Marissa

So cases involving athletes are tracked as students, not separately by sports participation records.

At this time when I was going through this situation with the Title IX office, there was actually two other investigations for rape on the football team.

They talked about how even though there were three reports of sexual misconduct against players on the football team within six months, they would not classify that as an obvious risk.

Instead, the team might receive additional training, resources, or education, but there would be no direct accountability or targeted intervention.

In the deposition, he kind of explained it as a balancing test.

They consider the number of reports, the type of misconduct, and whether it involves the same or different people.

Their default response, I guess, is largely preventative and educational rather than disciplinary.

So this shows me that the office is structured to process complaints procedurally and not necessarily to prevent repeated misconduct or protect vulnerable groups.

Throughout the deposition, my lawyer was really trying to make the point that the University of Utah didn't know if I was affiliated with them at all.

She knew I wasn't a student, but she never asked if I had taken courses there, if I did activities there.

And these are things that they would be responsible to if I did.

And I agreed.

had taken courses there, I had taken seminary classes there, and I was often on their campus for different sporting events.

My lawyer was trying to say that they didn't even know if I was affiliated with the university because they didn't ask.

And during these intake appointments, these are things that you would usually try to inquire about and figure out ways that you can help.

They didn't even ask the proper questions in the first place to understand the context behind the assault.

So they didn't even know exactly where the assault had even happened.

My lawyers just made a huge point that they didn't even ask the questions to understand if their campus was in danger or if there was something that they could do to keep their students safe.

Throughout this civil process, these were things that I found out.

Seeing all of these things come to light during the investigation, it kind of added insult to injury and it further traumatized me because I saw just how much that could have been done to help him get to a healthy place.