Students at the Saint Mary’s College campus in Moraga on March 1, 2013.
Michael Short/Special HistoryA woman is suing Saint Mary’s College of California, alleging that its leaders threatened and silenced her when she reported that another student raped her in September 2000 during the first weeks of her freshman year at the private Catholic school in Moraga.
The woman filed a lawsuit Thursday in Contra Costa County Superior Court under a state law passed last year, Assembly Bill 2777, that opened a one-year window for adult survivors of sexual misconduct to file a lawsuit over those allegations, regardless of when. occurrence, if it involves the alleged cover-up. The window closes at the end of this year.
The woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, says she reported the incident to her resident manager, who took her to the hospital, where the rape was reported to police.
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But later, she alleges, the college’s then-president, Brother Craig Franz, reprimanded her for drinking and “having sex,” warning that such violations could result in the school rescinding her full academic scholarship. She says he pressured her to have the school handle the investigation internally rather than continue working with police. I stopped pursuing criminal charges.
The woman states in her lawsuit that the school’s disciplinary hearing board reviewed her complaint and found that the student had sexually assaulted her, but that she was also guilty of drinking alcohol and having sex. She was told, according to her complaint, that despite the findings against her, she would not be expelled and would be removed from her permanent record as long as she did not talk about the assault.
She claims the professor who led the council followed her around campus, called her a “bad girl,” and would tap on her ground-floor bedroom window and look at her. She also says that after reporting the rape, she was asked to go there. To regular meetings with the school’s Student Life office and its resident director and therapist.
“Jane Doe felt constant intimidation, anxiety, shame, and fear to maintain the story that her previous report of sexual assault was all wrong,” her lawsuit states.
Doe claims that the student who assaulted her was not punished, but the school forced them to move to the same dormitory, which she described as an attempt to intimidate her.
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“Instead of ensuring accountability and providing support, the school shamed Jane Doe,” her attorney, Jessica Dayton, said in a statement. “Not only did they blame her for the rape, they succeeded in silencing her.”
Doe is suing the school, but not the former president or the alleged rapist.
In a statement, St. Mary’s spokesman Kevin Wing said the college “takes the former student’s allegations very seriously” and does not tolerate sexual misconduct. He said the college has updated its process for handling such complaints since 2000 and has appointed a Title IX coordinator charged with ensuring the school complies with federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in schools that receive federal funding.
“Since 2000, Saint Mary’s has continued to make improvements to better support and protect students who have been victims of sexual misconduct,” Wing wrote. “Title IX’s role in disciplinary hearings has changed dramatically, now resulting in better protections and supportive measures for students, along with updated disciplinary processes.”
St. Mary’s students organized a hunger strike in 2001 to demand that college leaders reform the school’s process in handling sexual assault complaints, including by expelling students found responsible for assaults. The protest came after a student protest when an administrator overturned the disciplinary board’s decision to expel a student for allegedly sexually assaulting a female student, and instead decided to suspend the student, the Chronicle reported at the time. The official later resigned under pressure.
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In 2002, Roger Sciuto told the Chronicle that he resigned as the college’s director of public safety because he was unhappy with how crimes on campus were reported and victims were handled.
“In the end, they didn’t even tell me when someone was sexually assaulted,” he told the newspaper. “In my opinion, I think they knew how seriously I was taking this case and they didn’t want me to call the police.”
Franz left Saint Mary’s College in California in 2004 and continued to serve as president of Saint Mary’s University in Minnesota. In 2006, he resigned from that position after he admitted to “inappropriate sexual conduct” with a female student during his time leading St. Mary’s School in Moraga, according to a letter from the chair of the St. Mary’s University Board of Trustees.
Contact Sofia Bollag: sophia.bollag@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @SophiaBollag
Saint Mary’s College is currently embroiled in a lawsuit that alleges the institution actively covered up instances of sexual assault on its campus. The lawsuit, filed by several former students, claims that the college failed to properly address and investigate reports of sexual misconduct, leading to a culture of impunity and danger for its students. This shocking revelation has sparked outrage and concern within the college community and beyond, raising important questions about the responsibility of educational institutions to protect and support their students.