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How does this make sense?
By Jonathan Alfano — Written on May 03, 2022
A Christian college in Memphis, Tennessee is threatening to expel a student for breaking its rules on premarital sex after she reported a sexual assault to them.
Mara Louk, 22, told administrators at Visible Music College, a school with just over 100 students and only two buildings, that a male classmate had choked and raped her in November.
In response, the school allegedly issued its own rebuttal to Louk's claims.
Now, the college has threatened to expel her for allegedly having premarital sex with her ex-boyfriend, a fellow student, unless she agreed to finish the semester remotely and sign a confession.
Visible Music College's reaction to Louk allegations has drawnLouk was appalled and angered by the school’s actions.
“I just felt like, why did I even speak up?” Louk told NBC News. “That’s truly how I felt for a long time because everything seemed to keep getting worse.”
Louk said that the alleged assault took place on Nov. 2, when the unnamed male classmate came over to her apartment to play board games, the first time the two had been alone together.
She told an administrator about the assault the next day, hoping they would help to keep him away from her.
“I didn’t expect them to actually expel him, but I did trust them enough to get a plan in motion to keep him away from me and other students,” Louk said.
Records show that Louk then filed a sexual assault report to Memphis police on Nov. 4. The police department contacted her the following week to inform her that they did not have enough evidence to make an arrest.
School officials met with Louk Nov. 15 and told her that they couldn’t force the accused student to withdraw without an arrest and that he would continue to attend classes.
Administrators brought up her past with her ex-boyfriend and said that she had broken school rules on premarital sex.
Louk’s complaint says that the accused student told the college that Louk had sex with her ex-boyfriend over the summer and the ex-boyfriend confirmed it.
“It felt like a movie,” Louk said. “It didn’t seem real; it didn’t feel real. I kept thinking this is just a crazy, horrible nightmare, and hopefully one day I’ll wake up from it.”
Mara Louk is now filing a federal complaint against Visible Music College.
In her complaint, she asks the U.S. Department of Education to conduct two investigations into the college.
One would look into whether or not the school violated Title IX by discriminating against her on the basis of sex, and the other would look into potential violations of the Clery Act, a law that requires colleges to inform students who report sexual assault of their rights and assistance options.
“Visible has retaliated against Mara in numerous ways,” the complaint says. “Instead of investigating the rape and providing support to Mara, Visible punished Mara for coming forward.”
Administrators at Visible have not yet commented on the complaint.
Ken Steorts, the college’s president said that “Visible will cooperate with any investigation of the allegations made in the complaint.” He added that school administrators have not seen a copy of the complaint.
The Department of Education also declined to comment on the complaint due to the process ongoing.
The Department is set to roll out new Title IX regulations in May that would overturn controversial policies implemented during the Trump administration, most notably a provision that advised colleges to dismiss complaints of assaults that happened off-campus.
Louk refused to sign the confession, instead opting to withdraw from the school after finishing the fall semester online and returning home to Iowa.
She was nine credit hours away from completing her bachelor’s degree, hoping to pursue a career in singing and songwriting after graduating.
“Along with what the school did to me being completely illegal,” Louk said. “It was completely immoral — especially with a school that claims to demonstrate Christian morals and values. It’s the complete opposite of what Jesus would do.”
Jonathan Alfano is a writer who focuses on news and entertainment topics. Follow him on Twitter to keep up with his content.