Two women have filed lawsuits charging that Kansas State University has declined to investigate their rapes because they took place off campus. Both incidents were fraternity related and both women reported the assaults and rape kits were administered, but they say the university told them they wouldn’t investigate off-campus assaults. Roxana Hegeman reports:
Already, Kansas State is the subject of four open federal Title IX investigations for allegedly mishandling sex assault complaints, according to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. [...]
The U.S. Department of Education has said schools have an obligation to respond to such complaints, even if they occur off campus, according to the students' attorney, Cari Simon. [...] "Kansas State's position is an outlier." [...]
[One woman’s] lawsuit contends she became "extremely incapacitated" from consuming a large amount of alcohol and blacked out. One of the students raped her in his truck while 15 other students looked on, some taking video and photographs, according to the court filing. Her lawsuit also alleges multiple rapes while going to and at a fraternity house.
Gee, sounds like something that should be investigated, no? This is just appalling. The lawsuit contends that since 2012, 11 rapes have taken place at university fraternities.