The Strange Case Of Christy Brzonkala

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The fall of 1994, Christy Brzonkala a Virginia native entered her first year of college at enrolled at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech). September of that year, Brzonkala met Antonio Morrison and James Crawford, both students at Virginia Tech. These two boys, members of the varsity football team, allegedly assaulted and repeatedly raped Christy, within 30 minutes of meeting her. After the attack, Morrison allegedly told Brzonkala, “You better not have any … diseases.” (UNITED STATES V MORRISON). Brzonkala felt that this attack caused her to become severely emotionally disturbed and depressed. She went to her university psychiatrist for some help coping with her internal damage, and she was prescribed with antidepressant medication. She shortly stopped going classes and her regular activities (Unknown. "Sexual Harassment and Discriminatory Harassment."). A few short months following the rape, Brzonkala filed a complaint against the respondents under Virginia Tech’s Sexual Assault Policy. During the conducted hearing at Virginia Tech, Morrison confessed to having sexual contact with Christy, even though she had told him “no.” twice. With much consideration, Virginia Tech’s …show more content…

The university therefore conducted a second hearing under its “Abusive Conduct Policy”, which before was dissemination of the “Sexual Assault Policy”. The result of the second hearing, the Judicial Committee again found Morrison guilty and sentenced him to an alike 2-semester suspension. Morrison appealed his second conviction through the university’s administrative community. In 1995, Virginia Tech’s senior vice president set aside Morrison’s punishment. Virginia Tech believed that the ruling and punishment for Morrison was to “excessive” for the little information they had (CORNELL