The Liberty Way includes guidelines for students’ dress and entertainment and does not permit “sexual relations outside of a biblically ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman.” Disciplinary measures for violating the honor code include points, fines, community service and expulsion.
The code also prohibits sexual harassment, discrimination and assault.
In its statement, Liberty noted that the honor code includes an “amnesty policy” to encourage victims to report any assault or discrimination without fear of discipline for their involvement in activities such as drinking or extramarital sex.
“It would be heartbreaking if those efforts had the results claimed in this lawsuit,” the statement said.
“We will immediately look into each of these claims to determine what needs to be done to make things right, if they turn out to be true. Because the claims are made anonymously and go back many years, in one case over two decades, it will take some time to sort through.”
The 12 alleged cases include unwanted touching and harassment by a co-worker and rapes by both strangers and acquaintances. One student alleges that she was threatened with expulsion if she didn’t marry her boyfriend after becoming pregnant.
In one case included in the lawsuit, a woman identified as Jane Doe 12, who had attended a debate camp at Liberty in summer 2000 when she was 15 years old, said she was grabbed by a man in a women’s dormitory and carried into a shower, then thrown into a chair in an atrium and grabbed again. She held him off with her feet while he groped her legs and breasts, then bit him when he tried to strangle her, according to the suit.
When Jane Doe 12 called the Liberty University Police Department, she allegedly was forced to ride to the police station in the same car as her attacker, where she allegedly was accused of fabricating the assault and told if she did not withdraw her claim, she would be criminally charged with filing a false report.
She alleges that she was held for eight hours without food or drink, and neither her mother nor a child psychiatrist was contacted. She also was allegedly photographed while naked by a female debate coach and required to wash her hands, destroying any DNA evidence that may have been captured under her fingernails during the struggle.
She said her assailant turned out to be Jesse Matthew, who later was convicted of murdering two female students at Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia, according to the suit.
The women are being represented by attorney John Larkin of Gawthrop Greenwood, PC, which has offices in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware.
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This article originally appeared on ReligionNews.com.
