Harvard University is sued by a school's graduate after the school forced her to stay into the same dorm with her former boyfriend, who sexually abused her. She reported the abuse to the school officials, however, she claims that Harvard failed to resolve her complaints.
Alyssa Leader, a 2015 Harvard graduate claims she was forced to live on the same dorm building with her abusive former boyfriend, according to her filed lawsuit on federal court in Massachusetts, on Tuesday, Yahoo News reported. The school declined her request to remove him out. One of the officials even discouraged her to file a formal complaint.
According to Huffington Post, after she filed a formal complaint regarding her former boyfriend's abuse, he then retaliated by harassing her, the lawsuit stated. Leader and her ex-boyfriend were both on the same year and broke up in 2014. She described her relationship with him as an "abusive one" after he was forcing him to have sex, and becoming violent when she refused.
Leader reported the abuse several times to the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response in 2013 during the relationship, however, there was no action took place. She even reported it to her residence dean in November 2014. The Dean told her that it is impossible to removed him from the dorm building, where she also live in.
"Harvard has an institutional culture of ignoring and silencing people like me," Leader said on Wednesday press conference. She added, her former boyfriend became more "threatening" after learning she reported him. According to Daily Mail, she claims she was harassed by him in the dormitory café while she was working and had been receiving verbal threats.
Leader officially filed a school complaint against him for abuse, sexual assault and harassment in February 2015, prompting a university investigation. Her main goal was to have him removed from her dorm. The abuser was removed from the dorm a month before Leader graduated.
The suit also accuses Harvard of "premises liability," claiming Harvard knew it was allowing her ex-boyfriend to continue to freely roam the school's property where Leader said he had abused, assaulted and harassed her. Leader said she filed the suit hoping to get Harvard to improve its handling of cases.
