Mutually Nonconsensual Sex and Title IX

As we all know, at the urging of the Department of Education and under the weight of Title IX,
colleges and universities have taken on the role of sexual referees with the power to investigate
and adjudicate the sexual interactions of students as their inquisitors deem best. But what
happens when both parties to a student sexual encounter deny that they consented to any intimate
contact?

Two University of Cincinnati students got drunk and apparently had some physical contact. The
male student apparently decided to protect himself by complaining that the woman had initiated
the contact against his will and she was suspended from the university so long as the complainant
remained a student. She has now filed an action in U.S. District Court claiming that she never
consented to the intimate contact.

There is a thoughtful discussion by Caitlin Flanagan in The Atlantic of this particular case and
the bureaucratic intrusion into the most private and intimate aspect of students’ lives beyond
anything imagined in the days of single sex dormitories, visiting hours and general rules
restricting the interaction of men and women on campus.

© 6/14/2018 Lawrence B. Hunt of Hunt & Associates, P.C. All rights reserved.