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Brigham Young University student punished for being alleged rape victim

By Shawn Price

SALT LAKE CITY, April 20 (UPI) -- Brigham Young University students protested Wednesday the school's punishment of an alleged rape victim.

Last year, Sophomore Madi Barney, 19, reported an alleged sexual assault to police in Provo, Utah and soon after was told by BYU officials that she had broken the school's honor code.

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Barney said she was neither allowed to register the following semester nor drop out of a few classes she had fallen behind in during that semester due to the alleged incident and subsequent investigation.

"Nothing a survivor does makes rape or any sexual assault OK," Barney wrote in a Facebook post before the protest. "By investigating victims for violations of the honor code, BYU is re-victimizing those who come forward and blaming them for what happened."

She told police the rape occurred during a date at her off-campus apartment and her alleged attacker Nasiru Seidu, lied about his identity, the Salt Lake Tribune reported. Seidu also was friends with a sheriff's deputy who sent the case file to the university.

Two month later, Barney faced a disciplinary hearing at BYU.

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Barney drafted a petition this week that demanded the school exempt victims of sexual assault from its honor code. The petition has collected more than 92,000 signatures in just a few days.

Friends of Barney, some carrying placards that read: "Protect victims, don't shame them" delivered the petition to the university's president Kevin Worthen on Wednesday.

She has filed an official complaint to US Department of Education

Worthen issued a statement Monday vowing to "study" the relationship between Title IX and the school's honor code.

"Sometimes in the course of an investigation, facts come to light that a victim has engaged in prior Honor Code violations. The university recognizes the inherent tension, in some circumstances, in these two important parts of BYU's efforts to create and maintain an atmosphere consistent with the ideals and principles of the Church," Worthen's statement read. "In all Honor Code proceedings, the university strives for fairness, sensitivity and compassion, taking into account all mitigating facts and circumstances."

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