By Pat Eaton-Robb
Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Lawmakers have began planning a hearing to examine the issues raised in a federal civil rights complaint against the University of Connecticut for its handling of reported sexual assaults.
Seven students and recent graduates filed the Title IX complaint with the federal Department of Education’s Bureau for Civil Rights last week, alleging UConn responded to their cases with deliberate indifference or worse.
State lawmakers last year passed legislation requiring that schools implement protocols for responding to sexual assault complaints.
Under the law, schools must create a plan for enforcing court-ordered protective and restraining orders, make campus disciplinary proceedings uniform and transparent, and provide students and employees with sexual assault awareness and prevention programming.
Republican leaders last week called for the Legislature’s Public Safety and Higher Education Committees to hold a hearing and determine if the school is following the law, and if lawmakers need to strengthen it. The General Assembly’s Democratic leadership and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, also a Democrat, agreed the hearings are warranted.
“As a parent and someone whose wife spent years working with victims of sexual assault, my heart goes out to the women that came forward this week,” Malloy said in a statement. “One of the most basic responsibilities of our institutions of higher learning is to keep our young people safe. If they have failed in that responsibility in any way, or if any victim of sexual assault has been treated with anything but the utmost respect, I will be outraged.”
One of those complainants, Kylie Angell, said UConn initially expelled her attacker, but later readmitted him and didn’t inform her of that decision.
Angell, a nurse who graduated from the school in May, said a police officer later told her, “Women need to stop spreading their legs like peanut butter or rape is going to keep happening until the cows come home.”
The Republican lawmakers outlined several areas they say warrant legislative scrutiny, such as the coordination between UConn’s administration and police when the school receives a report of sexual assault.
“The unfortunate sense one gets from reading these accounts is that students may be encouraged to pursue the internal discipline process and only when that fails do they consider going to campus police, at which point, they may be told that evidence has been lost and it is ‘too late’ to investigate,’” John McKinney, the state Senate’s minority leader, and Lawrence Cafero Jr., the House Republican leader said in a letter calling for the hearing.
UConn President Susan Herbst responded to the women’s complaint with an impassioned defense of the school’s policies at a meeting of the Board of Trustees. She outlined protocols and said the school provides numerous resources to ensure that victims receive compassion, care and justice.
“The university would welcome the opportunity to participate in a public hearing on these issues, as well as to discuss our policies and processes that relate to sexual assault prevention and education and the services available to all members of our community who are victims of sexual violence or harassment,” said school spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz.
Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents the students who filed the complaint, said she and her clients also would participate.
“We believe that the university has not done enough to protect its female students,” she said.
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