Occidental College's Online Sexual Assault Form Spammed With Bogus Reports
EAGLE ROCK (CBSLA.com) — In the wake of an investigation into how Occidental College handles sexual misconduct claims, officials say an anonymous online sex assault form was spammed with bogus reports.
On Monday night, the reporting system, which has been in place for two years at the college with 2,100 students, blew up with the questionable accusations.
"We received about 400 in 36 hours," Jim Tranquada, the school's director of communications, said. "When reports are coming in saying the anonymous reporter was assaulted by feminists or somebody named 'Fatty McFatFat,' that would lead anyone with common sense to suspect that these were not good faith reports."
A men's activist group called "Men's Rights" took credit for the incident on websites like Reddit.
Students and teachers told CBS2's Melanie Woodrow they were disappointed by the situation.
"This is typically a group of men who are obsessed with false accusations of rape and yet here they are producing hundreds of accusations that would make it much more difficult for the school to determine what are legitimate claims," Danielle Dirks of the Oxy Sexual Assault Coalition said.
"It just blew my mind that there were so many people so angry and so...they don't understand sexual assault," senior Hailey Jures said.
Officials say they will carefully examine each report because it is possible one or more were filed in good faith.
Administrators are talking with attorneys, as well as the IT department, to figure out a way they can keep the form open while discouraging spam.
