Students seeks legal action against Harvard for response in sexual assault cases

Two students of Harvard University has filed a federal complaint against their school for their improper management of sexual assault cases. According to student group Our Harvard Can Do Better, two of its members filed the complaint on March 28 to the Office for Civil Rights of the US Education Department claiming that officials of the Ivy League school has discouraged its students to pursue their cases against assailants. Moreover, the group said that the complainants claimed that the school officials also improperly informed students about the likely outcomes of their sexual assault proceedings should they decide to pursue.

Freshman Emily Fox-Penner, who is one of the two students who filed the complaint, said, "If you're trying to find a way to make the policy more acceptable to sexual-assault survivors, is the right way to guess or to ask survivors what about the process is going wrong?"

Fox-Penner said she and her co-complainant filed on behalf of nine students who were allegedly assaulted sexually. Fox-Penner said her co-complainant chose to remain anonymous, and that she herself is not a sexual assault victim. Bloomberg said the two are most likely accusing Harvard of violating Title IX, the federal rule that seeks to prohibit gender discrimination treatment in education.

Fox-Penner said that they are complaining about the inaccurate and conflicting information the nine students received from school officials regarding their housing options following their filing of sexual abuse reports. Moreover, she claimed that Harvard's disciplinary body, Administrative Board, were negligent in informing students how to write their disposition in their cases.

Our Harvard Can Do Better member Jessica Fournier also disclosed that the complaint has claimed that the school failed to apply the "preponderance of evidence" standard in their investigations, which allegedly makes it more difficult to find the assailants. Bloomberg said that the US Education Department requires all schools to use the standard in campus hearings.

In an emailed statement, university spokesman Jeff Neal said that the school has created a body to deal with assaults properly called Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, which has a university-wide Title IX coordinator and has trained coordinators to handle such cases. Harvard President Drew Faust also said in a separate statement yesterday that she has asked Harvard's former provost and Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research Steven Hyman to lead a task force on sexual misconduct.

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Harvard University, Our Harvard Can Do Better, US Education Department, Harvard sexual assault management scandal

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