Yahoo Lifestyle Lawsuit alleges Nebraska mishandled sexual abuse complaints, allegations against male athletes
Nine former or current Nebraska students, including one former volleyball player, filed a lawsuit against the university on Monday alleging that it improperly handled sexual harassment, sexual assault and racial discrimination complaints — including several that brought against male athletes, according to the Omaha World-Herald.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Nebraska, also alleged that officials at the school made errors in their investigations, didn’t provide them with academic help and "handled sexual misconduct complaints against student-athletes in a different manner than how other complaints were handled,” according to ESPN.
One of the allegations in the 96-page lawsuit came from Capri Davis, a former Nebraska volleyball player who transferred to Texas in December. She alleges in the suit, per the report, that her and another female athlete were groped by two football players last spring. The other female student-athlete, who was not identified in the lawsuit, reported being raped by one of the players who groped her and then by a different athlete in 2018, too.
Another student, per the World-Herald, reported being sexually assaulted by a football player, but was hesitant to report it after learning that the Title IX office at the school allegedly shared another student’s confidential information by accident.
A third woman, according to ESPN, said she was raped by a male athlete in a dorm room when she was a 17-year-old freshman at Nebraska, and that she was later sent threatening text messages by the athlete and a teammate. She eventually reported the incident to the school, but later said she found that the report contained errors in it — including stating that she had been intoxicated, which she said she wasn’t.
“We have outlined a pattern of behavior that has frightened and discouraged UNL students from reporting incidents of abuse to the university,” their attorney, Karen Truszkowski, told the World-Herald.
The lawsuit is the second similar lawsuit filed regarding Nebraska this year. Davis was part of a lawsuit filed against the NCAA in April, alleging that the governing body “failed to protect them from alleged sexual assaults” by male athletes, according to ESPN.
"The health and safety of all of our students is of the upmost importance to us," a Nebraska spokesperson said in a statement, via ESPN. "We have a strong Title IX process and are confident in it. Every case is difficult and investigated based on the information made available. We cannot comment on the specifics of any Title IX investigation or on pending litigation."
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