Two Scenes From The War On Campus Against Men

Think stories about the war against males, particularly but not exclusively on campus are exaggerated? Here are a couple of examples about how it works in real life.

Stephen Zingarelli is a former student at Kenyon college, an elite Liberal arts school in Ohio. And he's suing them.

His story is a good example of what young men in college face today, courtesy of Professor Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit :

Stephen Zingarelli, a former Kenyon student who was acquitted last June of rape and gross sexual imposition, filed a lawsuit on Thursday, Dec. 5 in Knox County’s Court of Common Pleas against Kenyon College, the student who accused him of rape and a student Sexual Misconduct Advisor (SMA). The suit was first reported by the Mount Vernon News yesterday.

In the suit, which contains 14 individual counts, Zingarelli accuses Kenyon of breach of contract and negligence in the training and supervision of SMAs. The suit also accuses Kenyon of violating Title IX of the Education Acts Amendment of 1972 by discriminating against him based on his sex.

Zingarelli also alleges that his student accuser subjected him to malicious prosecution, infliction of emotional duress and defamation.

In the suit, Zingarelli additionally claims his accuser destroyed evidence relevant to the case, and alleges that those actions were taken “with the aid and encouragement of [the sexual misconduct advisor], and at her direction.”

All three defendants are accused of civil conspiracy to damage Zingarelli in the suit, which was independently obtained and confirmed by the Collegian.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages from the College as well as injunctive relief. The suit also seeks damages and attorneys fees from the two student defendants.

Although the suit repeatedly seeks damages “yet to be determined,” it cites $175,000 in paid Kenyon tuition, counseling fees in excess of $500, attorney’s fees in excess of $15,000 and “lost opportunities and income caused by delay in graduating and entering the professional world.”

Note that even though he was acquitted of all charges, the woman who filed a false accusation against him and the student advisers who aided and abetted her aren't named.

So how does something like this happen? Our next exhibit, courtesy of James Taranto reveals how. Aside from gender bias, the Obama Administration has literally blackmailed universities into setting up Kangeroo courts designed to convict young men accused of sexual misconduct not using the standard of "clear and convincing evidence" to establish guilt but the far more lax preponderance of the evidence".


Joshua Strange will never forget the girl he met in May 2011.

Both were underclassmen at Alabama's Auburn University when a common acquaintance introduced them. "We instantly became attached at the hip and did everything together," she recalled six months later. "I rather quickly moved into his place. . . . Everything was great until pretty much June 29."

That night, an intimate encounter in Mr. Strange's bed went wrong. She called police, who detained him for questioning. She said she had awakened to find him forcing himself on her; he said the sexual activity was consensual and initiated by her. There was no dispute as to the physical acts involved.

The accuser did not press charges that night. In fact, before sunrise she returned to his apartment, and the couple agreed to continue dating. When I asked him why in a recent phone interview, he told me: "I cared about her."

But the relationship soon disintegrated. Phone records show their communications ended in mid-August. In early September he was arrested again after she told police that two days earlier he had confronted her in a public place and struck her. He flatly denied it, saying he was 15 miles away at the time. This time she did press charges, for misdemeanor simple assault as well as for felony forcible sodomy in the June 29 incident.

Mr. Strange was cleared on both counts. On Feb. 3, 2012, a grand jury handed up a "no bill" indictment on the sodomy charge, meaning the evidence was insufficient to establish probable cause for prosecution. On May 24, when the simple-assault case went to trial, the accuser didn't show up. "I don't have a witness to go forward with, your honor," said city attorney Michael Short. Case dismissed.

So Mr. Strange got his day in court and was treated fairly. But he had already been punished for the unproven crimes. Auburn expelled him after a campus tribunal found him "responsible" for committing the catchall offense of "sexual assault and/or sexual harassment." A letter from Melvin Owens, head of the campus police, explained that expulsion is a life sentence. If Mr. Strange ever sets foot on Auburn property, he will be "arrested for Criminal Trespass Third," Mr. Owens warned.

Joshua Strange, now 23, is a civilian casualty in the Obama administration's war on men. In an April 2011 directive, Russlyn Ali, then assistant education secretary for civil rights, threatened to withhold federal money from any educational institution that failed to take a hard enough line against sexual misconduct to ensure "that all students feel safe in their school." The result was to leave accused students more vulnerable to false charges and unfair procedures. The prospect of losing federal funds has left university administrators "crippled by panic," Robert Shibley of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education told me. "The incentives are pointing toward findings of guilt, not accurate findings."

The full story is here.

So what happens to young men accused in this fashion, even if the charges are unproven and he's acquitted?

Well, for starters they normally have difficulty in completing their education, because few universities want to admit someone 'convicted' by a campus tribunal of sexual assault or sexual harassment, even if the young man was acquitted in a court of law. They don't want to risk a lawsuit for negligence just in case something happens. That especially applies to any graduate studies.

If he does manage to find a university or college to admit him, the stigma of what happened is always present. Any friendship or relationship he might have with a young woman he meets on campus is colored by the reminder of what happened, so his social life is stigmatized.

And when he graduates and starts looking for a job, this follows him around and has to be explained each time..."I see you were expelled..". There are a lot of firms that will find it more expedient simply not to hire him.Why take a chance?

This has backfired, by the way, on a lot of perfectly innocent young women whom would never consider filing false charges for sexual assault. Two places many women used to meet their prospective spouses were at college or at the workplace. Given the climate today and the implicit threat men face of being demonized and thrown out of college or losing their jobs over false accusations like the two young men above experienced, a lot of savvy young men simply avoid getting involved with young women at work or who go to the same university. Which makes it a lot harder for these women to find suitable dates and partners, something a lot of young women complain about these days, with their remarks usually prefaced by a plaintive 'there's nobody out there.'