What’s News
A trial date was set this week in a defamation lawsuit against a former student at St. Norbert College, in Wisconsin. The former student, who graduated in 2017, criticized a former administrator’s handling of sexual-assault cases and spoke out in the media, calling on the college to change.
The ex-administrator, who served as vice president for student affairs, sued the former student in December, alleging that she had made false statements accusing him of covering up misconduct and silencing sexual-assault victims.
The Backdrop
Another defamation lawsuit involving campus sexual assault recently moved forward. A former Yale University student who was expelled for sexual assault sued the institution and the woman who had accused him, also a former Yale student. The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in June that the expelled student could bring a defamation suit against the woman.
Typically, witnesses in criminal cases are given immunity from defamation lawsuits over what they say during the proceedings. But the court determined that Yale’s campus disciplinary process didn’t offer the same protections as a criminal process; in other words, it wasn’t “quasi-judicial.”
As a result, the woman could be sued over her statements during the campus sexual-assault investigation.
“Those accused of crimes, especially as serious a crime as sexual assault, are entitled to fundamental fairness before being labeled a sexual predator,” the court ruled.
Defamation lawsuits in campus sexual-misconduct cases aren’t unprecedented, though they’re not particularly common.
The Stakes
The circumstances are different: The St. Norbert graduate was sued over statements she made while advocating for change, claiming that the college — namely, a particular administrator — wasn’t taking sexual assault seriously. The Yale graduate was sued over statements she made during a campus sexual-assault investigation.
Both scenarios show that there can be real consequences for talking about sexual assault in certain ways, said Melissa M. Carleton, a partner and higher-education chair at the law firm Bricker Graydon.
Beyond the closed door of an investigation, it’s common for students to talk when a sexual-assault case is going on. They might share details with a few friends, or they might go public with their accusations. Student 1 might call Student 2 a rapist; Student 2 might call Student 1 a liar.
Or perhaps a third party hears about the allegations and shares the information more widely. “Sometimes on campuses,” Carleton said, “people take a kernel and run with it.”
What to Watch For
Advocates for sexual-assault victims decried the ruling in the Yale case, saying it could deter such victims from coming forward.
The federal regulations for enforcing Title IX, the gender-equity law that governs how colleges investigate sexual-misconduct reports, are in flux. The Biden administration plans to announce changes this fall. But regardless of what the feds say, colleges might look at the Yale ruling and decide that they should preserve a quasi-judicial process for sexual-assault cases, Carleton said, with components like a live hearing and cross examination.
In other words: Colleges might want to ensure that students involved in a sexual-assault case are protected from being sued over statements they make during campus disciplinary proceedings, she said.
The St. Norbert trial is set for September 2024.
