LINCOLN – Nine women, all former or current students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, sued the school in federal court Monday alleging that its investigations and responses to sexual misconduct and harassment were insufficient.
In the case filed in U.S. District Court in Lincoln, attorney Karen Truszkowski said UNL’s failure to appropriately respond to and investigate the women’s claims, “as well as the sex and race discrimination and other harms perpetrated by UNL against the plaintiffs,” caused them severe harm and denied them their ability to participate fully in their education as UNL students.
Truszkowski said three of the nine women were, “forced to leave the university due to the severity of the harm caused to them.”
She said the training UNL provides to students on its sexual misconduct policies, definitions of misconduct, and the investigation and reporting procedures at the University, all fall far short of what is considered industry standard. She said this training consists of a short, generic YouTube video about consent during orientation, an online Title IX video that is supposed to be watched prior to enrollment, and a flyer.
The 96-page lawsuit outlines the university’s “substandard” responses to alleged rapes, gropings, stalking, and racial discrimination. The suit alleges that UNL failed to act on reports in a timely manner or handled the women’s reports with indifference because male student-athletes were involved.
Among the allegations:
- Capri Davis, a former Husker volleyball player who left the program in December, said she and an unnamed female student-athlete were groped without consent by two members of the Husker football team in the spring of 2019. The unidentified female student-athlete also reported being raped by one of those football players and another Husker student-athlete in August 2018.
- Another unnamed student, who reported being sexually assaulted by a Husker player, said she was reluctant to move forward with a Title IX investigation after learning that the Title IX office sent another female student’s confidential information to an involved student with the same first name but a different last name.
- Another former UNL student, Sheridan Thomas, reported being raped by a football player in 2015 to administrators and Title IX investigators but said the office did not interview potential witnesses she provided and later ruled that there had been no wrongdoing.
The lawsuit, which seeks a jury trial, asks for punitive damages against UNL for the psychological and emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation, loss of education and educational opportunities, and loss of past, present and future earnings.
UNL’s chief spokeswoman has previously said she cannot comment on pending litigation.
