An unnamed student at the University of Oregon was raped by three basketball players last year. The school ultimately expelled them - but they had originally recruited one of them despite knowing he had a past sexual assault record, and they waited months before taking action. It gets worse.
The sexual assault survivor is suing the university - and the school is using her therapy records from the campus health clinic against her in court.
The school can get away with violating their students' privacy because of a loophole in FERPA - the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. But legal or not, patients expect confidentiality when they go to counseling, or the counseling won't work. This is especially true for sexual assault survivors whose security and trust has already been shattered once.
Even if it's legal, what the University of Oregon is doing is shocking, cruel, and flat-out wrong. Kelsey Jones, a student from the school's Organization Against Sexual Assault, told NPR, "It's ten times harder now to seek help and feel safe, and feel OK to share 100 percent of what you're feeling."
Our friends at UltraViolet and Daily Kos have taken the lead on this issue. Let's follow their sterling example and send 50,000 Care2 letters to Congress demanding action!
Our elected leaders need to do what's right. Tell Congress: Don't allow campus administrators to violate rape survivors' privacy! Close the FERPA loophole!
