#MeToo inspires wave of old misconduct reports to colleges

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Collin Binkley, Associated Press
Updated 10:54 pm CDT, Saturday, October 13, 2018

BOSTON (AP) — For 35 years, Ruth D'Eredita tried to dismiss her former professor's behavior — the way he touched her, groped her and kissed her. But last year, as dozens of women came forward to share similar encounters with powerful men, she started to see her memories differently.

"It made me look at that incident and say, no, it was wrong," said D'Eredita, a 1984 graduate of Mount Holyoke College, a women's school in Massachusetts. "I went there with a heart full of passion, eager for scholarship, just to throw myself into it, and this man looked at me as a potential sexual partner."

She's now among a wave of women inspired by the #MeToo movement to report past sexual misconduct to their colleges, breaking sometimes decades of silence in an attempt to acknowledge the wrongdoing, close old wounds and, in some cases, seek justice.

The reports from deep in the past have also raised big questions about how to investigate such cases and how to usher them through newer discipline systems built upon updated ideas about right and wrong.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/education/article/MeToo-inspires-wave-of-old-misconduct-reports-to-13304716.php

[iluvtennis]

1. So happy she felt strong enough to come forward. nt

[Rhiannon12866]

2. I also received similar reports from my boarding school - and they were from before my time!

This did surprise me since it was an all girls school and even when I was going there we didn't have too many male teachers...

[ROB-ROX]

3. I THINK EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE THEIR DAY IN COURT

Each person should be required to take lie detector tests which do provide answers and detects LIES. Only when the evil ones are caught will there be justice. Those who did wrong should be brought forward and publicly punished. Then they should be given a long time in prison so others will think about the consequences if they do something wrong........

[Staph]

4. Last Thursday's episode of Murphy Brown was titled #MurphyToo (spoiler alert!)

After a corporate sexual harassment presentation, Murphy remembers an incident from her college years, and realizes that she had been groomed and harassed by a former professor. She gets appropriate Murphy-like vengeance.

In some discussion I've seen online, some of the younger fans can't seem to believe that a 19 year old Murphy Brown would not have stood her ground when assaulted by her professor. Though I'm nearly a decade younger than Candace Bergen, I remember how it was in the 1970s (and 1960s). Young women had great difficulty standing up to authority, to power. I, too, have looked back at things that happened to me in my teens and twenties, and I see them in a completely different way. I wish I could go back to that smart but shy kid and tell her to stand up for herself, to speak her mind.