Expelled for Speaking Out About Rape?

When a UNC student tried to bring attention to neglected reports of rape on campus, she was charged with violating the school’s honor code.

Last February, Landen Gambill decided to take action against her ex-boyfriend, who she says raped and stalked her throughout their long-term relationship. Now the 19-year-old is being threatened with possible expulsion from her college for creating an “intimidating” environment for her alleged abuser—and she’s gearing up to fight back.

Gambill was a freshman at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when, she took her case to the school’s Honor Court—a judicial body comprised of five undergraduates—trying to avoid the emotional toll of a criminal trial. At the time, she says, she hoped to simply get a no-contact order to keep her ex-boyfriend away from her. Instead, she says she endured a hearing that spanned 28 hours, in which she claims she was grilled about why didn’t leave her boyfriend sooner and was scolded for “showing emotion on her face.” Gambill says she was asked loaded questions like, “Why didn’t you break up with him?” and “Why didn’t you fight back harder?”

Gambill was a freshman at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when, she took her case to the school’s Honor Court—a judicial body comprised of five undergraduates—trying to avoid the emotional toll of a criminal trial. At the time, she says, she hoped to simply get a no-contact order to keep her ex-boyfriend away from her. Instead, she says she endured a hearing that spanned 28 hours, in which she claims she was grilled about why didn’t leave her boyfriend sooner and was scolded for “showing emotion on her face.” Gambill says she was asked loaded questions like, “Why didn’t you break up with him?” and “Why didn’t you fight back harder?”

“I had really high expectations of UNC as a liberal university,” Gambill says. “[I thought] they were going to support me as a survivor and as someone who’s in a relationship with sexual abuse. I was totally let down.”

What’s worse, she says, a detailed account of the alleged abuse, which she had submitted as evidence, was given to her parents without her permission by a student representative—because, in Gambill’s words, he “ just thought they should know.”

A year after those hearings, Gambill’s case has seen even more twists and turns, and along the way it has galvanized a community of UNC sexual-assault survivors that contends the university isn’t taking its students’ allegations of sexual abuse seriously. “This isn’t just about us as individuals, this is about us collectively as survivors, as people who have been mistreated by the university and we’ve got to do something about it,” Gambill says of the nascent movement she has fostered using her social-media channels.

According to Gambill, the Honor Court also heard testimony from a UNC administrator and the alleged rapist’s roommate, who both said he had admitted to raping Gimball, as well as Gambill’s roommate, who testified that the ex would come by their room looking for Gambill at least seven times a day. The man was found not guilty of rape or sexual assault, but guilty of harassment. According to Gambill, he was given a letter of discipline on his transcript and was temporarily suspended as a precaution. (Gambill’s ex, whose name has not been made public, denied the charges in the hearing. A UNC spokesperson declined to comment on specifics of the case.)

A source within the Office of the Honor System, who asked not to be named, also declined to reveal specifics about this particular case, but says the Honor Court had gone through a three-hour training for sexual-assault cases that February, and confirmed that sharing confidential paperwork would be a violation of the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act.

“At no point did the court allow or did anyone try to introduce a question that was meant to embarrass, demean or blame anyone in that room in any way,” a member of the panel told The Daily Tar Heel last month.

But the university has numbers against it. Infuriated at her treatment, Gambill joined on to a complaint being filed to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights by three other alleged rape victims at UNC and former ssociate Dean of Students Melinda Manning, on behalf of themselves and 64 other sexual-assault survivors. Manning, who had resigned a month earlier, alleges she was forced to under-report sexual-assault cases. The filing accuses the University of violating the Campus Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights, the Clery Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and four equal-opportunity mandates.

The school immediately sought to dispel the allegations. Leslie Strohm, UNC’s vice chancellor and general counsel, told a January Board of Trustees meeting, “The allegations with respect to the underreporting of sexual assault are false, they are untrue, and they are just plain wrong.” As of last August, the Honor Court stopped dealing with sexual-violence cases, and last month the university retained lawyer Gina Smith to guide handling of sexual-assault cases.

Pun wrote:Gambill was a freshman at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when, she took her case to the school’s Honor Court—a judicial body comprised of five undergraduates—trying to avoid the emotional toll of a criminal trial. At the time, she says, she hoped to simply get a no-contact order to keep her ex-boyfriend away from her. Instead, she says she endured a hearing that spanned 28 hours, in which she claims she was grilled about why didn’t leave her boyfriend sooner and was scolded for “showing emotion on her face.” Gambill says she was asked loaded questions like, “Why didn’t you break up with him?” and “Why didn’t you fight back harder?”

“I had really high expectations of UNC as a liberal university,” Gambill says. “[I thought] they were going to support me as a survivor and as someone who’s in a relationship with sexual abuse. I was totally let down.”

I used to work at a state university (Alabama). I went through their version of judicial process too. And while I dont want to go into any details, one thing I learned is that these Universities are concerned primarily with their image and how it affects them...and care little for the individuals involved. I learned never to expect justice from a University, but rather a witchunt. I also learned that to get anywhere with them, one should always contact a lawyer and sue the heck out of the wrongdoer. Dont rely on the University.

(Nice new smilies Bryant!).