Sign petition protesting UO and Altman’s decision to sue alleged rape survivor 02/22/2015

http://uomatters.com/2015/02/dana-altman-and-uo-are-suing-the-alleged-basketball-rape-survivor.html

Sign petition protesting UO and Altman’s decision to sue alleged rape survivor

  02/22/2015

2/22/2015 update. Change.org petition is here:

The University of Oregon has become the first institution in higher education to sue a rape survivor pursuing her rights under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act — all after violating medical privacy laws by seizing her counseling records from the campus health center, and asking campus counselors to give her substandard care.

It has nearly 200 signatures as of 4:30PM, and many very powerful comments.

Obviously some of the facts are still in dispute, and I don’t know who is circulating this petition, but signing it seems like a good first step towards telling Scott Coltrane and his lawyers that they aren’t speaking for UO when it comes to this dishonorable decision.

Keep in mind that while the Lane County DA did decline to prosecute, saying he didn’t doubt the events but didn’t think he could prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, UO eventually expelled the three perpetrators for non-consensual sex, and banned them from campus for 10 years. Coach Dana Altman has all but admitted he did not do his due diligence in investigating why Providence had banned one of them from playing basketball for a year (initially he’d been banned from campus as well) when recruiting him for UO. The UO administration’s own hand picked “Presidential Review Panel” has called for recruiting reforms. And UO is now claiming that the survivor’s lawsuit is “frivolous”?

2/19/2015: Dana Altman and UO file counterclaim against alleged basketball rape survivor

Yes, I’m sorry to say you read that correctly. Andrew Grief has the report in the Oregonian, here. Full despicable counterclaim here:

Of course the reason Canzano wrote his “Every Day with Dana Altman is Another Day in the Muck” column and the reason for the hundreds of other news reports, columns, blog posts, and angry letters to President Mike Gottfredson was not the survivor’s purported efforts to manipulate public opinion through the press, it was the UO administration’s efforts to cover up the allegations and UO’s inept handling of them, once they finally became public.

And now UO and Dana Altman are, literally, blaming the victim. And suing her.

On top of that they are claiming that the reason they are suing her for their attorney’s fees is because they think her lawsuit will discourage civil rights claims and rape reporting, and because they think she has “damaged a good man’s reputation.” I’m sorry, but this is bullshit. Watch Dana Altman’s news conference. The damage to this Eagle Scout’s reputation, and to UO’s, was entirely self-inflicted:

Timeline and links to the docket and filings here.

So who is footing the bill for the Miller Nash attorneys who filed this nasty counterclaim? It looks like UO is. With student tuition money? By raising the mandatory fee UO students pay for football and basketball games?