A woman previously known only as Jane Doe VII is speaking out and providing a face for the countrywide problem of sexual assault on campus.
Sarah McClure says she was assaulted last August by a member of the University of Kansas football team, and the school “did nothing for months” after she reported the attack to both police and administrators.
No arrests or charges have been made by local police and prosecutors.
KU eventually expelled the athlete, who was also accused of raping another woman on her rowing team the year before, for misconduct.
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However, McClure says it took too long and faulted the university for failing to suspend her alleged attacker in the meantime.
She filed a Title IX suit in April saying that KU did not protect her from intimidation and allowed her rowing coaches to retaliate against her.
“I struggled every day. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t leave my dorm room. I stayed inside with a chair under my doorknob because I felt so unsafe,” she said in a video announcing her identity on Thursday.
Her father said at a press conference that his daughter is speaking out now because she is back at home in suburban Chicago and will not face retaliation, according to the Kansas City Star
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The university says that it has met its obligation to investigate the sexual assault claims, and McClure says that it previously said it “quickly [TAKES] action to support the person who came forward.”
“What amazes me is that KU still has the audacity to make that statement after what has come to light,” she said in her video.
McClure’s father told reporters Thursday that his daughter, who said she went through a "living nightmare," goes to counselor multiple times a week in order to help her healing process.
His press conference came the same day that he joined a lawsuit by the parents of Daisy Tackett, who also accused the football player of sexual assault and filed her own Title IX suit.
The Tacketts’ suit claims that KU misled students by saying that campus housing is safe, though the university says they have no standing to sue because neither they nor their daughter are current students.
The suits against KU join the dozens that led to federal Department of Education investigations into colleges and universities’ response — or lack of response — to allegations of rape and sexual assault.
A tool from The Chronicle of Higher Education lists 249 active Title IX investigations at schools across the country.
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