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Occidental College Kept 27 More Sexual Assaults a Secret. Ugh.
Fowler Hall at Occidental College / Photo by Michael Locke via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
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Occidental College in Eagle Rock, the liberal arts college that is already reeling from claims that administrators haven't been reporting student claims of sexual assault, has been keeping even more of the incidents a secret than previously thought.
The L.A. Times reports that, although the school has copped to two dozen unreported claims of sexual assault in 2010 and 2011, it hasn't disclosed another 27 alleged sexual assaults in 2012.
The school has only about 2,100 students.
The federal government requires schools to report students' allegations of sexual assaults to law enforcement. Student whistleblowers say that not only has Oxy been keeping the incidents from police, but also that administrators actively discourage students from pressing charges. The U.S. Department of Education is investigating those claims.
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Oxy hasn't responded specifically to the new allegations, but a school spokesman told the Times, "Occidental continues to move ahead with its efforts to improve its policies and procedures to ensure the College is a national leader in dealing with sexual misconduct."
National leader? Really? The school has already paid out a bunch of settlements to keep victims from suing them. They have a $330 million endowment - maybe administrators can find a few more bucks to stop sexual assaults of students and tell the police when they happen. After all, how hard is it really to tell the government that a student got assaulted?
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