Northeastern University Allows Rapist To Transfer

[ismnotwasm]

In 2011, Katherine Rizzo was raped by a fellow student at Northeastern University, a private college in Boston. After a university police department investigation and hearing, her assailant was found “responsible” for sexual assault with penetration, but he appealed the decision based on a “procedural error.” Before the next hearing could take place, he swiftly withdrew and transferred to another college.

Rizzo, defeated after the more than 130-day-long hearing process, dropped out of school.
Two years later, as students across the country started to attract attention for filing federal complaints against their colleges for mishandling sexual assault, Rizzo became curious about what had happened to her case. After she pressed her former school for information, Northeastern told her that her assailant had successfully argued for his appeal by claiming that the “level of consent” the hearing board used to find him responsible was “too high.”

On Wednesday, Rizzo filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights alleging that Northeastern violated sexual assault survivors’ rights under gender equity law Title IX, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Clery Act, which mandates that schools accurately report campus violence.

Although Rizzo is no longer within the 180-day statute of limitations for filing a Title IX complaint, she and End Rape on Campus, the activist coalition that helped Rizzo write her complaint, hope her story will draw attention to the limitations of the statute, as well as the way schools define consent and allow guilty parties to transfer without consequence.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/northeastern-university-allows-rapist-to-transfer

[MADem]

1. How could Northeastern have prevented the student from transferring?

Lock him in his room, throw away the key, put a gun to the head of his parents to force them to pay for tuition/fees, room and board?

One can argue about how the school "handled" the case (and perhaps the best bet would have been for the victim to go to a hospital and called the BPD, not the NE rent-a-cops) but I don't understand the headline.

It's not up to the university to "allow" the student to transfer. The student can do that if he wants, and the school he transfers to can accept him if they want.

There is a lesson here--don't rely on the "campus police" for anything beyond busting a keg party. If you are the victim of a crime, go to the city or town police, and if you are a victim of rape, head for the hospital. I'm quite serious when I tell you there are a half dozen hospitals within a short walking distance of NE.

I would urge "End Rape On Campus" to push for outreach to victims that says "cut out the campus cop/administration middleman" and go straight to the police to preserve their rights in the legal system. All using a university arbitration process does is delay the search for justice.

[ismnotwasm]

2. The story is there to tell the story

The headline is misleading

[MADem]

3. You're right--the headline is terribly misleading.

Bit of a wasted opportunity by the editorial staff, I suppose.

NU Student Protections Grossly Inadequate is probably closer to the mark.

[ismnotwasm]

4. Much better.