Stanford is now on the list of 101 schools under federal investigation for its handling of sexual assault cases.
On Feb. 27, Stanford received a letter from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights notifying the university of the investigation.
According to The Stanford Daily, this Title IX investigation was catalyzed by a complaint filed by Stanford student Leah Francis. Francis was raped by another Stanford student in January 2014. After an internal investigation, the university found her rapist guilty but allowed him to graduate on time and allowed him admittance to Stanford for graduate school. In June 2014, students on the Stanford campus protested in support of Francis. The protestors believe a student convicted of rape shouldn’t be allowed back on campus.
The Office of Civil Rights officially opened an investigation into Stanford on Feb. 26, 2015, according to the list of schools under investigation by the OCR. NBC Bay Area has obtained a copy of the list.
Besides Stanford, there are eight other schools in California undergoing federal sexual violence investigations including Butte-Glen Community College, California Institute of the Arts, Occidental College, San Jose Evergreen Community College, UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of San Diego, and the University of Southern California. The Office of Civil Rights did not disclose any case specific facts about these investigations.
