Of the many disturbing aspects of the sexual assault investigation involving a fraternity at Oklahoma State University, one of the most troubling is the school’s belief it could not contact the police.
According to the The Oklahoman’s
story , OSU spokesman Gary Shutt said the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, prohibits a school from contacting police in “such cases.”
These “such cases” are allegations of felony sexual assaults by a student with possible multiple victims.
Like many universities, OSU holds student conduct hearings to deal with non-academic issues that may involve illegal activities, ranging from hazing to drug sales.
No offense to these students and advisers holding the hearings, but you aren’t criminal investigators.
FERPA is a federal law protecting the privacy of student education records.
It is a complex law with lots of exemptions.
One exemption allows for disclosing the name of the alleged perpetrator, violation committed and sanction imposed once the hearing is complete and violations are found to have occurred.
Another allows “law enforcement units” of a school to make references to “appropriate authorities” to enforce laws or maintain the physical security and safety of the school.
It’s unknown whether campus police or security knew of these allegations.
OSU conducted a student hearing involving a member of the FarmHouse fraternity, which concluded by Nov. 30.
Police were never notified.
They only found out about the string of alleged crimes after a campus newspaper reporter called the department for a comment.
An investigation was opened by police last Friday, more than three weeks after OSU officials found out.
The university gave the victims information on how to contact police and encouraged them to do so.
Sorry, not enough.
These are young people, who probably thought coming forward to the school would be enough to protect them.
They deserve counseling and a hand to hold through the process of contacting the real law enforcement.
Because the investigation is ongoing, it's possible the suspect may never be arrested or charged, depending on evidence collected.
That shouldn't diminish the belief of the victims that they have been violated.
FarmHouse president has stated the student is no longer a member, and the fraternity turned the matter over to university officials after becoming aware of the allegations.
It’s too bad those officials didn’t do more.
