According to a federal lawsuit filed by five female plaintiffs (referred to as Jane Doe 1 through Jane Doe 5) on Wednesday, Howard University denied help to suicidal rape victims and delayed in handling rape claims. This failure allegedly lead to at least one reported perpetrator committing a second crime of sexual assault on another victim. In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Jane Doe 2 said, “If my case was handled the way it was supposed to be handled,” referencing the allegations in the lawsuit, "then Jane Doe 1 would've never met her assailant. He would've been dismissed."

According to the suit, Jane Does 1 and 2 were raped on different occasions by one male student who had previously transferred to Howard after being accused of sexual misconduct at UCLA. Even after the two reported incidents, the university still did nothing until one of the women took her complaints public in a series of tweets which prompted a campus protest and negative publicity.

According to the civil complaint, the student who took to Twitter states that Howard’s Dean of Student Affairs chastised her after the incident saying, "You embarrassed your family by doing that." As a result of reporting her rape, Jane Doe 1 says that she was fired from her job as a resident assistant.

In addition to these incidents, the suit claims that the university allowed an accused rapist, who was also a resident assistant, access to a key to the dorm room of his victim. Due to the university's failure to respond to these complaints reports, two of the five plaintiffs, elected to leave Howard's campus due to safety and mental health concerns, one of them, just one month shy of graduating.

The university has not released a statement on the suit. A Howard spokesperson said it is their policy to withhold comment on pending litigation.

Campus rape

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