One reminder about the RS Jackie story - before the article was finalized, Jackie said she called the reporter and tried to get her account taken out of the article, but the magazine refused. So RS had a single uncorraborated source, who then tried to kill the story, and they published it anyway.
Then RS never retracted the story, and kept it posted on their website for many months after the story was determined to be full of lies. I’d hate to be on the receiving end of that jury when Phi Psi has their day in court.
Something that I think people are overlooking when they talk about Phi Psi’s day in court is the fact that although they appear not to be guilty of this particular accusation, their rep on campus was apparently such that it was assumed to be true at first blush.
I don’t know what would be allowed in court, but a lawsuit might open up a can of worms they don’t want to open.
Yes, it’s possible that they could win a defamation suit on the grounds that the story was false, but get little or no money on the grounds that it didn’t really damage their reputation much more than it had already been damaged previously.
I haven’t checked in her in a long time, but did anyone notice that a Virginia law requiring Colleges to be mandatory reports of sexual assaults, and to also note on transcripts if they kick a kid out for sexual assault (or violating the honor code etc) looks like it will be passed (maybe even already has). It is called the “Jesse Matthews Bill”
The mandatory reporting aspect I am firmly on record as supporting. I have no problem if someone is found criminally guilty of sexual assault has in his college record “sexual assault.” That is pretty much a no-brainer - what needs to be court tested is if a college can legally expel a student AND add a notation of sexual assault into a record of someone who has not been found guilty of a criminal offense - sexual assault. They may be able to add a notation that is more nebulous like honor code violation or some such language that does not imply something that it isn’t.