RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A federal appeals court has found that University of Mary Washington administrators could have done more to protect students from online harassment and threats.
The ruling from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by members of a student feminist group who alleged that the university failed to protect them from harassing posts on a now-defunct messaging app.
A federal court judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2017, finding that the complaint did not sufficiently allege the school's deliberate indifference to sexual harassment.
But the 4th Circuit disagreed and reinstated some of the suit's claims. The court found that although the school was not entirely unresponsive to the sexual harassment complaints, it did not engage in efforts that were "reasonably calculated" to end the harassment.
