Johns Hopkins President Admits School Made a Mistake Not Notifying the Campus of Gang Rape Investigation
ByJohns Hopkins University (JHU) has admitted to making a mistake when it did not alert the campus community when the police were investigating a gang rape at a fraternity house.
According to the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) began investigating a report of gang rape in the spring of 2013 and JHU administrators knew about it for weeks. While the investigation went on, JHU did not alert students, who continued to attend parties at the Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike) frat house.
"The University's handling of the Pike house incident was the subject of an independent assessment commissioned last spring," Ronald J. Daniels, JHU president, wrote in an email Wednesday. "We have concluded that the University should have recorded the incident in our Daily Crime Log and should have issued a timely warning to the community soon after the incident occurred. The University's failure to have done so is unacceptable, and we are determined that this kind of mistake not happen again."
Daniels' email also heralded the release of the school's latest Clery Report, a document required by federal law in which schools disclose all campus crimes.
In May, the HP reported previously, JHU administrators exchanged emails amongst themselves and ultimately decided not to send out a crime alert to students regarding the BPD investigation. JHU's Pike fraternity was suspended in April, but not for the allegations of gang rape from last year.
The school cited "underage drinking and the provision of alcohol to minors, unsafe behavior, failure to comply with university and police directives, and disturbance of neighbors" at one specific party in April.
"These initial actions reflect the imperative we place on addressing sexual violence across our campuses," Daniels said in his email. "There is more work to be done, and we know well that solutions to such a persistent challenge will have a lasting impact only if they reflect the voices and perspectives of our community, and most especially our students."