LYNCHBURG, Va. (WFXR) — Liberty University is accused of multiple violations of the Clery Act, which requires institutions that participate in federal student aid programs to report public safety issues on campus. On the heels of the announcement, several women who say they were victims of sexual assault are speaking out about the record-breaking fine.
WFXR spoke with two women, Sarah Mays and Teagan Molinets, who say they were raped on Liberty’s campus while they were students. The incidents were 18 years apart, but the story doesn’t change.
“The victims always get the blame at Liberty for some reason like I’ve never once seen justice go the right way,” said Molinets.
“All I wanted was for them to say you know what I’m so sorry this happened on our watch, and instead I was called a liar, and instead I was told this didn’t happen,” said Mays.
When it comes to campus safety, Liberty University has been under scrutiny for years. The Department of Education (DOE) said on several occasions that it didn’t report– or *under-reported– crimes on campus.
Especially those involving sexual assault.
“It breaks my heart seeing that now, over twenty years later, the things in this, you know, report and stuff from the department of education are things that happened to me then and they’re things that are still happening now,” said Mays.
The DOE says federal investigators found victims were often afraid to report sexual crimes out of fear that they would end up in trouble, for violating the rules of the Christian university.
“We cannot tell anybody at Liberty because I’ve heard horror stories and I’m gonna get in trouble, it’s not gonna happen,” explained Molinets about a conversation she had with a friend after she was assaulted.
And some of those who did come forward say they were threatened into silence.
“Ultimately, I was intimidated into saying that I lied,” said Mays.
While others say they paid the price.
“I was found at fault and I had to pay a massive fine to liberty and had to do like community service and all this stuff because this guy like he didn’t do anything wrong and I was lying, which was against the Liberty way,” recalled Molinets.
These women say the fine is something, but doesn’t change everything.
“This seems to be like one of the first times that liberty has ever had some kind of irrefutable evidence that they couldn’t like somehow get out of,” said Mays.
“$14 million is a lot, but it doesn’t fix what they did,” added Molinets.
In a statement, Liberty says it’s already spent more than $10 million to comply with the Clery Act, and that it’s fully committed to keeping students and staff safe.
However, the school also says it believes it’s gotten, quote, “selective and unfair treatment” from the federal government.
