Harvard sued for forcing pupil to live with her sexual assaulter

Feb 20 2016 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Harvard sued for forcing pupil to live with her sexual assaulter

Christine Hauser

NYT NEWS SERVICE





A lawsuit filed by a Harvard graduate who sa id she was sexually as saulted by a fellow student and then forced by the university to live in the same dorm as her attacker accuses the institution of failing to protect her and of creating a culture of silence about sexual violence.The lawsuit filed by the former student, Alyssa Leader, on Tuesday in United States district court in Massachusetts seeks a jury trial for unspecified damages. Leader said in a telephone interview on Thursday that she was trying to raise awareness about what she described as Harvard's inadequacy in handling sexual assault cases.“The main thing that I want to see is accountability ,“ Leader, 22, said. “No one should have to live in fear of their safety. I should not have had to live with my abuser. They should have done something to separate us.“ Leader, who graduated in May , went public with the lawsuit at a news conference in Cambridge on Wednesday.