Three Female Students Suing Yale Over Alleged Sexual Discrimination
“We’re really filing this lawsuit to try to correct the harm that so many people experience”
The lawsuit takes direct aim at off-campus fraternities and alleges that these organizations make the school a dangerous place.
NBC News in Connecticut reports:
Yale Students File Class Action Lawsuit Against University Over Sexual Discrimination
In New Haven, some women are tackling sexual discrimination head-on.
NBC Connecticut’s Keisha Grant sat down with the students spearheading a lawsuit against Yale University and its fraternities to find out why they call the culture on campus dangerous.
Anna McNeil and Ry Walker are both juniors at Yale, but they’re more than just classmates and friends – they’re young women on a mission.
“It’s a class action lawsuit on behalf of all women,” McNeil explained. “I’m proud to lead this charge. ”
These women are using their voices to take on a 300-year-old institution.
“Our lawsuit against Yale and the fraternities allege gender discrimination. It also alleges a hostile environment in terms of sexual misconduct and sexual harassment,” McNeil said.
They are two of three students who filed an 85-page class action lawsuit against Yale in federal court.
“We’re really filing this lawsuit to try to correct the harm that so many people experience.,” McNeil said.
It’s an experience Walker said she never thought she’d encounter when she set foot on campus for the first time.
“When I first got to campus I didn’t know how dominant Greek like would be in the social life at Yale,” Walker said.
“I was being touched, I was being groped without my consent in these very dark, very cramped spaces which are fueled by alcohol,” she added.
“Nothing in Yale’s promotional material suggests that frat culture is as influential as it is and is as dangerous as it is,” McNeil said.
Yale’s fraternities are technically off-campus, but these students are calling for more accountability from the university.
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Comments
I’m confused. You voluntarily go to a party at a frat house (or, apparently more than one) and you are surprised and horrified to find that they are populated by drunken louts? And somehow this merits a lawsuit? Were you held there against your will? Were you somehow forced to attend these parties at the school’s direction?
Seems like this sort of litigation should get laughed out of court. I’m not condoning sexual assault by fraternity members. But the simple solution is to stop attending frat parties. You want this stuff to stop, then don’t attend parties in places where assaults are likely to happen (which, by the way, is just about any social gathering where young people are drinking in excess). This isn’t about blaming victims, but take responsibility for your actions. Don’t put yourself in a situation where you’re likely to be assaulted.
Or file civil suit against the individuals or even the fraternity (which are all classified non-profit organizations).
This is just about going after the biggest target you can find to either make money, news, or both.
I was not raped in college. I also never got drunk, although I did twice go to a Frat party – as a “minder” to make sure my drinking friends were safe from drunken louts. And the guys I met and dated in college were either of my faith and knew/respected my moral standards of abstinence or were quickly made aware of them and were dropped like a hot potato if I felt they would not respect me.
As I told my daughter and my nieces one day – You are a lot safer if you don’t go to stupid places with stupid people and do stupid things.
There are other ways to get raped in college, but having a known standard of abstinence from sex and alcohol does a lot to protect you. Just sayin’
Frat parties are held to meet women. Everyone knows that there will be liquor flowing and if women don’t want to deal with drunk men, they shouldn’t attend. The problem is drunk women want to meet drunk men. There should be a designated woman who doesn’t drink to look out for her friends.
And, if you are drunk, then you are no longer responsible for the decisions that you make and it is perfectly fine to blame everyone else when bad things happen. In other words, all the privileges of an adult and all the responsibilities of a child.
Sounds like they’re grousing about off-campus “party culture” but pretending that that’s synonomyous with on-campus “frat culture” and therefore the school’s responsibility.
Seriously, civilization has been dealing with women for something on the order of ten thousand years. People should know what to expect by now.