OT: UTenn sued for "Deliberate Indifference" towards Sexual Assault

Sweeping sex assault suit filed against University of Tennessee

Could passages from the lawsuit itself:

UT intentionally acted by an official policy of deliberate indifference to known sexual assaults so as to create a hostile sexual environment. UT had actual notice (and itself created) a long-standing, severely hostile sexual environment of rape by male athletes (particularly football players) that was condoned and completely unaddressed by UT officials, including Chancellor Jimmy Cheek ("Cheek"), Athletic Department Director and Vice-Chancellor Dave Hart ("Hart"), and head football coach Butch Jones ("Jones").

Athletes knew in advance that UT would: support them even after a complaint of sexual assault; arrange for top quality legal representation; and then direct them to the TUAPA process, which was and continues to be a one-sided and unfair system of adjudication. Varsity athletes knew that they (not victims) would be fully supported by the UT athletic department and administration's process and that the perpetrators and athletic department could deter and discourage victims from pursuing complaints by: having their lawyers depose female victims; subjecting victims to extensive discovery; cross-examining sexual assault victims in a full blown hearing before an administrative law judge(appointed by Cheek); and delaying the investigation process until the athlete perpetrators transferred to another school or graduated without sanction or discipline. This is precisely what happened in the cases of Does I, II, IV, and VI and is the very reason that UT Vice-Chancellor Tim Rogers resigned from UT in March 2013 in protest over the violation of Title IX and the UT administration's and athletic department's deliberate indifference to the clear and present danger of sexual assaults by UT athletes.

Not really much to add here, as it kind of speaks for itself. If true, its pretty despicable that an Athletic Department would do this, but not surprising. There's also a report from the Knoxville paper that one football player was assaulted by other players for having the audacity to help out a woman who accused another football player of having sexually assaulted her.