The University of Nebraska is facing a Title IX lawsuit filed by nine women who allege the university failed to take action on their reports of sexual harassment incidents and sexual assaults. In each case, the alleged perpetrator was a male college athlete.

Each plaintiff is a current or former University of Nebraska-Lincoln student who attended the school at some point between 2015 and the present. They are seeking restitution for punitive and statutory damages.

What is Title IX?

Title IX is a statute that protects people from discrimination based on sex in educational programs or any activity that receives financial assistance from the U.S. federal government.

Enforced by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, Title IX became law in 1972. Title IX covers several issues that may arise in the academic world, including the areas of recruitment, athletics, sexual harassment and disciplinary action.

The Office for Civil Rights evaluates, investigates and helps resolve incidents alleging sex discrimination in schools, universities, libraries and museums.

Title IX Lawsuit Allegations

One plaintiff alleges she was just 17 when she started her freshman year at the university, and was raped by a male athlete in a dorm room. After the August 2015 sexual assault, the young woman said she received threatening text messages from both the alleged rapist and one of his teammates.

According to the Title IX lawsuit, the young woman had trouble concentrating in her classes due to depression and stress over the rape, and sought help withdrawing from a class by meeting with the university’s Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (IEC). The Title IX coordinator and IEC director purportedly told her he wouldn’t help her withdraw from the class unless she filed a complaint against the alleged perpetrator and a formal Title IX investigation of him was begun.

The coordinator/director allegedly violated federal Title IX guidance and the University of Nebraska’s own student code of conduct by insisting the plaintiff had to start a formal investigation in order to obtain her requested academic accommodations, says the lawsuit.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Department investigated the rape allegations and no charges were ever filed even though the police said the man gave three different versions of what happened; the IEC purportedly had been given a list of witnesses on the plaintiff’s behalf, but none were ever interviewed, and the IEC eventually determined the alleged rapist’s account of events was more believable than the victim’s.

“Most shockingly, while [Plaintiff] was going through the Title IX appeal process, she was academically dismissed from UNL,” says the lawsuit.

Another Plaintiff’s Allegations

Another young woman says she went on a date with a male student and explicitly told him she wanted to get to know him before engaging in any type of sexual relations. She said he raped her, and she was so stunned that she “froze and was unable to verbalize her objection” to the assault.

After the rape, he allegedly continued to contact her against her will, asking for a second chance.

She said when she reported the rape and stalking to the IEC, she received a letter stating that because she did not inform the alleged perpetrator that she did not provide consent to the sexual activity that “no sanction is deemed to be appropriate or necessary.”

However, according to the University of Nebraska’s sexual misconduct policy, the school abides by the state law that says ‘“without consent” means… A person need not resist verbally or physically where it would be useless or futile to do so.”

According to the Title IX lawsuit, the plaintiff was severely traumatized by the investigation process at the university, which was marred by an alleged lack of transparency, victim blaming and lack of consideration for the trauma she had endured.

The Title XI Lawsuit is Case No. 4:20-cv-030801, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.