A lawsuit alleges that Kansas State University may have let a two-time rapist walk free on campus due to their refusal to investigate off-campus sexual assaults, BuzzFeed News reports. Two women, Sarah Weckhorst and Crystal Stroup, both reported sexual assaults to Kansas State about the same man. Weckhorst made her report first, in Spring 2014, but was told that her case couldn't be investigated because it happened at an off-campus fraternity house.
A federal lawsuit argues that the university's decision ultimately led to the rape of another student, Crystal Stroup, in October 2015. Stroup didn't know she was the second person to go to the university about the same person—Jared Gihring. In fact, she held off on reporting at first because her roommate, Tessa Farmer, had filed a rape report earlier in the year and the university allegedly refused to investigate it since it happened off campus.
“I reported so it wouldn’t happen to somebody else,” she told BuzzFeed. “I didn’t realize I was the somebody else.”
There was at least one administrator at Kansas State who wanted the school to react differently. Danielle Dempsey-Swopes, an investigator at the university responsible for sexual assault reports at the time of the alleged attacks, told the U.S. Department of Education that she told the school they had to investigate off-campus assaults, but they didn't listen. In an interview with BuzzFeed, she said several colleagues agreed with her.
Under Title IX, universities are responsible for investigating off-campus assaults that involve students. But Kansas State insists it doesn't have to investigate off-campus assaults unless they occur at university events.
Gihring, the alleged perpetrator, is being accused of raping Stroup at her off-campus apartment after her friends left her with him, thinking he'd take care of her. He's now been arrested and has been charged with two counts of rape and one count of sodomy, BuzzFeed reports.
Stroup has since left the university, and Gihring was expelled after the university learned of his arrest, according to court documents.
Kansas State now faces four federal investigations for potential Title IX violations, in addition to the lawsuits from assault survivors, according to BuzzFeed. The school's Interfraternity Council started a petition asking the university to investigate assaults that happen at off-campus fraternity houses, and the activist group End Rape On Campus has shown support for the lawsuit. Hopefully Kansas State will respond to the pressure and start making the school a safer place for everyone.