A group of six women have filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Tennessee. The women allege that the university fosters an environment that allows sexual assaults by student athletes and that the legal adjudication process is biased against victims of sexual assault.
The lawsuit states that the university showed a “deliberate indifference and a clearly unreasonable response after a sexual assault that causes a student to endure additional harassment.” The plaintiffs added that high level administrators “were personally aware and had actual notice of previous sexual assaults and rapes by football players, yet acted with deliberate indifference to the serious risks of sexual assaults and failed to take corrective actions.”
In response, the university issued a statement which read in part: “The University acted lawfully and in good faith, and we expect a court to agree. Any assertion that we do not take sexual assault seriously enough is simply not true. To claim that we have allowed a culture to exist contrary to our institutional commitment to providing a safe environment for our students or that we do not support those who report sexual assault is just false.”