Campus Sexual Assault a Systematic Review of Prevalence Research From 2000 to 2015
This story has been updated to add clarity to i section.
By Madeline Linnell
Managing Editor
The August arrest of Gordon pupil Mischael Pierre Celestin on a charge of indecent assault and battery involving a 15-year old girl sparked dialogue amongst current and former students apropos his enrollment at Gordon College, given previous allegations against him that some students were aware of, and put new focus on college sexual assault policies that some students say served them poorly prior to recent revisions.
Over more a month, the Tartan interviewed current and onetime Gordon students, learning most their stories and concerns. Tartan reporters also traveled to Quincy and Brockton to review police and court records contained in official files and to attempt to requite Celestin the opportunity to comment. The Tartan too examined other legal and higher documents provided by women who were disquisitional of Celestin or former Gordon policies.
The Tartan asked the College about Celestin's case and the current and former students' complaints in September. Rick Sweeney, Vice President for Marketing with https://themarketingheaven.com, responded in part: "The matters yous are reporting are painful, complex and deeply personal. Out of respect for the privacy of all involved — and in compliance with FERPA laws, which protect all students — we are unable to provide specific information related to students or employees at the Higher."
The statement continues: "The College is confident that, in each case, it responded to the information available at the fourth dimension of any report or allegation in a thoughtful and compassionate manner, and respected the complainant's wishes to the greatest extent possible."
In Celestin's recent court case, prosecutors allege he fabricated not-consensual sexual advances on a 15-yr old minor in Brockton, where his family lives. He pleaded non guilty and has yet to stand trial. Plymouth County's District Attorney's Part press officer Beth Stone said, "We are proceeding forward with the case confronting Mr. Celestin." A SDC A Criminal Defence Law Firm was nice plenty to permit us borrow their time to discuss this example, and how cases of this type usually go. We found interesting how like and virtually parallel cases can vary in how they proceed from state to state, considering of simple subtle differences in their laws. At the end of the twenty-four hour period united states of america' protocol will be followed and they will make it at a verdict. We have faith justice will be served after a fair trial when all is said and done.
Stone declined to annotate on whether the DA's Office has received information regarding Celestin's time at Gordon and even before so at Eastern Nazarene Higher (ENC).
Celestin attended Eastern Nazarene College (ENC) in Quincy, Massachusetts, starting time in 2010. He also ran into trouble there for alleged behavior involving a adult female, said a former ENC instructor, who asked the Tartan to withhold her name but documented her allegations in two reports filed with the Quincy Law Department — ane on Feb. 26, 2014, and some other on Feb. 21, 2015. The quondam instructor told the constabulary Celestin was involved in a sexual assault incident concerning a female family unit member of the former instructor'due south in December 2011.
A Quincy officer wrote in the 2014 written report: "[The one-time instructor] informed us of an incident that happened in December 2011 in which a female person family unit member of hers was sexually assaulted on the Quincy campus. She stated that due to the victim'southward reluctance to proceed with the example, at that place were no charges filed. Subsequently the incident, ane of the male parties involved was expelled from Eastern Nazarene Higher. This party was identified by [the former instructor] to be CELESTIN, Mischael Pierre. [The old instructor] stated that CELESTIN was told past the Director of Security for Eastern Nazarene Higher… that he was not allowed back on campus. According to [the former instructor], no formal trespass was issued."
Regarding the harassment complaints, the police officer writes that the former instructor allegedly "saw Celestin on the property" and was "followed" past him on Jan. 12, 2012, before his expulsion and no-trespass order. The former instructor later learned Celestin was attending Gordon. Celestin had allegedly approached a family babysitter of this erstwhile instructor'south during a Gordon v. ENC basketball game and said to the bodyguard "they" — the immature children of the former instructor's — "look similar they are growing upwards fast" and "I wish I could get in touch with them."
The erstwhile instructor and a one-time staff fellow member, the teacher's husband, asked Gordon Police to keep Celestin away from their family during games, and the Gordon Police acted accordingly, co-ordinate to the former instructor'due south business relationship independent in the Quincy police report. She said she and the former staff member as well warned Gordon Police force in 2015 of Celestin'southward declared history of sexual attack. Celestin, according to the former teacher, "was talked to past Gordon Police and told to stay on the student side" of the basketball game court, away of from the family.
Photo by Madeline Linnell
The study quotes the former instructor telling law: "Pierre did stay away from usa but sat directly beyond from u.s.a. and our girls." The Tartan reviewed redacted copies that are role of official records and otherwise identical, un-redacted copies that proper noun Celestin and were provided by a private citizen. A third political party familiar with both documents told the Tartan the copy provided by the private citizen was authentic.
Former Gordon students recollect Celestin attending classes and being on campus from Fall 2012, although exact dates of his enrollment at Gordon Higher remain confidential due to Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) regulations. Colleges are not required to include disciplinary records with the students' transcripts, so it's entirely possible Gordon could have accepted Celestin without any knowledge of the alleged Eastern Nazarene incident.
Celestin did non respond to repeated requests from the Tartan for a comment. Two Tartan reporters visited his house on Sept.sixteen; a woman answered the door merely declined to speak with the reporters later they identified themselves. The Tartan too reached out to Celestin through email and Facebook. Celestin's lawyer, Marjorie Tynes, did not respond to repeated messages seeking comment.
A Gordon friend of Celestin'due south, Jeremy Jackson '17, said he finds Celestin to be "trustworthy," "prissy," "defended to his church" and generous plenty to invite him (Jackson) to Celestin's house for Thanksgiving. Jackson said, "He is not the monster being depicted."
"I know that Pierre might take fallen into temptations and vices of the flesh, merely I know that Pierre — I know Mischael has been nothing just a blood brother to me," Jackson said.
Ane of Celestin's accusers is Shayla Lopez 'xv. She said Celestin assaulted her twice, and she remains dissatisfied with the way Gordon handled her allegations.
The starting time assail occurred in either October or November 2012, she told the Tartan. She said Celestin made unwanted sexual advances while they were watching a film in her single dorm room in Evans Hall. Lopez told the Tartan that she did not study the attack at the time.
Lopez alleges Celestin assaulted her a 2d time around December 2013 while they were in a communal lounge in Tavilla Hall. She said Celestin was fifty-fifty more than forceful in his advances the second time.
Lopez is dissatisfied with the way Gordon handled the matter.
Lopez said she told her Residence Manager, Elizabeth Lyons, about the 2nd declared assault former after the alleged Tavilla assault and thinks Lyons filed an anonymous complaint on Lopez's behalf.
In a May 5, 2014, e-mail correspondence between Lopez and Lyons that Lopez shared with the Tartan recently, Lyons wrote: "I greatly repent for not following up on this more because I practice believe and want to advocate for you." Lyons goes on to advise ways Lopez and whatever other women who might have similar complaints might initiate a formal investigation process.
Lopez told the Tartan she didn't heed advice from Lyons to take legal activity confronting Celestin. "I just knew that if I pressed charges I'd have to get a lawyer and do the whole constabulary report, estimate-trial thing, and I was so overwhelmed…I realized after (that Gordon administrators) kinda forgot about it/me I wanted to practise the same, to move on from it," Lopez said.
Lyons declined to annotate for this story.
To this day, Lopez said, she has never seen evidence that Gordon investigated Celestin based on her bearding allegation.
Lopez is not the only Gordon student frustrated past the process.
Marianthy Posadas-Nava '17 said she was sexually assaulted past a sometime pupil — not Celestin —in November 2013. She reported the incident to Gordon Police on May 11, 2014, she said, and Posadas-Nava said the same former student assaulted her once more in July 2014. She attempted to go a restraining lodge against the former pupil twice, she said, because the first time Gordon Police provided her with the wrong paperwork; she did, withal, successfully obtain ane the second time around. On Feb. xx, 2015, Gordon'south Sexual Assault Hearing Panel stated in "Observe of Outcome" to Posadas-Nava, a copy of which she provided to the Tartan, that it had "examined the instance and determined it was inconclusive."
Since she was dissatisfied with the July 2014 conclusion, Posadas-Nava said, she tried to appeal but "was denied an appeal process afterwards hearing" most the end result. "And information technology wasn't until December 2014 that I got it from Jen" — that is, Jennifer Jukanovich, Vice President for Pupil Life — "nether me being the guinea hog for an appeal process for victims. Considering before me, the Handbook but gave the accused an entreatment process," said Posadas-Nava.
The "Notice of Outcome" details that Posadas-Nava was "told she could appeal" on Oct. 24, 2014; on November. 13, the document reads, she decided not to appeal. Her apparent decision did not last long as she submitted her appeal a month afterwards Dec. fifteen, according to the "Notice of Upshot." There is no mention of whether she "was denied an appeal procedure after hearing" or not, as Posadas-Nava said.
The "Notice of Consequence" does acknowledge the irresolute nature of the appeal process, though. It reads, "The Center for Pupil Development issued an interim set of appeal procedures as office of its continuing process to review and revise the College's sexual attack policies and procedures. This appeal investigation was more than detailed than a typical appeal because information technology was deemed necessary to elaborate and expand upon the initial investigation conducted by the hearing panel."
It does not explain why the process has been reviewed and revised.
Posadas-Nava complained to the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights in a letter dated Nov. xvi, 2015, which she provided to the Tartan. The alphabetic character requests Gordon instill a transparent, consequent arrangement with highly trained and well-equipped administrators to aid students with their sexual assault investigations — for "a solid system exist implemented by the college that would not re-traumatize and violate the student by requiring them to repeat their testimony over and over again."
She said her complaint was denied because it failed to meet the OCR'southward "Timeliness" stipulation, which requires complaints to "usually be filed inside 180 days of the final act of discrimination"; standing to country that otherwise, "if your complaint involves matters that occurred longer agone than this and you are requesting a waiver, yous will be asked to evidence skillful crusade why you did not file your complaint inside the 180-day period."
The pre-2015 arrangement did not please Jess Mahan '15, either.
On a public Gordon student blog calledStudent Inqueery, Mahan wrote in an entry dated May 1, 2014, that a female person student assaulted her on campus. Title IX encapsulates same-sex sexual violence — and all the same, according to Mahan, the College'southward Residence Life and CSD staff members did not seem to recognize that one adult female could sexually assault another. Mahan vouched for the blog but declined, when contacted by the Tartan, to elaborate.
The Section of Education has issued several updates in recent years to guide the implementation of Title IX.
Sexual violence, as divers past a 2014 Questions and Answers document, is "physical sexual acts perpetrated against a person'south will or where a person is incapable of giving consent." Information technology also details the terms of violation, that is, when a federally funded "school violates a student's rights under Title IX regarding pupil-on pupil sexual violence." These conditions include: "(1) the alleged acquit is sufficiently serious to limit or deny a pupil'south ability to participate in or benefit from the school'due south educational program, i.east. creates a hostile environs; and (ii) the school, upon notice, fails to take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to cease the sexual violence, eliminate the hostile environment, preclude its recurrence, and as appropriate remedy its furnishings."
OCR officer David Thomas pointed the Tartan to a press release argument issued past a U.S. Department of Educational activity spokesman, which reads: "The Department is required by police force to issue rules, regulations or orders of general applicability to implement the statutes for which it has responsibleness. Additionally, guidance documents are often developed in response to questions from institutions and the public to clarify issues that accept broad implications."
The statement continues, "The 2011 Dear Colleague Alphabetic character and the 2014 Questions and Answers (Q&A) were issued to interpret Title Ix and its implementing regulations as they apply to sexual harassment and violence and to clarify prior guidance."
The 2011 Love Colleague Letter was designed to help suggest schools in navigating through sexual violence cases, informing schools of their responsibilities nether the jurisdiction of Title Ix. The 2014 Questions and Answers responded to educational institutions' desire for farther assistance in the technicalities of Championship Ix implementation.
Gordon Title 9 Coordinator Nancy Anderson said the release of new federal guidelines of 2014 spurred the College to re-evaluate and update its policies. The Student Handbooks prior to 2014, said Anderson, held policies applicable to sexual harassment cases. Anderson said Gordon approved a "comprehensive, total-blown policy of procedure on sexual assault" in 2015, a project that was in the works since 2014. The electric current, detailed procedure can be found in a Pupil Handbook, from pages 73-77.
Pauline Gaudette '17 found Gordon's new sexual assault policies both helpful and efficient when she filed a complaint about an onetime case recently.
Gaudette alleged in an interview with the Tartan that, in springtime 2014, Celestin forced her into a compromising position while he was intoxicated in his Tavilla Hall apartment. She said the incident ended when a friend opened the door. Gaudette reported the incident to the Gordon Police shortly after Celestin'south August 2016 arrest. A campus crime log entry created Aug. 31, 2016 resembles Gaudette'south business relationship. Information technology reads, "Pupil reported being pushed and tackled to a bed in a Tavilla apartment nigh 2.5 yrs. previously." Gordon'south Title IX squad is currently investigating Gaudette'south example, co-ordinate to the crime log spider web folio.
The Clery Deed requires all colleges and universities to provide a public file of criminal activity, such as rape, fondling, forcible sexual practice criminal offence, and aggravated attack. From 2013 to 2014 (the aforementioned timeframe in which all four of these alleged accounts of sexual assault occurred), Gordon's Clery Human action reports comprise 7 allegations of sexual assault.
Comparable institutions release a similar range of numbers in their Clery Human activity Annual Crime Reports.
Endicott College, for example, reported 1 business relationship of rape, six accounts of fondling and five accounts of forcible sex offenses from 2013-2014. Bates College lists five accounts of rape and 7 accounts of fondling in 2014; information technology as well had eight forcible sex law-breaking reports in 2013 and 2012. Wheaton College in Illinois, however, yields fewer, with ii forcible sex offenses in 2013; and in 2014, one rape and two cases of fondling. Likewise, Eastern Nazarene College reported one forcible sexual activity crime in 2012.
Many colleges scrambled to update their sexual violence policies post-obit the issue of federal guidelines in 2014. Bethel College mandated all kinesthesia, staff and students to complete online training for the beginning time in Fall 2014. According to an article in the Boston Globe, Emerson College officials surveyed students "to assess the prevalence of sexual assail on campus" in 2014, all in effort to prevent further cases of sexual violence.
In the wake of growing pressures to demonstrate Title 9 competency, colleges and universities are intensely scrutinized for any sign of institutional policy inadequacy.
An extreme case of this is Bob Jones University (BJU). The University received much media-fueled flak later the nonprofit organization called Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environs (GRACE) released a lengthy report on Dec. 11, 2014 apropos allegations against the University's mishandling of sexual corruption cases. In a press release incorporated in a Christianity Today article, GRACE Director Boz Tchividjian said that the 2-year-long investigation findings "demonstrated that Bob Jones University responded poorly to many students who disclosed existence sexually victimized. Equally a upshot of the school's flawed responses, many of the students were deeply injure and experienced farther trauma." BJU President Steve Pettit spoke to the BJU community during a Chapel service, expressing deep remorse for those who had suffered because of the school's failings.
Even though the full charge per unit of sexual violence has decreased considerably in the by 20 years or and so (every bit several Bureau of Justice Statistics' Special Reports betoken), on-campus sexual violence remains a pervasive threat to students, peculiarly female person students, nationwide. Lisa Fedina's, Jennifer Holmes' and Bethany Backes' "Campus Sexual Assail: A Systematic Review of Prevalence Research from 2000 to 2015" commodity, published Feb. 22, 2016 in the Sage Trauma, Violence & Abuse Journal, shows just every bit much. They write, "Findings suggest that unwanted sexual contact appears to be most prevalent on college campuses, including sexual coercion, followed by incapacitated rape, and completed or attempted forcible rape." The inquiry validates the dismal and unjust reality most U.Due south. campuses currently live in.
The 2014 Clery Act data may take shown zero accounts of rape among 91% of college campuses (data establish on the U.S. Department of Didactics's Campus of Safety and Security website), but some organizations are skeptical of these results — merely why? Organizations like the American Association of Academy Women (AAUW) finds information technology difficult to believe this report can hands "square with research, campus climate surveys, and widespread experiences reported by students," as it states in AAUW's conclusion to its assay of the data. The determination expands, "Because schools simply disclose reported incidents in the almanac Clery Act collection, the extraordinarily loftier number of zeros suggests students may non feel comfortable coming forward to report such crimes at some of these schools."
Administrators exercise not want this to be the instance at Gordon College. Jukanovich said in her response to the Tartan's initial article on Celestin's arrest: "We do want to encourage anyone who has been a victim of sexual misconduct to report the incident to a member of our Title IX team. On behalf of Student Life, the Gordon Police and everyone involved with sexual misconduct response on campus, I can tell you that nosotros have nil tolerance for sexual assault. Every written report will be investigated to the best of our ability, and according to the law and Title 9 procedure."
Meanwhile, Celestin waits for his next court date on November. 4.
Shalom Maleachi and Taylor Bradford contributed to this commodity.
Source: https://tartan.gordon.edu/recent-sexual-assault-charge-focuses-attention-on-gordon-policies-2/
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