

I know why they do it, but as always, I hate that universities have any say in what should be criminal proceedings in court.

 

[Stet]

What kind of credentials do you need to be a "dorm counselor"?

 

[Princess Carl]

What kind of credentials do you need to be a "dorm counselor"?

Maybe it's just an RA

 

[stilgar]

What kind of credentials do you need to be a "dorm counselor"?

.

 

[The Albatross]

What kind of credentials do you need to be a "dorm counselor"?

Probably an RA who went to a team building retreat that previous July.

I don't like schools dealing with these kinds of situations. If a student killed another student, would everyone be happy if it was "handled internally?" Sexual assault is a pretty big deal, why are schools so reluctant to involve police?

Main reason schools don't involved police is that it becomes part of the public record, and they're worried about bad publicity or having to report higher sexual assault report numbers. Amherst College is in a 50 mile radius of about 200 colleges, and they figure that expelling one of these guys extrajudiciously is better than taking the risk of having their college show up in a non-competitive placement on a college ratings website.

 

[Kinitari]

Probably an RA who went to a team building retreat that previous July.



Main reason schools don't involved police is that it becomes part of the public record, and they're worried about bad publicity or having to report higher sexual assault report numbers. Amherst College is in a 50 mile radius of about 200 colleges, and they figure that expelling one of these guys extrajudiciously is better than taking the risk of having their college show up in a non-competitive placement on a college ratings website.

Also, there's been a shift in how schools are expected to deal with this thing from the government, a lot of schools had previously made this a thing strictly for the police, but that doesn't cut it anymore. It's actually really interesting and complicated.

 

[YoungHav]

I would sue that counselor and the school to hell and back.

 

[Dennis]

The counselor’s recommendation was to blame Doe for the encounter. Her reply: “But I mean [roommate] knows me it’s pretty obvi I wasn’t an innocent bystander.’’

As she was texting with the counselor, Jones was also texting another male classmate to come to her room: “I mean I happen to have my room to myself this weekend if you wanted to come over and entertain me.”

wat

 

[soleil]

Not only is the counselor fucked in the head, but the school's policy doesn't seem to require much proof of guilt before expelling someone.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

Billduke.jpg

Looks like Amherst is about to catch hell

 

[BocoDragon]

I can almost see how the logic of sex + alcohol = rape by a male has been implied to us so heavily that you could see many situations being forced into this paradigm even when it's not appropriate.

 

[Kinitari]

Not only is the counselor fucked in the head, but the school's policy doesn't seem to require much proof of guilt before expelling someone.

It used to be more schools required more evidence before something as severe as being expelled, but there was a government push to lower the amount of evidence required. I can't remember exactly, but I think it was the difference between "more than 50% chance" to "possible". There's a lot of interesting reading on this, I just can't remember who the food sources are. I remember an article that I thought was really good at explaining it, but it was written by Sommers, who is apparently not the best.

Edit: found the article, I remembered it was linked on GAF

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/23/the-media-is-making-college-rape-culture-worse.html

Relevant part

Secretary Ali made good on her word. On April 4, 2011, she sent her now-famous Dear Colleague letter to colleges across the nation providing detailed guidelines on the draconian steps colleges should take to fight what she called a “plague” of sexual violence. Ali’s letter advised schools to determine guilt by the lowest standard—a preponderance of evidence. And it instructed them to take measures to minimize the burdens on complainants, but didn’t say a word about the rights of the accused.

 

[Metaphoreus]

Because every murder is a crime and not every sexual encounter is. It's a little crazy that something from two years earlier can get you in trouble without any evidence.

Not every killing is a murder, though.

My problem with the current Title IX implementation is that it's essentially the federal government setting up a parallel criminal court system that operates with a lower burden of proof. When the consequences of being found culpable include such life-changing sanctions as being expelled from college, I don't think a lower burden of proof can be justified. This complaint is quite apart from the question whether schools are competent to adjudicate such claims.

 

[DoktorEvil]

Also, there's been a shift in how schools are expected to deal with this thing from the government, a lot of schools had previously made this a thing strictly for the police, but that doesn't cut it anymore. It's actually really interesting and complicated.

Asking universities to be judge and jury on sexual misconduct allegations is a terrible idea.

Additionally, "preponderance of the evidence" for what would be a criminal charge by a state court? The fuck was that administration smoking?

As someone who had sat and presided on a student conduct board, preponderance of the evidence is laughably low for burden of proof against more serious charges. This isn't someone parked in a fire lane or a ticket.

 

[Hackworth]

So that councillor got fucking fired, right?

 

[GhostWriter24]

So that councillor got fucking fired, right?

Nah bro, she graduated magna cum laude and is now a supreme court justice.