Duke sued by former student who says he was sexually assaulted by a faculty member
Content warning: This story includes a description of sexual assault.
A former doctoral student at Duke University has sued the university, alleging it failed to promptly investigate the student’s claim that he was sexually assaulted by a faculty member and that the university retaliated against him for his claim.
The student, identified in the federal lawsuit as “John Doe,” was enrolled in a five-year PhD program at the Duke Fuqua School of Business beginning in 2021.
The lawsuit claims “Professor X” — an unnamed faculty member at the university who served as an adviser to Doe and supervised Doe’s graduate research — groomed Doe and “initiated unwanted sexual contact with Doe and committed multiple acts of touching and attempted digital penetration that constitute sexual assault under North Carolina law” in June of that year.
Following the June 2021 incident, Doe was subsequently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder), depression and anxiety, the lawsuit states. Despite a no-contact order being issued for Doe and Professor X, the lawsuit states that Doe “was told that Duke could not effectively prevent Doe and Professor X from ever coincidentally being in the same place in person or virtually,” which, in one incident, led to Doe experiencing a panic attack.
Doe alleges that the university “acted in a deliberately indifferent manner by failing to promptly investigate Doe’s claims of sexual assault by a Duke faculty member, resulting in a nearly two-year Title IX investigative process.”
Doe faced a “retaliatory hostile environment” at the university following the incident, including pressure to resume “work obligations despite a medical diagnosis” and his eventual termination from the PhD program, the lawsuit states.
“This brave young man keeps being victimized by this sexual assault. Duke University failed to take this complaint seriously, pressured our client to violate his therapist’s directions, refused to admit key evidence during the Title IX hearing and kicked him out of the PhD program soon after the hearing,” attorney Artur Davis of HKM Employment Attorneys said in a news release. “This has not only caused untold harm to this survivor, it has put countless others at risk of this perpetrator striking again.”
Duke spokesperson Gregory Phillips told The News & Observer by email Monday that the university does not comment on litigation.
Reporting the incident, Title IX investigation
Doe reported the incident, including the professor’s identity, to university officials including Duke President Vincent Price and campus police in the summer of 2021, the lawsuit states.
But after a campus police captain “expressed skepticism at the seriousness of the incident” and said male-on-male sexual assault “isn’t really common or even really a thing,” Doe opted not to file a criminal complaint, the lawsuit claims.
Current estimates suggest more than 25% of men have been sexually victimized at some point in their life, according to a literature review on the topic published this April. Another estimate from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs claims 10% of men in the U.S. have suffered trauma as a result of sexual assault.
Duke began a Title IX investigation in the fall of 2021, the lawsuit says. The university did not convene a formal hearing in the investigation until June this year, almost two full years after the June 2021 incident occurred, the lawsuit states.
Title IX, the federal civil rights law, prohibits educational programs that receive federal funding from discriminating on the basis of sex, including sexual assault and sexual violence. There are currently no formal guidelines on how long a Title IX investigation should take to complete, though previous guidelines suggested a “typical investigation” would take about 60 days, with more complex cases likely taking longer.
Duke on July 29 issued its findings from the investigation, which showed “insufficient evidence to conclude that a Title IX violation occurred,” the lawsuit states.
Three days after the university’s findings were issued, on Aug. 1, Doe was terminated from the PhD program on Aug. 1.
“Duke’s unlawful retaliatory behavior has caused Doe to suffer economic losses including the loss of the opportunity to obtain a PhD from the nation’s most prestigious business school, which will continue to limit his earning potential,” the lawsuit states.
Doe is asking for a jury trial in the case. He wishes to be reinstated to the PhD program at the Fuqua School and to receive back pay, lost benefits, punitive damages and other relief.
