Court Documents: University Alleges Victim Partly Responsible For Rape

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WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — According to recently filed court documents, a Massachusetts school is alleging that a student who was raped overseas is partially responsible because she was drinking that night and chose to follow a stranger onto a dark rooftop.

The Boston Globe reports (http://bit.ly/25JPPnw ) Worcester Polytechnic Institute made the arguments in response to a civil suit filed last year in which the victim alleges that the college failed to provide a safe environment for students.

The woman was assaulted by a security guard in April 2012 at a university-leased apartment building in Puerto Rico, where she was completing a research project.

The school’s attorneys argue the victim engaged in risky behavior including excessive drinking and disregarded training about how to protect herself from harm.

The woman’s lawyers say the school’s argument is an attempt to harass and intimidate her.

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Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.bostonglobe.com

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  1. The audacity of parents who don’t train their children to beware of security guards!

  2. Blaming the victim makes me enraged. I don’t care if she was drinking. How is blaming the victim still happening in 2016

  3. Worcester Polytechnic Institute made the arguments in response to a
    civil suit filed last year in which the victim alleges that the college
    failed to provide a safe environment for students.

    Why not just hang a sign on the entrance to the college that reads, “Women Not Welcome!”

  4. People need to use common sense. If you don’t have common sense, you will have bad experiences.

    There’s another story in the Chicago Tribune about a woman who used Match.com to meet someone. They were going to go to a restaurant (public space). Instead, they met for the first time in his apartment. Gosh and golly, you will be shocked to hear that he raped her. THAT IS SO RUDE!! Meeting at his apartment is simply stupid of the woman. It is her fault that she got raped. If you don’t know someone, you meet them in public, not in your bedroom or in his bedroom. That’s not common sense.

    All of this stuff is not helping women. If you do not develop common sense, you will get victimized over and over. Going into a dark place alone with a stranger is not common sense. Guess what? Some people are not kind and nice. And the quicker folks realize that, the better off they will be.

    Rather than whining about how unfair it all is and how naughty some people are, young women AND young men should read “The gift of fear”, where the author tells you how to be careful and not be an idiot. Like this dummy in Puerto Rico.

    If you, like so many bleating liberals, are confused by naughty people, here’s a link:

    http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gift-of-fear-gavin-de-becker/1100820299?ean=9780440508830

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