This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. . Jane Doe is not the only recent student to pursue legal action against Cornell University over its handling of sexual assault on campus, New York Focus has learned. Two female students sued the school in November 2023, alleging that the university did not take them seriously when they submitted complaints outlining how they were each “sexually, physically and verbally assaulted” by the same male student.
And they say they aren’t alone. In separate sworn affidavits, they each alleged there were multiple other students who also filed complaints with the school’s office that investigates sexual assault against the same male student. It was filed under the state’s Adult Survivors Act, a landmark piece of legislation that temporarily allowed survivors of sexual abuse to bring civil lawsuits outside the state’s typical three-year statute of limitations.
Survivors have brought thousands of lawsuits against schools and colleges under the act and a similar law that applies to child sexual abuse. Cornell University, which did not respond to repeated requests for comment, asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the allegations that the university acted negligently or wrongfully did not meet certain legal standards. The male student, who was also named as a defendant in the suit, denied all allegations of abuse in court filings.
His lawyer did not respond to repeated requests for comment. A trial court denied the university’s and male student’s motions to dismiss the suit. The case is scheduled to move to trial next year, offering the public a rare window into Cornell’s handling of sexual assault allegations after the university received national attention in September, when a former student sued the school over its handling of an alleged 2024 sexual assault at a fraternity.
In a sworn affidavit, one of the plaintiffs in the 2023 lawsuit alleged she was repeatedly assaulted by a male student between June and “September/October” 2018 on the university’s sprawling campus in Ithaca. The second plaintiff alleged in her affidavit that she was “sexually, physically, and verbally assaulted” May 2021 — by the same male student. The lawsuit offers few details about the alleged assaults.
The plaintiffs’ attorney did not respond to requests for comment, but according to the lawsuit, both plaintiffs filed complaints with the university’s Title IX office, which investigates allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct. The first plaintiff said that she believed other students had submitted Title IX complaints about the same student before she submitted her own in fall 2018. The second plaintiff said she learned that a third, unnamed student filed a complaint against the same person around the same time as her, in August 2021.
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