Earlier this week, Spelman student Synclaire Butler told a graphic tale of rape that occurred on the campus of Morehouse College in 2014. She was a freshmen student from Alaska at the time and involved in a relationship with a student at nearby Morehouse. According to an interview first published by Fusion she walked across campus in March 2014 to her boyfriend’s dorm room. Earlier, the pair had agreed to experiment with having anal sex and Butler agreed only if lubricant was used. During their sexual encounter, the boyfriend did not use lubricant and despite her protests, she claimed was anally raped.
Butler went through the traumatic process of a rape kit at a local hospital and the retelling of her story repeatedly to various police and school officials. In the end, she wanted to avoid the fear and embarrassment of a very public criminal investigation by the Atlanta Police Department. Instead, she chose the option of letting Morehouse College and its public safety department to handle and adjudicate the investigation. According to Butler, it was a mistake. By not pressing charges with the police she became embroiled in a system that seemed to her to favor the reputation of the accused student, and blamed her for the choices she made on the night she was attacked.
Unfortunately, Butler’s story echoes a similar tone from an unidentified Spelman student who uses the Twitter handle @rapedatspeman. Earlier this year, she gave her own story of being gang-raped by a group of Morehouse College students at an off-campus party. The accusation sent shockwaves across the campuses of the Atlanta University Center that include Morehouse College, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University. The campuses lay adjacent to each other and form a unique bond academically and socially. Rallies supporting the unnamed victim of the alleged attack were held with the support of many members from across the student body. These incidents seem to show a distressing pattern of alleged sexual assaults that go back to 2013 when a group of Morehouse students were accused of a gang rape and a football player was accused of raping his ex-girlfriend.
In the case of Butler, Morehouse College completed its investigation on May 5, 2014. The school found there was not enough evidence to show that Butler was sexually assaulted. In addition, Morehouse states: “Morehouse College Office of Student Conduct should delay any disciplinary action against [the accused] pending additional evidence coming to light or due to a successful appeal of this investigative conclusion.” The student who was accused in the case has maintained his innocence and was forced to take a semester off from school at the firm request of the administration. He complains that he feels ostracized by some faculty and students at the school.
But the incident has not been put to rest at Spelman or Morehouse; both schools are undergoing a federal investigation. Butler filed a complaint with the US Department of Education under the program enforcing Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The investigation has led to the replacement of Morehouse’s Title IX coordinator, Doris Coleman, with interim coordinator Crystal Lucas. The school also is undergoing a complete overhaul of the way it handles allegations of sexual assault on campus. An email was sent to the members of the school body including alumni and faculty that stated explained the changes. The school will make changes “creating a more supportive environment for victims of sexual assault,” and providing “timely resolutions to allegations of sexual assault.”
Rolling out spoke with a representative in the office of strategic communications for Morehouse College. The school will not make any comments regarding the ongoing investigation into the case of Synclaire Butler or the ongoing allegations of the alleged gang rape by Morehouse students.
