The University of Connecticut (UConn) has refuted claims the school was intentionally indifferent to reports of sexual assault by formally filing a response to a lawsuit filed in the fall.
According to the Associated Press, UConn's response comes about three months after the lawsuit was filed. Originally filed with four complainants in Nov., it was amended to add a fifth in Dec., but civil rights attorney Gloria Allred is leading the group of UConn students.
Richard Orr, UConn's general counsel, told the AP the school strongly denies intentionally ignoring claims from students who said they were sexually assaulted. UConn's 38-page response takes a paragraph-by-paragraph approach to deny the allegations made against them.
"The University strongly denies that it acted with deliberate indifference to any of the plaintiffs," said Orr. "That is the basic legal claim underlying each plaintiff's allegations, and the university vigorously disputes that claim."
Kylie Angell, one of the lawsuit's plaintiffs, said the school did not inform her that the man who attacked her had his expulsion reversed. UConn claims she never reported the incident as a rape. Further, UConn also said they found no evidence a campus police officer told her women need to "stop spreading their legs" when she reported the incident to law enforcement.
Allred previously said the athletic department has protected its student-athletes from these complaints of rape, which there are two of against a UConn athlete. The school denies this as well, saying a police officer never told one of the plaintiffs he did not believe a football player raped her. Orr also said the school could not release the name of a hockey player accused of rape due to privacy laws.
Allred and the plaintiffs did not comment publicly on UConn's response filing. The U.S. Education Department's Office of Civil Rights is also currently investigating the school's policies and practices on sexual assault complaints.
UConn may be subject to fines and penalties if the department finds it violated the federal gender equality Title IX law or the Clery Act, which requires a school to be transparent about all campus crime.
