East Georgia College (EGC) has paid $50,000 to an adjunct instructor fired after criticizing the college’s sexual harassment policy. Thomas Thibeault was charged with sexual harassment, then reinstated due to lack of evidence. When his contract wasn’t renewed, he sued with the help of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).
“East Georgia College fired Professor Thibeault and had the police take him away, then changed its story, dropped that case for lack of evidence, reprimanded him for unspecified ‘offensive’ speech, and got rid of him,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. “And all of this got started when Thibeault stood up for due process rights for the accused in the school’s sexual harassment policy.”
Colleges may become more careful about protecting the rights of the accused, as Thibeault had suggested.
Sewanee (University of the South) will pay $26,500 to a former student who charged he was denied a fair hearing on charges he raped a classmate. At a hearing, a three-member committee decided the male student should have known the female was unable to consent to sex because she had been drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana.
The U.S. Education Department’s civil rights decision has told colleges and universities to use a low standard of proof — “preponderance of evidence” — to decide sexual assault and harassment cases.
