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Breaking news: ASU settles

By Erin Buzuvis, Sudha Setty, and Kristine Newhall

A case brought by a (now former) female student at ASU who was raped in 2004 has settled for $850,000--the second largest settlement in a sexual harassment case to date. The settlement also requires the Board of Regents to start a program at all the Arizona state universities to address issues of women's safety. The regents, of course, admit no liability.
This case kind of flew under the radar--at least compared to other cases like the Anson Dorrance/USC case and, of course, University of Colorado. A connection between the latter and the ASU case was lawyer Baine Kerr who represented the still unnamed victim in her civil suit against ASU. They argued that the university knew the football player who raped the victim was a threat, specifically a sexual threat to women and yet they let him remain in the football program and the dormitories after previous behaviorial issues.
Kerr and his client are stressing the importance of the forthcoming program. It appears to have played a large part in settlement talks.

Full post as published by Title IX Blog on February 03, 2009 (boomark / email).