Hawthorne Academy High School: Female student SUSPENDED for reporting sexual assault
A 15-year-old girl from Charlotte, North Carolina was suspended from Hawthorne Academy High School for reporting she was sexually assaulted. She unidentified teenager alleged she was harassed nearly every day by her male classmate. She endured the assault for a couple of days following which she went to authorities to report the behavior. The police were notified and the male student was charged with sexual battery but this didn't stop school administration from suspending the victim for a full day. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School district also forced her take a class called "sexual harassment is preventable".
In related news, evangelical Liberty University in Virginia was accused of punishing rape students. A dozen of former students banded together to sue the university claiming that administrators made it "difficult or impossible" to report sexual assault because the organization believes in punishing women for "pre-marital sex." The Christian university, co-founded by Jerry Falwell Sr would penalize young women who came forward, claiming that the women violated the "Liberty Way", the lawsuit states.
'He put his hands in my pants and touched my breasts'
The victim alleged, "He would, like, come into the bathroom and he would push me into the stall," according to WBTV. "He put his hands in my pants and then he was like touching my breasts," she added. Speaking about the school's handling of the matter, the victim's mother said, "The school did their investigation, gave me a phone call, and said, ‘Hey, look, unfortunately, it looks like there’s no evidence that shows that what your daughter saying took place.' [They told me] ‘We’re going to have to give her a day of suspension, so then I asked the principal, 'Well if the police are telling me that he did do these things, he admitted to them, and that I have the right to press charges, you’re telling me this didn’t happen?'. And she said, 'Well, unfortunately, what the law does has nothing to do to do with CMS, so, unfortunately, we have nothing else that we can do about this.”’
Students gathered on campus at the
Hawthorne Academy High School over the administration suspending a
female student for reporting an alleged sexual assault case
Students have extended their support to the victim and gathered at the campus on September 3 to protest the school's response to the alleged incident. "They are making her feel like she is being punished for coming forward," the victim's mother said in relation to her daughter being asked to take the sexual assault prevention class. People on Twitter have expressed their displeasure about the school.
"What the actual FUCK?! A student reports a sexual assualt, the perpetrator is arrested and confesses. But apparently your school couldn't find any evidence, so you suspended the victim for a false report? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" a tweet read. "The fact that y'all suspended a student for reporting SA that the other student ADMITTED to doing is absolutely disgusting. DISGUSTING! Diana Weston should be removed and she should be forced to take SA classes. SHAME ON Y'ALL!" another user tweeted against the principal. "Put this school and their administration on blast. Admins like this have no business in being in charge of students. Hawthorne Academy of Health Sciences in Charlotte, North Carolina," another user tweeted. "Question; how will the school pay for the pending lawsuit coming? Maybe a go fund me?" asked another.
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