NORFOLK, Va., Oct. 9 (UPI) -- A former student who says she was raped just three days into her freshman orientation at Virginia Wesleyan College in 2012 is suing the school for failing to properly protect female students.
The student, who later withdrew from school, accused the college of allowing her assailant to voluntarily withdraw, which allowed him to re-enroll in another college and continue playing lacrosse at the new school.
The lawsuit, filed in the Norfolk Circuit Court, says the "college knew that female students faced an especially high risk of rape from lacrosse team members" and that "male students were drugging female students, rendering them incapacitated and raping them."
The student, who filed the lawsuit as Jane Doe, said she was invited by a peer adviser to an on-campus party, where she was given a shot laced with drugs.
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"She felt woozy. She felt like she was going to pass out, then the assailant got her, abducted her, took her to his room and brutally raped her over five hours," said attorney Jonathan Halperin.
Jane Doe spoke to counselors and a school nurse, but was never advised on how to file a complaint. She ultimately contacted police three months later.
Initially, a school Title IX hearing found woman's assailant in violation of college policies on underage police and "engaging in physical activity of a sexual nature against the will of another student," the college's vice president for student affairs David Buckingham said in a 2013 letter.
The hearing resulted in a decision to permanently dismiss the alleged assailant, but then changed his punishment to allow him to withdraw, "a different designation which may assist him in seeking further studies."
He then was allowed to enroll in another school, where he continued to play NCAA lacrosse.
"The response afterwards was horrific," Halperin said. "She wasn't encouraged to report this and then, you know, the school's response in changing the status of the rapist from sexual assailant to withdrawn so that he could go play lacrosse at another school, that's outrageous."
The lawsuit also accuses of systematically underreporting sexual assaults on campus.
Jane Doe v. Virginia Wesleyan College
