Tufts avoids accountability with OCR loophole
I have fought hard. The fight has been very long.
I put the money up for a domain name and hosting to create this site and blog. I dealt with the aftermath of rape and expulsion WITHOUT health insurance because I was no longer a student. I dealt with the aftermath of my student loans defaulting and having bad credit on top of all the bad effects of rape because I had no money to pay them and I was unable to defer them (ugh, private loans). I dealt with being unable to get a job as a survivor struggling with PTSD and then as a person with no college degree. I spent my newfound free time volunteering with an organization (SAFER) to help prevent others to go through what I did at Tufts University.
And yet, the poor girl seems to be losing again. I filed my complaint with the Office of Civil Rights in 2009. They first claimed that it wasn’t a matter of “right or wrong,” but rather timing. Then I was able to get that decision for them to not investigate overturned, I hit another roadbump.
Tufts is trying to avoid an investigation at all costs.
They want to do early resolution - with or WITHOUT my consent. This means if I don’t want to sit across the table from them and come to a mutual agreement…they can have the process taken COMPLETELY out of my hands and they can work with the government to resolve MY complaint.
This is way too familiar. The powerful institution tries to do what it can to avoid accountability with what they’ve done wrong to one individual. This has been a very emotional journey for me; one that I have done mostly alone with a small support system. BUT I see the power of CHOICE taken out of my hands right away.
Everyone is talking about Yale being investigated, which has prompted change already from their side. But no one is talking about Tufts. And they want to keep it that way. And frankly, I am PISSED.
I am pissed that the OCR allows the institution who is the subject of the complaint to get out of having an official ruling against them. I am pissed that Tufts just refuses to take accountability. I am pissed that after all this time, where the mere thought of this experience and the stress can reduce me to tears in a matter of seconds the institutions get their way AGAIN.
I think about what happened to be EVERY DAY. School administrators and their lawyers don’t seem to understand - their decisions impact lives. What they think, do, and say change lives forever. There needs to be change. There needs to be accountability instead of the cowardly moves of maintaining the best interest of an oppressive institution at the cost of one rape survivor.
If they didn’t think they did wrong, they wouldn’t be pushing for this to be done early before a finding.
Originally published at Tufts University Survivors of Sexual Violence. You can comment here or there.