Dive Summary:
- Frank LoMonte, executive director of the nonprofit legal assistance group Student Press Law Center, says Oklahoma State University officials' claims that they were prevented by federal privacy laws from letting police know about a series of possible sexual assaults are unfounded.
- The incidents in question involve three complaints of sexual battery against two male OSU students by former FarmHouse fraternity member Nathan Michael Cochran--incidents that OSU officials knew about since Nov. 12, and which police were unaware of until almost a month later on Dec. 7 when a reporter from the campus paper contacted them with questions about the case.
- LoMonte says that FERPA requirements contain several exceptions that would have allowed OSU officials to turn over information to police, like one that says the law doesn't prevent officials from notifying cops about possible crimes on campus, but OSU Vice President and General Counsel Gary Clark says that provision doesn't override the university's requirement to protect the victims' identities.
From the article:
Oklahoma State University officials' claim that federal student privacy laws prevented them from notifying police about a series of possible sexual assaults is unfounded, the director of a nonprofit legal assistance group said. Frank LoMonte, the executive director of the Student Press Law Center, said his organization often looks into cases where colleges and universities clamp down on transparency while citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA. ...