PULLMAN, Wash. — The Washington State Supreme Court ruled Washington State University (WSU) had no duty to protect a student who was raped in an off-campus home in 2017.
In its majority opinion, the court ruled the university has a responsibility to protect students from danger while they are on campus, but not when they are off campus. The court wrote the responsibility to protect students "exists within the campus confine or university sponsored and controlled events."
The ruling was made in relation to the rape of a student in an off-campus apartment in 2017. The court determined the university had no form of "protective custody" over the student and, therefore, can't be held responsible for her attack.
On Aug. 20, 2017, Thomas Culhane raped a fellow student at an off-campus party, according to documents. He was later expelled from WSU and convicted of second-degree rape. Later, it was revealed two complaints of sexual misconduct were previously filed against Culhane while he was attending WSU Vancouver.
According to court documents, WSU's Office of Student Conduct held a hearing and found Culhane violated student conduct. As a result, he was suspended for nine days and assigned to write a paper on his understanding of consent on Aug. 1, 2017.
Nineteen days later, Culhane raped a student at his off-campus apartment, according to documents.
The victim filed a lawsuit against WSU on Jan. 28, 2020, stating the school had knowledge about Culhane's previous misconduct and did nothing to intervene, according to documents. She also claimed WSU had a responsibility to protect her because a "special relationship" exists between students and universities.
WSU motioned for summary judgment, arguing her claims "failed as a matter of law" because the incident happened off campus.
In 2021, a federal judge ruled in favor of WSU and granted summary judgment. The victim appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, who certified two questions for consideration by the Washington Supreme Court:
- Does Washington law recognize a special relationship between a university and its students, giving rise to a duty to use reasonable care to protect students from foreseeable injury at the hands of other students?
- If the answer to question 1 is yes, what is the measure and scope of that duty?
The supreme court found that, while a special relationship does exist between universities and students, the idea that the university has a duty to protect its students "is based on student's enrollment and presence on campus or participation in university controlled activities."
Essentially, because the incident occurred off campus, WSU had no responsibility to protect her from Culhane.
"While sexual assaults are horrific, a university simply has no power to dictate students’ movements off campus and away from the oversight of campus security and administration," Associate Chief Justice Charles Johnson wrote. "A university’s duty is limited to where a student is on campus for school related purposes or participating in a school activity."
Four of the state's nine justices disagreed with the majority ruling. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis said students attend universities with a reasonable expectation of safety, and WSU failed to protect the student from "foreseeable harm."
"Since the university had a relationship with both students and the danger was reasonably foreseeable based on what it knew about Culhane’s dangerous propensities, the university had a duty to control Culhane’s conduct and protect [the student] from harm even though the assault took place off campus," Montoya-Lewis wrote.
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