PATERSON, N.J. ― A college student killed herself because the university she attended didn’t properly investigate her rape report, her mother said in a lawsuit.
William Paterson University officials knew about, but didn’t address, sexual violence against students, creating a climate in which such misconduct was tolerated, Marquesa Jackson-Locklear alleged.
School officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Jackson-Locklear’s 21-year-old daughter, Cherelle Jovanna Locklear, said she was raped at a fraternity house in September 2015, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday.
About a month later, Locklear tried to kill herself. After the suicide attempt, she reported the sexual assault to the school’s victim services coordinator, the lawsuit said.
The coordinator didn’t immediately notify campus police, and when the police did hear about it, they didn’t conduct an “appropriate and thorough investigation,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit says Locklear hanged herself in November 2015. Originally from Jackson, she had been a student at the school in Wayne since 2012.
