Sexual Assault at HBCUs
Last Tuesday, Michael Key, a sophomore at Morehouse, posted a string of videos on twitter alleging that he was ignored by Morehouse administration when trying to file a report alleging that he was sexually abused by Demarcus Crews, the interim director of housing and residential education, since his freshman year. Multiple students followed suit, alleging that either Crews or another professor made unwarranted sexual advances on them. Morehouse responded to these allegations by placing Crews on unpaid leave amid an investigation into the misconduct allegations brought by at least two students, including Key, and one former student.
After these videos were released, I was like…Does anyone else find it odd that Key has been unable to file a report with the College for over a year, but as soon as the videos were posted on twitter, Morehouse responded the next day by placing Crews on leave and launching an investigation into his conduct? Isn’t it also odd that Morehouse issued a statement in response to the videos saying that they will take “appropriate and immediate action” against anyone involved in a situation that compromises the safety of the community after a student releases videos saying that the College ignored him for over a year? And…if I’m not mistaken…haven’t there been multiple stories within the past few years from other students at other HBCU’s alleging the exact same thing as Key: when they tried to file a complaint/report, they were ignored? The answer is, yes. It is not only odd, but gut-wrenching, absolutely pitiful, and a complete joke. Students from Morehouse, Howard, and Hampton have all come forward recently alleging that their respective institutions have completely ignored their sexual harassment reports. These confessions have sparked debates not only on why these colleges/universities ignore their victims, but the extent to which schools are required to investigate under Title IX.
*inserts quick blurb about wtf Title IX is* Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is an expansive civil rights law that explicitly prohibits sex discrimination in education. Sexual assault allegations are governed by Title IX. The law protects students, regardless of their gender, from sexual harassment and violence that occurs in the course of the institution’s educational activities or programs. Once a school becomes aware of an incident on campus, Title IX requires the school to promptly investigate the complaint and take the necessary steps to protect students. So basically, if a student files a report with the university or once the school is informed of an incident that happened to a student on campus, they are REQUIRED BY LAW to take action. If they neglect to, it is a violation of Title IX.
Five current and former students of Howard University filed a law suit in federal court alleging that administrators failed to handle reports on sexual assault on campus in a timely manner between 2014 and 2016, which is required by law under Title IX. Specifically, the female students allege that Howard violated their Title IX rights by failing to follow its own policy and investigate within 60 days of a student filing a report. School policy also says that they will provide students with academic accommodations and remedial support, which apparently, the school did not do. Jane Doe 1 claims she was raped in February of 2016 by a male student in her dorm, but her claim was not responded to until she posted about the incident on twitter (this sounds exactly like the student at Morehouse that came forward via twitter). Jane Doe 2 came forward after seeing Jane Doe 1’s viral twitter posts. Apparently, they were raped by the same person. Jane Does 3 and 5 both alleged that they were assaulted by a campus police officer. Jane Doe 4 alleged that she was raped by a man who was assigned to her dormitory. In all of these cases, the women reported having difficulty focusing in class, needed counseling for what they were going through, or had pervasive suicidal thoughts. After several female students at Howard came forward detailing their abuse, Hampton students created a twitter handle called @RapedAtHampton. Students shared their grievances with the university and discussed stories about the university ignoring and dismissing student’s claims of sexual assault.
Idk if these HBCU’s are on CPT time, but failing to investigate reports for periods of longer than 60 days in the case of the Howard students, or for longer than a year in the case of Michael Key, or Hampton neglecting to investigate at all is a complete and utter violation of Title IX. The purpose of Title IX is to require universities and colleges to investigate so that their student’s safety, comfort, access to education, ability to be productive in the classroom, and their overall experience with campus life is not affected. Howard, Hampton, and Morehouse, have quite literally done the exact opposite. By ignoring these student’s requests to investigate, they are not only breaking federal law, but creating an environment for students that is not conducive to their success.
So if not reporting assault affects student’s overall experience, why would HBCU’s ignore their students? I can think of only two explanations: (1) wanting to protect the already fragile reputation of HBCUs or (2) Intersectional dynamics at HBCUs. The rest of the world is waiting for black people to mess up. Because the reputation of black people is so important to these institutions, they sweep instances of sexual assault under the rug because they don’t want negative publicity for the institution. Either that, or based on the fact that coming forward as a black woman at an HBCU (or tbh, a black man at Morehouse), would usually mean coming forward at the expense of a black man, black women/men elect to keep the situation silent/the school will attempt to keep the situation silent. Although sexual harassment affects their safety, comfort, access to education, ability to be productive in the classroom, and their overall experience with campus life, the institution might believe that by making the information public, they would be tarnishing the already brittle reputation of black men, or even the university/college as a whole. These intersectional dynamics at HBCUs place a huge barrier on students to come forward about their assaults.
If all of these barriers are there, the only solution, would be for HBCUs to support victims when they first come forward. And tbh, it’s not only in the victim’s best interest to do this, but also in the school’s best interest because any other decision besides timely investigating a report would be a violation of federal law. But I’m sure that these law suits will have them ackinnnnn difffereeeenttttt because they are getting sued for A LOT (21 Savage voice).