Teresa Sullivan, the president of the University of Virginia — the campus at the heart of the Rolling Stone magazine debacle over its since-debunked rape claim piece — has become the target of a Change.org petition that calls for her immediate firing.
The petition has only gathered a few signatures so far, but its text is blunt.
It reads: “University of Virginia president Teresa Sullivan vandalized our legal system by immediately assuming the guilt of innocent men after an anonymous accuser without evidence cried, ’Rape!’ Sullivan suspended activities of all fraternities (not just the one fraternity the accuser mentions), and no sororities — discrimination solely on the basis of sex.”
The petition then reminds how Rolling Stone has apologized for publishing the story and distanced itself from the accuser.
“While the Board of Visitors immediately apologized to the anonymous accuser and her parents, now that ’Rolling Stone’ has backed away from the story, the Board of Visitors’ ’zero-tolerance’ approach to sexual assault must including firing the woman who aided and abetted a false rape accusation as well as physical violence against the fraternity.”
The petition also referred to a few names of wrongly accused suspects whose lives were tarnished by erroneous prison sentences.
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Some of the signers said they added their signatures because “sexism is wrong, no matter who performs it,” and “rape hysteria has to stop,” the petition shows.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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