Last week, seven women filed a federal civil rights complaint claiming that University of Connecticut officials were indifferent to or dismissive of allegations that the women had been sexually assaulted on campus. The university’s president fired back, calling the criticism “astonishingly misguided” and “demonstrably untrue.”
But such claims are increasingly common. Across the country, a growing number of women have filed formal complaints alleging that certain high schools and colleges are providing inadequate response to reports of sexual assault and harassment. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), some 29 complaints specifically related to sexual misconduct at the postsecondary level were filed between Oct. 1, 2012 and Sept. 30, 2013.
