Mara Louk through Fb
A 22-year-old lady claims her conservative Christian faculty disciplined her for allegedly having premarital intercourse after she reported her sexual assault.
Former Seen Music School scholar Mara Louk filed a criticism with the Division of Schooling on Wednesday, claiming the varsity refused to take away her alleged assailant from her lessons and even examine the alleged rape, in keeping with NBC Information.
The criticism claims Louk was assaulted by a fellow scholar at her off-campus residence on Nov. 2, 2021. Louk says she reported the assault to an administrator the subsequent day and filed a report with Memphis police on Nov. 4.
Every week later, the police division advised Louk they might not be making an arrest, citing inadequate proof. Shortly thereafter, she says, a university administrator declined to take away the alleged assailant from her lessons, saying there was “actually nothing we are able to do at this level.” On Nov. 24, the varsity advised her it could not be investigating her alleged assault in any respect as a result of it occurred off campus.
In a gathering with Louk and her dad and mom, the criticism claims, directors additionally accused Louk of sleeping with an ex-boyfriend that very same semester, violating the faculty’s guidelines in opposition to premarital intercourse. The administrator mentioned her alleged assailant had advised them in regards to the incident and that her ex-boyfriend had confirmed it, the criticism says.
Louk says she denied the allegation, however that the varsity nonetheless tried to make her signal a “pastoral care contract” confessing to it. The contract would even have required Louk to complete her diploma on-line and barred her from talking to different college students in regards to the alleged assault—restrictions the varsity mentioned would supply her “some wanted construction,” and ensured she addressed the “non secular and emotional points behind the infringements.”
“It didn’t appear actual; it didn’t really feel actual,” Louk advised NBC. “I stored pondering that is only a loopy, horrible nightmare, and hopefully in the future I’ll get up from it.”
Louk, who was majoring in fashionable music and was 9 credit wanting commencement, refused to signal the contract. She completed the semester, withdrew from faculty, and moved residence to Iowa. She is asking the Division of Schooling to research whether or not the varsity discriminated in opposition to her based mostly on her gender, and whether or not they violated federal guidelines round responding to varsity sexual assaults.
Seen is a personal, Christian music faculty based mostly in Memphis, Tennessee, with roughly 120 college students. It was based in 2000 by Dr. Ken Steorts of the Christian rock band Skillet.
The varsity didn't instantly reply to a request for remark from The Each day Beast. Steorts advised NBC that the varsity couldn't touch upon scholar issues and had not seen a replica of the criticism, however would cooperate with any investigation into the allegations.