ATLANTA — It’s one of the world’s most revered institutions of higher education: Morehouse College.
“Morehouse Men,” including Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior have, over the decades, changed history.
Now students - and former students - are coming forward with serious accusations, saying Morehouse employees sexually assaulted them.
Multiple current and former Morehouse students have unleashed a Twitter storm of anger and frustration, accusing Morehouse administrators of failing to stop employees from sexually assaulting students.
One student says an administrator, DeMarcus Crews sexually assaulted him, and he says Morehouse ignored his complaints. He's apparently not alone.
Morehouse administrators, who would not agree to an interview to answer questions from 11Alive News, have issued statements in support of the accusers, and condemning sexual assault.
The school said in a new statement Thursday - after students posted allegations, on social media, on Wednesday - that it was expanding its sexual misconduct investigation to examine the new complaints against additional employees. They also praised the college’s federal Title IX policies meant to protect students from sexual assault and to make it easy for them to file complaints.
Atlanta attorney Cade Parian, representing a now-former student who sued the college late last year, disagrees.
“The Title IX department at Morehouse College was a broken place,” he told 11Alive News in an interview Thursday.
The young man he represents, identified in the lawsuit as "John Doe," claims a now-fired professor sexually assaulted him, and he accuses Morehouse of knowing about it - but doing nothing for more than two years - while, he says, the professor continued to assault other students.
"Sexual assault--that is an emergency, it should be dealt with immediately," Parian said.
And in a response filed on behalf the school on April 8, 2019 in federal court, denying the allegations in the lawsuit, the school argued that the student's injuries were caused "solely and proximately by Plaintiff's own negligence and not by an act or omission on the part of Morehouse." The school asked for the claims against the school to be dismissed.
"It's Morehouse tryng to blame the student for being in that situation," Parian said. "That's absurd. The plaintiff was a victim. Morehouse knows he was a victim. And Morehouse is trying to turn the tables on this young man.... I have a feeling that we are going to discover many many more instances of Morehouse trying to sweep sexual assault and sexual harassment under the rug."
11Alive contacted the Atlanta Police Department to see whether any formal criminal complaints had been filed. A spokesman for the department told 11Alive they have assisted the school with investigations in the past when requested, but they are not "actively involved" with any at the moment.
Morehouse administrators, fighting in court, and in the court of public opinion, now must prove they are doing all they can to stop sexual assault there.
"The education and development of the men of Morehouse is our top priority, and the College will take the necessary action to protect the safety of its students," the school said in a statement.
The College encourages anyone who believes that they are a victim of sexual misconduct at Morehouse to come forward and call the Ethics & Compliance Hotline at 888-299-9540.
The Atlanta Police Department, meanwhile, echoed Morehouse's recommendation for any victims of sexual assault to come forward.
"If a victim of a sexual assault comes forward, we will investigate the incident and if Morehouse College Police Department requests our assistance with an investigation, we will provide assistance to them," the department said.
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