One of the saddest facts about the alleged sexual assault rocking Cornell is the departure from campus of the young woman at the center of it, known as Jane Doe. She left school some time after she reported that she was raped at a fraternity party in October 2024, when she was a 20-year-old sophomore. In the two decades I’ve been writing about campus sexual assault, it has been all too common for students to drop out of school after experiencing or reporting such an assault.
It’s one reason that at various points I’ve questioned requiring schools to investigate sexual assault based on Title IX, the statute that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs. The law has been both a lifeline and a source of trauma for survivors, often forcing them into lengthy, adversarial processes that can retraumatize them while schools prioritize liability over healing.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing