October 6 - My Case

Today in class, I presented the rape case that I am interested in researching, and for my post, I will discuss it a little bit here.

Here are some of the facts.

Allegedly, in 2014, a woman was gang-raped by three basketball players at the University of Oregon. The woman was not identified in reports, but one of the basketball players was identified as Brandon Austin. The woman claimed that she was cornered in a bathroom and raped by the three players. After the assault, the woman sought counseling from the University of Oregon health services. Additionally, the Lane County district attorney did not file charges, citing the always-popular "insufficient evidence." The University of Oregon did eventually find the players guilty of sexually assaulting the woman, and two of them were able to go play basketball at other colleges.

The victim filed a lawsuit against UO and the basketball coach, Dana Altman, for violating her Title IX rights. The reason Altman was included in the lawsuit is because it was alleged that he knew about Brandon Austin's past with sexual assault: he'd been accused before. This would be contributing to the claim that her Title IX rights had been violated. Altman was eventually taken off of the lawsuit, and it was settled for $800,000, free tuition, and housing and fees.

One of the biggest issues about this case is that the victims records were released to the university attorneys for the lawsuit. The assumption when a student goes to obtain counseling from the professionals is that the records will be protected, just like normal medical records. However, in her article, Diana Moscovitz notes that university counseling records are not considered medical records. So then, they would not be protected by HIPAA. Conversely, she notes that FERPA technically makes it legal for the university to release the student's records to the lawyers because there is a clause that allows a university to disclose such records when the university is being sued. This is a defense for their actions.

Despite the fact that this is technically legal, the action has received some backlash. One such opponent is one of the counselors at the school. She says this sort of action violates her "ethical and professional standards" (Moscovitz). Others have found this action objectionable even if it is technically legal. I would have to say I am one of those people, which is why I chose to research this case. Even before I fully read the articles that described this case, I found myself thinking the same things as Moscovitz writes about FERPA:

             FERPA is the same law that schools routinely use to block public records requests. So                     now, not only can schools keep their scandals in the dark, they also can use it to fight                 off lawsuits in court related to those scandals. For American universities, FERPA really is               the gift that keeps on giving.

I find this to describe exactly what was going through my mind, and it is one reason I want to research this case. There seems to be a disconnect in the ways in which universities will use different regulations and laws. I seem to remember in Krakauer's book how it was not permitted (supposedly under FERPA) for Jordan Johnson's previous disciplinary actions to be used in the proceedings. However, when there are records on a woman who was allegedly raped, a university will use the very same law to disclose records about her that probably should not be released. I see many issues with this, so with this paper, I hope to examine them.

Sources:

Moskovitz, Diana. "Oregon: We Have the Right To Access a Rape Victim's Medical Records." March 3, 2015. Deadspin. http://deadspin.com/oregon-we-have-the-right-to-access-a-rape-victims-medi-1689196041.

Read, Richard. "Student Who Sued UO, Claiming She Was Gang-Raped by Basketball Players, Settles for $800,000." August 4, 2015. Oregon Live. http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2015/08/student_receives_800000_settle.html