Female student accused of sexual misconduct sues University of Cincinnati

A female student at the University of Cincinnati who was suspended over alleged sexual misconduct sued the school this week, saying she was discriminated against because she was a woman “engaging in the same sexual freedoms that men on the campus enjoy.”

“Jane Roe” claims that she was “slut-shamed,” The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Thursday.

According to the lawsuit, a male and the female student were both drinking heavily at a party last fall and went back to his home.

{mosads}Both students have different accounts of what happened next. 

The male student told the university’s Title IX coordinator that Jane Roe started “kissing him and touching him” while in his bedroom. He said he told her “no” when she asked him to have sex but he did penetrate her digitally.

However, Roe said that the male student initiated the kissing and removed her shirt. He told her he wanted to go to sleep and Roe said they did.

The male student reported his allegations to the university because he was too intoxicated to consent to sexual activity — something Roe alleges that he did in retaliation after she accused one of his friends of sexual assault, the Enquirer reported.

The male student “and his friends were upset that Jane Roe had made these allegations and were seeking revenge,” the lawsuit says. 

The lawsuit states that even after administrators knew she was also intoxicated, they did not encourage Roe to file her own complaint.

During a hearing, she was found “responsible” and was suspended after losing an appeal. Roe will be allowed to re-enroll after the male student graduates or is no longer a student.

A spokesman for the university was not available to comment to the Enquirer on Thursday. The Hill has also reached out for comment.

Her attorney, Josh Engel, said in an interview with the newspaper that officials did not know how to proceed because the alleged perpetrator was not male.

“You have a woman who was the sexual aggressor, and the school doesn’t really know how to deal with that situation, Engel said.

The lawsuit says the university was “facing mounting pressure to prosecute females accused of sexual assault” because it had already been named as a defendant in multiple lawsuits brought by men accused of similar allegations.