Raihan v. George Wash. Univ.

324 F. Supp. 3d 102
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedAugust 28, 2018
DocketCase No. 1:18-cv-00994 (TNM)
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 324 F. Supp. 3d 102 (Raihan v. George Wash. Univ.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Raihan v. George Wash. Univ., 324 F. Supp. 3d 102 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

Opinion

TREVOR N. MCFADDEN, U.S.D.J.

Plaintiff Aniqa Raihan brings this suit against her alma mater, George Washington University, alleging that the University violated the law in the way its policies dealt with sexual harassment generally, and her own sexual assault particularly. The Supreme Court has interpreted Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681 - 1688, to authorize damages against federally funded schools *105even for student-on-student harassment, but the bar is high. Schools are liable "only where the funding recipient acts with deliberate indifference to known acts of harassment in its programs or activities," and "only for harassment that is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively bars the victim's access to an educational opportunity or benefit." Davis v. Monroe Cty. Bd. of Educ. , 526 U.S. 629, 633, 119 S.Ct. 1661, 143 L.Ed.2d 839 (1999). Ms. Raihan's Complaint does not clear that bar.

The Complaint does not point to facts from which the Court could plausibly infer that official school policy caused Ms. Raihan's sexual assault. And the University's response-even if the Court assumes that it constituted deliberate indifference-did not deprive Ms. Raihan of educational benefits in the way Davis contemplates, where the only specific educational harm she claims was seeing her assailant at the gym once and being forced to avoid the gym in the weeks before her graduation. Ms. Raihan also asserts that the University negligently retained the Director of the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, but this claim fails under District of Columbia tort law. The Court will grant the University's Motion to Dismiss.1

I. BACKGROUND

These facts come from Ms. Raihan's Complaint. At this stage, the Court accepts a plaintiff's well-pleaded allegations as true. Banneker Ventures, LLC v. Graham , 798 F.3d 1119, 1129 (D.C. Cir. 2015).

Ms. Raihan's allegations tread a tragically common path. During the spring of Ms. Raihan's freshman year, in March 2014, Ms. Raihan and her friends were drinking alcohol in her dorm room. Compl. ¶¶ 24-25. Another freshman, Mark Favorito, arrived and observed Ms. Raihan's intoxication. Id. ¶ 26. When Ms. Raihan's roommate asked the group to leave, Mr. Favorito invited Ms. Raihan to his room, where she began to feel dizzy. Id. ¶¶ 27-29. Ms. Raihan sat on Mr. Favorito's bed, and the two watched Netflix together. Id. ¶¶ 30-31. She declined his efforts to kiss her by turning away, starting a conversation about Mr. Favorito's girlfriend, and pushing Mr. Favorito away. Id. ¶¶ 32-33. Ms. Raihan began "going in and out of consciousness before blacking out. Before blacking out, [she] remembers [Mr.] Favorito engaging in sexual activity with her," to which she did not consent. Id. ¶ 34. In fact, Ms. Raihan "did not give consent to any type of sexual activity." Id. ¶ 37.

Later, on an unspecified date, Ms. Raihan met with the University's Assistant Title IX Coordinator Carrie Ross, "to explore her options for filing a report against [Mr.] Favorito." Id. ¶ 39. Ms. Ross "explained Plaintiff's options," and arranged a meeting between Ms. Raihan and Jennifer Alexander-Smith, the Assistant Director of the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities (OSRR). Id. "Soon" after, Ms. Ross left the University, leaving only a single coordinator for the school's Title IX program. Id. Ms. Raihan then met with Ms. Alexander-Smith, who told her that "once a formal complaint is filed, GW issues a no-contact order to the alleged perpetrator." Id. ¶ 40. Ms. Raihan finally filed a formal complaint on October 3, 2016, two and a half years after the alleged incident. Id. ¶ 44.

Ms. Raihan's complaint was processed by OSRR, and in fact the University "processes all reports of sexual violence through the OSRR and not through [the] Title IX [Office]." Id. ¶¶ 40, 43. Ms. Raihan *106claims that this makes a significant difference. OSRR uses the Code of Student Conduct as the guide for adjudicating such reports, while the Title IX Office would use the Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence Policy, id. , even though the Policy explicitly states that it takes precedence in sexual misconduct cases. Id. ¶ 14.

The Complaint provides little detail about the Code of Student Conduct, but it lists several salient features of the Policy. The Policy provides that the University will "take interim action ... as appropriate" while sexual harassment claims are being investigated, whenever "doing so reasonably appears required to protect a member of the university community." Id. ¶ 10, 12. The Policy also sets a 45-day target for completing disciplinary proceedings after a formal investigation begins, and states that the "Vice Provost and Dean of Student Affairs, in concurrence with the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs," are responsible for imposing suspension and expulsion sanctions. Id. ¶¶ 12-13.

The University's failure to use the Title IX Office and the appropriate sexual misconduct policy is one of several structural problems that Ms. Raihan identifies. She asserts the University "has a history" of failures in this area, which in 2011 prompted the U.S. Department of Education to investigate the University "for failing to respond adequately to reports of sexual misconduct on campus." Id. ¶¶ 16-17. The investigation led to an August 2011 resolution agreement, under which the University was supposed to "adopt new policies and procedures" for the specific context of sexual misconduct reports. Id. ¶ 18. Ms. Raihan also points to the University's 2014 Climate Survey, which revealed, among other things, that 36% of "upper-class females [had] experienced unwanted sexual behavior;" 60% of undergraduate students did not think the University "was effective at creating a climate free from [such] behavior;" and 35% of the few who reported sexual misconduct said the official response was inadequate. Id. ¶ 21.

In August 2017, the U.S. Department of Education launched another investigation into the University's approach to sexual misconduct, with results still pending. Id. ¶ 22. Ms. Raihan, for one, says that the adjudication process is confusing, and that she often received misleading or contradictory information. Id. ¶¶ 38, 65-66. For example, Ms.

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Bluebook (online)
324 F. Supp. 3d 102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/raihan-v-george-wash-univ-cadc-2018.