Alleged sexual assault victims sue UC-Berkeley, say school shouldn’t investigate its own crimes

While the momentum seems to be among accused students who claim they were unfairly treated during sexual-assault adjudications by their schools, alleged victims continue filing lawsuits against the schools as well, claiming they ran a shoddy process.

The Daily Californian reports that three University of California-Berkeley women are suing the school for “gender-based discrimination and fraudulently represent[ing] its safety,” Title IX violations and failing to educate students on “how to prevent sexual assault or abuse.”

They held a press conference where one plaintiff claimed she was kept “completely in the dark about the status of my case” and went through a “lengthy, demeaning and inept process” that remains in effect with new victims of assault.

In a possible note of common ground with civil libertarians who say schools aren’t equipped to handle their own investigations, the plaintiffs want the university to bring in outside help:

[They] will ask for a more neutral adjudication process that would include people unaffiliated with the university in order to offset what they say is a conflict of interest “inherent in the university policing itself.”

[Plaintiff Sofie] Karasek said the process is often biased in favor of the alleged assailants.

That’s a little hard to believe, given that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has effectively bullied schools into adopting the weakest evidence standard for sexual misconduct cases. California’s own affirmative-consent law makes it practically impossible for accused students to prove their partner actively consented throughout the act, as well.

The Daily implies the plaintiffs are all sexual-assault activists on campus.

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