CARLISLE, Pa. — Editor's note: The above video is from August 2020.
A federal court has ruled that a lawsuit filed by Dickinson College graduate Rose McAvoy against the school may move forward, according to court documents.
McAvoy sued the school in July 2020, saying that it failed to properly investigate her case in a timely manner and that her attacker was not punished properly.
The suit also alleges that the school "continues to destroy evidence during Title IX proceedings" and that "recordings of interviews conducted during the college’s investigations are destroyed before the conclusion of an investigation."
In her suit, McAvoy alleges that a male student kissed her, pinned her down, and groped her without her consent. She filed a Title IX complaint shortly after the assault and the school delayed the investigation.
Title IX provides that, with certain exceptions, "no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance," according to federal law.
In other words, it protects against all forms of sex discrimination in education.
McAvoy specifically sued the school for discrimination in violation of Title IX, gender discrimination in violation of Title IX, negligence, intentional and/or negligent infliction of emotional distress, and breach of implied and/or express contract.
“It’s not just my story," McAvoy told FOX43 last year. "I’ve literally heard the same thing from so many other students at Dickinson. It’s uncanny. It’s insane and not everybody is in a position where they can get justice for their case, so I feel like I have to in order to ensure that this doesn’t keep happening."
Also according to court documents, Dickinson College responded in October 2020 by asking a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit, and while Senior U.S. Middle District Judge David Cercone did rule in favor of dismissing one of McAvoy's claims, he also ruled that the other accusations were in fact plausible for a lawsuit against the school.
The school has less than three weeks now to respond before a possible trial.
“We do more than follow the law on Title IX, we work diligently with those involved to reach a fair and equitable resolution of these cases,” Christine Baksi, Dickinson’s director of media relations told FOX43 last year.
In February 2020, hundreds of students at Dickinson College protested the school’s Title IX process, and in response, administrators vowed to implement 18 changes to their policies, which included permitting access to any and all materials related to a person’s Title IX investigation and determination. McAvoy said last year, however, that the college hasn’t lived up to their agreement and continues to destroy case evidence.
“While we cannot comment further on pending litigation, we can share that we were surprised and disappointed to learn of this lawsuit because we worked with Rose to come to an agreement that instituted the majority of the changes she requested,” Baksi said in a statement in 2020. “Rose and other students joined the administration in signing that agreement in February, and we have lived up to the letter and the spirit of that agreement since then.”