Tennessee Reportedly Fails to Get Sexual Assault Lawsuit Dismissed

A federal judge denied the University of Tennessee's motion to dismiss a sexual assault lawsuit against the school on Tuesday, per CBSSports.com's Jon Solomon.  

On Feb. 24, the Tennessean's Anita Wadhwani and Nate Rau reported six women filed a federal lawsuit alleging Tennessee didn't do enough to curb incidents of sexual assault committed by student-athletes on campus:

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In making its case that the university enabled an environment of bad behavior and used a disciplinary system that favored the players, the lawsuit cited more than a dozen incidents involving football players that included underage drinking, sexual harassment, assault, armed robbery and sexual assaults that did not involve the Jane Doe plaintiffs. Some of the incidents cited have previously never been reported.

The plaintiffs say that UT violated the Title IX laws, which protect students from gender discrimination in federally funded education programs. UT created a hostile sexual environment for female students by showing “deliberate indifference and a clearly unreasonable response after a sexual assault that causes a student to endure additional harassment," according to the lawsuit.

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The number of plaintiffs in the case grew to eight when two more women came forward to join the lawsuit, which named four former student-athletes—basketball player Yemi Makanjuola and football players A.J. Johnson, Riyahd Jones and Michael Williams—and a current student-athlete identified as John Doe.

In an effort to get the lawsuit dismissed, the school argued it violated Title VI, which protects those who are discriminated against on the basis of race. The judge rejected the motion, per Solomon:

The plaintiffs alleged head football coach Butch Jones, chancellor Jimmy Cheek and athletic director Dave Hart obstructed any investigations into potential assaults. The plaintiffs also accused the school of having a hearing process that is bias in favor of the alleged perpetrators, who can cross-examine their accusers in front of an administrative law judge who is appointed by the chancellor.

On March 21, Cheek wrote an email regarding the lawsuit to all UT students and faculty, per Megan Boehnke of the Knoxville News Sentinel:

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To claim that we have allowed a culture to exist contrary to our institutional commitment to providing a safe environment for our students or that we do not support those who report sexual assault is just false. We are a community, even if we're not a perfect one, and we hurt when any of our family members hurt or cause pain to others.

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According to Wadhwani and Rau, the federal judge dismissed one plaintiff's allegations Tuesday since the statute of limitations from when the alleged assault occurred had expired. As a result, she won't be involved in the aspect of the case focusing directly on the "deliberate indifference" of the school about sexual assaults.

However, she is still a part of the lawsuit regarding Tennessee's disciplinary process for alleged sexual assaults since the date on which she reported the assault falls inside the required window.