The New York Times dissects how Hobart and William Smith Colleges in central New York state took only 12 days to investigate a report that an 18-year-old student named Anna was raped by three football players. Despite a nurse’s assessment of
blunt force trauma indicating “intercourse with either multiple partners, multiple times or that the intercourse was very forceful,” the players all were cleared.
The Times says the episode depicts “a school ill prepared to evaluate an allegation so serious that, if proved in a court of law, would be a felony, with a likely prison sentence.” It illustrates a system of school disciplinary panels that are “a world unto themselves, operating in secret with scant accountability and limited protections for the accuser or the accused.” Many students come to regret decisions to report allegations to such panels, wishing they had never reported the assault in the first place.