Lawsuit: Brown Fails To Protect Women From Sexual Assault

PROVIDENCE, RI — Brown University is facing a federal class action lawsuit amid allegations the school systemically and repeatedly failed to protect women from rape and other sexual misconduct.

The complaint was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Providence and accuses the Ivy League school of preventing students from reporting sexual violence, creating a "culture of silence" on campus. One woman in the complaint said she was raped at a party hosted by the men's rugby team. According to the complaint, she was advised against making a formal complaint, because the assault happened off-campus — and it would be more difficult to hold someone accountable.

Cass Cliatt, the school's senior vice president for communications, told the Associated Press the university is aware of the lawsuit, but the university has yet to be formally served. She also said Brown has taken a "strategic and sustained approach" to confronting sexual misconduct on campus, including enacting recommendations from the school's sexual assault task force.

"Brown has made it an institutional priority to create an environment in which no incident of sexual violence is tolerated, and the experiences and perspective of students and others impacted by sexual violence have been instrumental in informing the actions we’ve taken," Cliatt told the Associated Press.

For more on this story, read the Associated Press