The University System of Georgia came to settlements with two former Georgia Tech students who say they were falsely accused of sexual assault and unfairly punished.
One of the male students agreed to settle the case for $125,000, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Georgia Tech was ordered to reinstate the student in January, after he was accused of sexually assaulting another male student and found responsible by the university.
The expulsion of the second student, who was accused of sexually assaulting a female student, was upheld. But prosecutors said the student will be allowed to receive his diploma and his disciplinary record will be modified to reflect that the charges were disputed.
Georgia Tech has expelled or suspended nearly every student accused of sexual assault in the past five years, according to an AJC analysis. The first student is the only one to have his punishment overturned in the past five years.
The university has been one of the most aggressive in cracking down on reported assaults, since the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights issued the “Dear Colleague Letter” in 2011.
Under the auspices of Title IX, the letter introduced a series of regulations by which universities must abide when responding to accusations of sexual assault, including adjudicating allegations under a “preponderance of the evidence” standard.
Georgia Tech’s handling of accusations has drawn the ire of several state lawmakers, including Rep. Earl Ehrhart, who called the policies “Kafkaesque.”
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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