On Monday, the Florida State Board of Trustees asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit filed against the school by Erica Kinsman, who contends that the school did little to protect her after she accused former Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston of sexual assault in December 2012.
USA Today sums up Kinsman argument thusly:
Kinsman filed the lawsuit in January, alleging that she was subjected to a sexually hostile environment and that “FSU’s responses to the harassment were clearly unreasonable.” Her complaint states that she was discriminated against through the alleged assault, risks to her safety and retaliatory threats that barred her access to educational opportunities.
The lawsuit claims “deliberate indifference” in FSU’s response and suggests a cover-up by the athletics department.
[Erica Kinsman tells her story in new documentary. ]
But in a legal filing submitted Monday, Florida State said it was not responsible for any harassment suffered by Kinsman and that it offered her appropriate assistance after she reported the incident, even offering to pursue a disciplinary hearing against Winston, an opportunity the school says Kinsman turned down. Florida State also says top university officials were unaware of the incident until a few days before the matter was publicly revealed in October 2013 and not much earlier in the year, as Kinsman is alleging.
“Only rank speculation supports Kinsman’s theory that an earlier investigation would have reached a different result imposing a sanction on Winston, derailed his college football career, and rendered Kinsman’s assault allegations un-newsworthing,” the response states, per USA Today. “Thus, Kinsman cannot establish that FSU’s alleged deliberate indifference could have been the proximate cause of any harassment she suffered through social media and the Internet.”
“Regrettably the media’s reporting of (the woman’s) allegations led to an Internet and social media backlash — harassment that FSU did not cause and in an environment that FSU could not control,” FSU’s court filing says, per the Associated Press.
Winston never faced criminal charges — the Tallahassee police department’s investigation of the incident was widely criticized — and was cleared of any school disciplinary charges after a student conduct hearing last fall. He is expected to the the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft later this spring.
Kinsman ended up leaving school, citing harassment from fans of the school’s football team.
After spending the first 17 years of his Post career writing and editing, Matt and the printed paper had an amicable divorce in 2014. He's now blogging and editing for the Early Lead and the Post's other Web-based products.
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