Columbia sued again over student's mattress protest of alleged rape

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Columbia sued again over student's mattress protest of alleged rape

By Joseph Ax
April 25, 2016

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Columbia University student who had been accused of rape has sued the school for a second time over its decision to allow his accuser to carry a mattress around campus in protest after he had been cleared of the allegations.

The lawsuit filed on Monday by Paul Nungesser came six weeks after U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods in Manhattan threw out an earlier version. The judge said Nungesser failed to show that Columbia discriminated against him based on his gender.

Emma Sulkowicz had accused Nungesser of raping her on campus in August 2012, while Nungesser claimed the encounter was consensual. He was never charged with a crime, and graduated from the Ivy League school in New York last year.

When the university determined he should not be disciplined, Sulkowicz protested the decision by carrying a mattress everywhere she went as part of her senior thesis, drawing international headlines.












Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/columbia-sued-again-over-students-mattress-protest-alleged-222620457.html?nhp=1

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[jtuck004]

2. Good for her. School policies like these need more sunlight. n/t

[groundloop]

5. Me thinks he doth protest too much

IF he were innocent why would he care if a former girlfriend/fling carried a mattress around? Hell, he's already graduated and getting on with his life, if he were innocent you'd think he'd just get on with his life. It seems that she's striking a nerve.

And I see this lawsuit going nowhere, he's asking the university to stifle free speech.

[Coventina]

6. Agreed.

[zeemike]

7. If he is innocent why would he care if someone publicly accuses him?

And that public accusation is supported by and institution?...

If speech is free could one use the n word publicly and not get in trouble at a university?
But it is OK to accuse someone of a capital crime under the rule of free speech?
What is wrong with that picture?

[Gore1FL]

8. Yeah... Why would anyone be upset at being known nationally as a rapist?

Golly. He should just go on with his life an not worry about what appears to be a high profile false accusation against his character.

[TipTok]

9. Oh that's healthy...

If he defends himself, it must be an obvious sign of guilt.

[Android3.14]

10. Since he is innocent, is it libel or slander when the accusation is neither spoken nor written?

Last edited Tue Apr 26, 2016, 01:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Curious.

[christx30]

11. Slander is spoken. Libel is written. n/t

[Android3.14]

12. I know, but which is it when the accusation is a mattress?

[christx30]

13. Trying to work up a cross between Sealey and Slander.

Sea-lander? Maybe?
But if she spoke or wrote about the reasons she's carrying the mattress, it would totally fit under the traditional law.

[Xithras]

15. Defamatory art is considered libel.

When judging whether art is libel, there are three basic boxes that have to be checked:

1. You have to prove that the art is about you, personally.

2. You have to prove that the art depicts or represents (or would lead a reasonable person to believe that it depicted) an actual event, and doesn't just represent a fantasy or the artists opinion. The fact that it is offensive to you is not sufficient to claim libel.

3. You have to demonstrate how the art caused you harm.

[Android3.14]

16. You are awesome

Don't know if you are in the legal profession, but your textual voice sounds like a pro. Thanks.

[Xithras]

19. Nope. Law school dropout.

My degrees are all in Computer Science and Mathematics, but I pursued the idea of going into technology law for a while (lots of lawyers in my family, including my mother, so I had a lot of unwanted "encouragement&quot .

Took me about 18 months to realize that a career in law wasn't for me. Not long enough to become an "expert", but long enough to get a reasonable foundation. There are actual lawyers on DU who do a much better job than I, and who have corrected me on more than one occasion, so take my legal comments with a grain of salt. The 18 months I skipped really does matter.

Defamation law is fairly straightforward though. You have to prove that a claim was false, was presented in a way that would cause someone to believe it to be the truth, and prove that it did you harm. The truth isn't defamation. Opinions aren't defamation. Harmless comments aren't defamation. Obvious tales and falsehoods aren't defamation. The only hurdle added by "art" is the requirement that the subject of the art be clearly identifiable as YOU. Sometimes that is easy, sometimes it isn't.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure my writing style has more to do with the years I spent as a college adjunct prof. Writing authoritatively, and without loopholes, is something that most college level instructors pick up fairly quickly. It's a survival thing...

[Xithras]

14. In the end, he will win. And Columbia will owe him a lot of money.

The problem for the university basically comes back to Title IX itself, which simply requires gender equality. That leads to an obvious question:

If a male student had accused a female student of impropriety on any subject, and the school found his accusations baseless, and the male student went on to not only publicly shame her himself, but to recruit HUNDREDS of other people to follow her into her classes and shame her there as well...would the school have allowed it? If the male student had attempted to reserve school facilities to hold a performance show talking about how terrible she was, and wanted the school to offer credits to students who attended it, would the proposal have been supported? Or would it have been met by the derisive laughter such a proposal would have deserved?

Columbia will ultimately lose because it failed to impose the same behavioral expectations on her that it imposed on him. Title IX is about flattening the playing field for everyone, and when a university fails to enforce its own behavior policies on a student because of her gender, while applying it to others because of theirs, it fails the Title IX test.

[uhnope]

18. thank you

[MisterP]

20. her senior thesis is a Pornhub video

she can make a video series with Dolezal about ... something ...

[romanic]

21. So...

is she still carrying that mattress around?