Five ‘Jane Does’, all former and current students of Howard
University (“HU”), filed a federal law suit against HU alleging
deliberate indifference towards their reported sexual assaults. It’s
HU’s own policy to investigate reports of sexual assault within
sixty days. None of the Jane Doe’s cases were investigated within
60 days, and all of the investigations in this case lasted more than five
months. The
lawsuit contends that HU’s actions “exacerbated and extended, rather than corrected”
the interference with each woman’s educational opportunities.
The lawsuit alleges severe mishandling of HU’s investigations of
each of the Jane Doe’s cases. For example, Jane Doe I reported that
she was raped in February of 2016 by a Resident Agent (“RA”)
in her dormitory. After six weeks of no response from the school, she
took to Twitter to criticize HU, which in turn created a social media
storm and
prompted protests and harsh criticism of HU’s mishandling of sexual assault on campus. In response to
the social media activity, the Dean of Student Affairs allegedly told
Jane Doe I, “You embarrassed your family by doing that.” Through
all of this, it was also learned that Jane Doe 2 had reported in October
of 2015 to HU that she had been raped by the same male student who later
raped Jane Doe I, and she eventually left HU because of the lack of response
and feeling unsafe on campus. Jane Doe 3 was reportedly suicidal after
being sexually assaulted by a HU police officer, and it took HU weeks
to even consider her case.
If even a few of the allegations in the law suit are true, Howard University
should be ashamed and take immediate action to revamp their failing systems
in order to better address sexual assault on campus. It would be truly
shameful if the assailants on campus are being given a level of protection
greater than that afforded to their victims. Survivors of rape and sexual
assault should be receiving all the support and resources that they need
from the University, and any system falling short of that should be remedied
immediately.