Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU) refuses to make a simple phone call to a female student who accused a male student of sexual assault in order to ask for verification that she is, indeed, HIV-positive, as she claimed to a school investigator.
The Daily Wire previously reported that the woman, referred to in court documents as Jane Roe, accused a male student referred to only as John Doe of sexually assaulting her in late 2019. She made the allegations as she tried to get failing grades changed to incomplete. During a December 11 conversation with the single school investigator who not only “investigated” the case but also made the sole determination of the male student’s guilt, the woman claimed she had been tested for STDs and was found to be HIV-positive.
It appears from John’s eventual lawsuit against the university that IWU assumed he was HIV-positive, knew it, and infected Jane. A “note from IWU Associate Professor Anneke Stasson included in the Incident Reporting From said, “It makes me really worried to think that the guy who gave her HIV is still on this campus.”
John was never told about Jane’s HIV claim. In fact, he only found out about it after a judge granted him expedited discovery in his lawsuit claiming his rights were violated by IWU and his life was put in danger. It was during discovery that John’s attorneys uncovered the claim. John said he had been tested for STDs before and was never told he was HIV-positive, now fearing that he caught it from Jane. Of course, as is often the case with school accusations, the accuser doesn’t have to prove her claims, and in this case, Jane was never asked to provide documentation that she was HIV-positive.
John and his attorneys filed an emergency temporary restraining order to compel IWU to reach out to Jane and have her provide documentation proving her HIV claim. If the university doesn’t comply, John would be forced to break quarantine and travel to a doctor’s office to get himself tested in the midst of a global pandemic. John has a seizure disorder and contends that he would be at risk were he to contract the coronavirus. All IWU would have to do is call the accuser and ask for documentation.
IWU refused to do so in an email to John and his attorneys that John should just order a test on line, wait for it to arrive, take it, and then send it in for analysis. And again, this is already four months after Jane made her claim, meaning John has wasted valuable time to receive treatment if he is actually HIV positive. John’s attorneys called IWU’s refusal “offensive and insensitive, particularly when this dilemma was created by IWU’s callous and deliberate indifference.”
IWU has now responded to John’s request for a temporary restraining order, unwittingly admitting that that it never bothered to consider whether Jane was telling the truth about being HIV-positive. She may very well have lied about it and John was expelled over a false allegation. He also contends the sexual activity with Jane was consensual.
In its response, IWU claims John’s request would require the school to “be responsible for contacting a former student over whom it has no authority or control to ask her sensitive information about her medical history and for medical documentation to prove it. Notably, to the extent Roe does not already have medical documentation concerning her current HIV status, IWU would be asking her to bear the same risk that Doe fears – ‘breaking quarantine to seek medical attention in the midst of a nation-wide crises [sic] where medical facilities are overwhelmed and vulnerable to COVID-19 infection,’” IWU’s attorneys wrote.
If Jane had indeed taken the test, however, it would be in her medical files and could be sent to her or scanned without her having to go to the doctor and get tested again. Since she claimed to have contracted HIV months ago, she would also presumably be on medication already and have a prescription pill bottle around for verification. There is no true hardship for her if she’s telling the truth.
As author and professor K.C. Johnson noted on Twitter that the “University’s argument that accuser might not have this medical info is particularly bizarre,” adding that “If, in fact, she wasn’t tested, that would mean she lied on a critical matter when filing her complaint.”
University’s argument that accuser might not have this medical info is particularly bizarre. If, in fact, she wasn’t tested, that would mean she lied on a critical matter when filing her complaint.
— KC Johnson (@kcjohnson9) April 6, 2020
Update: John risked a coronavirus infection to get himself tested for HIV Monday night. The results came back negative, calling into question the veracity of his accuser’s claims. He and his attorneys have withdrawn their emergency temporary restraining order since it is no longer necessary.