A student identified as “John Doe” is suing Georgia Tech and the University System of Georgia following his expulsion in April for sexual misconduct. The lawsuit alleges that although Doe was expelled for non-consensual sexual conduct, non-consensual sexual intercourse and coercion against a female student at an October 13 event, he received little information about witnesses’ statements and was not able to defend himself. The lawsuit seeks punitive and compensatory damages, a jury trial and to be allowed to finish his studies to complete his degree at Georgia Tech.
The lawsuit comes amid an ongoing debate in Washington over the proposed Safe Campus Act. If passed, the Act would block colleges from investigating sexual assault cases unless the alleged victim also reports the case to police. The National Panhellenic Conference had originally supported the bill, but withdrew its support recently, citing the opposition of many individual fraternities and sororities. The North American Interfraternity Conference did likewise, saying in a statement ““After listening to our member fraternities and partners, the NIC is withdrawing its support of the Safe Campus Act. The ultimate goal of campus reform is to provide a safer environment for students to further their education.”
In response to the NIC’s position, the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity revoked its membership from that group. The Chairman of Lambda Chi Alpha, Fletcher McElreath, said “The NIC has recently elected to pursue counterproductive tactics that we believe are antithetical to our values, and we cannot support them.”
CNN just recently aired a documentary titled “The Hunting Ground” about the state of sexual assault on college campuses around the nation. The documentary focused particularly on a case out of Harvard. Brandon Winston was accused by fellow student Kamilah Willingham of drugging and raping her after a night of partying. Willingham claimed the university did little or about it and refused to believe her, despite Winston being suspended from school for a year and taken to court over the accusation. All charges ended up being dropping, except for a misdemeanor of a “nonsexual nature.” A drug test showed no evidence of drugs, except for cocaine Willingham had willingly used and distributed during the evening in question.
The Harvard case and the CNN documentary’s handling of it was questionable enough to some Harvard law faculty that 19 of them wrote a letter denouncing the film. The letter begins by questioning the general assault crisis at American universities and Winston’s case in particular, “This purported documentary provides a seriously false picture both of the general sexual assault phenomenon at universities and of our student Brandon Winston.”
The professors take serious issue with CNN and the propagandic nature of the film. “We believe that Brandon Winston was subjected to a long, harmful ordeal for no good reason. Justice has been served in the end, but at enormous costs to this young man. We denounce this film as prolonging his ordeal with its unfair and misleading portrayal of the facts of his case. Mr. Winston was finally vindicated by the Law School and by the judicial proceedings, and allowed to continue his career at the Law School and beyond. Propaganda should not be allowed to erase this just outcome.”
John Doe at Georgia Tech’s situation may not be similar to Mr. Winston’s, the facts of the case are not out and the state is refusing comment amid ongoing litigation, but considering the seriousness of the accusations, Mr. Doe’s case is not open and shut.
