One year later, has MU improved handling of sex crimes?
It has been one year since University of Missouri system President Tim Wolfe promised sweeping changes to the way sexual assaults and harassment are handled on all four University of Missouri campuses. The announcement on January 29, 2014 came within days of an ESPN report that criticized Mizzou’s handling of the Sasha Menu Courey case. Menu Courey was a Mizzou swimmer that was allegedly raped by Mizzou football players, struggled with her mental health and eventually committed suicide.
ABC 17’s Marissa Hollowed flew to Toronto, Canada to meet with Mike Menu and Lynn Courey, Sasha’s parents, to get their take on the proposed changes.
“Your previous life as it was is now really gone. You get used to a new life,” said Menu about losing his daughter.
“It’s hard to lose someone, but when you lose a child, it’s unbearable, there is a lot of suffering,” said Courey.
Menu and Courey tell ABC 17 they have dedicated their lives to telling their daughter’s story, advocating for understanding and a safer environment for sexual assault victims and those struggling with mental health.
It started in 2010, when Sasha was allegedly raped by Mizzou football players. She noted this in a journal of hers and also told Mizzou healthcare workers about the incident.
Sasha suffered from borderline personality disorder. Her family tells ABC 17 that swimming was the most important thing for Sasha to keep her happy and healthy. She spiraled downward after the alleged rape. Her parents noticed a difference in her behavior. She also lost her spot on the Mizzou swim team and was asked if she wanted to withdraw from the University during her struggles. Sasha committed suicide in a Boston hospital in 2011.
In 2012, Sasha’s parents found out about the alleged rape by looking through Sasha’s journal. They claim they reached out to Mizzou officials notifying them of the rape. “There was absolutely no follow up, there was no phone call, no, not anything,” said Menu.
By law, under Title IX, the University should have investigated the claim.
A report by ESPN came out in 2014, criticizing the University’s handling of the incident. “It wasn’t until the ESPN story was gonna come out that we suddenly received a letter from the Office of Student Affairs asking if we had any information to provide them regarding Sasha’s rape,” said Courey. “We didn’t really think it was a genuine request to open up an investigation,” said Menu. So, Menu and Courey did not respond.
After this, UM system president Tim Wolfe announced sweeping changes on January 29, 2014 to change the climate at Mizzou regarding sexual assault.
“My kid didn’t want to die! She didn’t want to die, she wanted to live! When she tried to kill herself at Mizzou ,she was apparently yelling out at police, ‘The system failed me, the system failed me!’ because she tried to seek help a few times and the proper help wasn’t there,” said Courey.
“Everything around Sasha failed her. That’s a lot of people, a lot of resources,” said Wolfe.
Colleges across the country are beginning to understand the implications of breaking the law as they apply Title IX. Title IX is the federal law which allows equal access to education for all genders and requires a university to investigate all claims of sexual assault.
“We weren’t exponentially worse than our colleagues in higher education, so it wasn’t that we were completely asleep at the switch. We in fact had resources available and were helping in preventing and adjudicating those situations,” said Wolfe. “You still have to go on this with, ‘That was our student how did we fail her or he?’ how prevent that on a go forward basis.”
Here is a look at what the University promised it would do in the past year and what’s it’s actually accomplished:
– The school hired a St. Louis law firm to determine how it mishandled the Menu Courey case.
– Wolfe created a task force to inventory and assess sexual assault and mental health policies. This has been completed. The UM system paid a national risk management firm hundreds of thousands of dollars to look into it.
– Wolfe then issued ‘Executive Order 41’ in October that strengthened the University’s response to sexual misconduct and discrimination.
– The school is in the process of hiring a full time Title IX coordinator. It has been conducting interviews and has someone in the job in the interim.
– All University staff members will become mandated reporters of sexual harassment and sexual assault. They will take an online course. It was supposed to be completed by January 30, 2015, but the University has extended the deadline to the end of March.
– Students will go through sexual assault training. This hasn’t happened yet, but MU says it will.
“If you take a look at where we are now and take a look at where we were in January, it’s night and day difference,” said Wolfe.
“It doesn’t really matter how many initiatives you take, if you don’t find out if they are actually working in a reliable way, then you are not really sure what you’re doing,” said Menu.
To measure the effectiveness, Wolfe mentioned federally mandated clery reporting, reviewing and collecting Title IX data and a safety survey that the campus will take put on by the American Assosciation of Universities. Results of the survey will be out in the fall of 2015. Wolfe says this information will eventually become publicly available.
“I will be backing up with my words with actions and resources and dollars like I’ve shown,” said Wolfe.
Courey says, “I can not change what happened, I can not go back in the past, even if I wish I could go back in the past. I have to try to do my best to improve things from the system so that there is support for those that are suffering in silence.”
Menu and Courey say their end goal is to hold Mizzou officials accountable for their promise make the campus a safer place.
“We are hoping to hear good feedback from them and we are willing as well to help, to offer our help to them. If there is anything we can do in the process, we’d be more than willing.”
Right now, Sasha’s parents say they have no plans of filing a lawsuit.
“If she would be here sitting next to us, I really believe this is what she would like us to do. To work with them, to improve the procedure, to improve the way they deal with victims, to make it better and to make it like a safer, kinder world. I really believe this,” said Courey.
Sasha’s family has taken initiative to make changes. They created the ‘Sashbear Foundation,’ named for Sasha’s bear hugs. They speak to families and students about suicide prevention. They work with victims of sexual assault and people with mental health issues and have also have started an annual walk that raises awareness of borderline personality disorder, that Sasha suffered from. They say it’s all in an effort to keep the momentum going and remove stigma.
President Wolfe claims he is doing the same, “My leadership is with me. I have not had to fight them for one second about whether or not this should be a priority or not, and I have not had to have any discussions with them about ‘This is your priority, not mine we cant afford that, that has never occurred.'”
Both sides say they are not done yet.
“We’ve made significant progress, but again it’s a never ending journey,” said Wolfe.
“The University seems to be pretty clear as well that it is a never ending goal. We definitely agree on that. I’ts something that you always keep adjusting and never forget. You can never say that you are done.”
Menu and Courey tell ABC 17 they plan to call MU this April to check in on the progress of these changes. They both stressed to ABC 17, they understand they have to be patient, but don’t want MU officials to forget their story.
If you’re interested in giving your input or asking questions about the initiatives to combat sexual assault at Mizzou, you can attend the Board of Curators meeting Thursday, February 5th at 3:00pm on Mizzou’s campus.
Here is a link to the Sashbear Foundation’s website:
Title IX website at Mizzou:
