February 17, 2016
"not a single student at UVA has ever been expelled for sexual assault."
"Eramo surely has among the most difficult jobs at UVA."
"UVA declined to make Eramo available for comment."
"In 2002 and 2004, two female students...were unhappy with their sexual misconduct hearings...which each felt didn't hold their alleged perpetrators accountable--and each was admonished by UVA administrators to never speak publicly about the proceedings or else they could face expulsion for violating the honor code. For issuing that directive, in 2008 UVA was found in violation of the Clery Act."
Those are quotes from the Rolling Stone article.
The Rolling Stone article was about a system which fails to address the problem of sexual assault. It did not "cast Dean Eramo, who met with and counseled Jackie, as the chief villain of the story," which is what Ms. Eramo's lawyers are saying in her lawsuit.
The lawsuit also misquotes the Rolling Stone article over and over again, directly contradicting what was written in the article.
The Rolling Stone article describes other administrators at the University of Virginia, including Susan Davis, the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, and Theresa Sullivan, the President of UVA, as trying to explain the university's many failures to address sexual assault as what the administration thinks it has to do so that victims don't feel discouraged from reporting sexual assault. That supposed concern for the targets of sexual assault is the excuse that everyone who has vilified Jackie, Erdely and Rolling Stone is also using.
Allen Groves, the Dean of Students, is portrayed in the article as responding reassuringly and inaccurately to a question about whether the school was under federal investigation for sexual assault, during a trustees' meeting.
This is a quote from the Rolling Stone article that follows that description:
"Told of the meeting, Office of Civil Rights' Catherine Lhamon calls Groves' mischaracterization 'deliberate and irresponsible.' 'Nothing annoys me more than a school not taking seriously their review from the federal government about their civil rights obligations.'"
Many other credible people are quoted in the article, describing a systemic failure across the country to stop sexual assault and other violence against women.
The attacks on the Rolling Stone article are, collectively, an attempt to stop all movement toward eliminating rape culture. That movement was happening, even at the federal level of government, before the Rolling Stone article was turned into a scapegoat. The attempt is not just to discredit Jackie and ruin her life; it's to legitimize rape culture and to terrify the victims and all who want to help them.
The accusations that Erdely was looking for a showcase story for a sensational article are vindictively specious. The people who want to make rape legal are trying to use that one article to achieve their goal.
Copyright, with noted exceptions, L. Kochman, February 17, 2016 @ 9:55 a.m.
