Student Allegedly Banned From Campus After Telling School She Was Raped

A 22-year-old student of a Christian college in Memphis, Tennessee, alleged that the school threatened to expel her after she reported to an administrator that she was raped by a male classmate.

Mara Louk told an administrator at Visible Music College that a classmate, whose name has not been disclosed, had choked and raped her when he came over to her apartment to play board games on Nov. 2, 2021, NBC News reported.

Louk told the unnamed administrator that she shared classes with the student, and she wanted to ensure he wouldn't harass her on campus.

However, Louk claimed that instead of helping her file a police report and arranging a safety plan, school administrators allegedly accused her of breaking school rules against premarital sex with a different student, an ex-boyfriend, according to a federal complaint filed with the Department of Education Wednesday.

The college senior denied having sex with her ex-boyfriend. But Louk alleged that Visible threatened to expel her unless she signed a confession that she broke the school's ban on premarital sex and finished the school year remotely.

School administrators allegedly also told Louk that they would not remove the accused student from her classes because he was not arrested. In addition, Visible allegedly refused to conduct a Title IX investigation because the alleged assault happened off-campus, Louk said.

School officials allegedly attempted to bar Louk from telling anyone else at the school that she had been raped, she said.

“I just felt like, why did I even speak up?” Louk told the outlet. “That’s truly how I felt for a long time because everything seemed to keep getting worse.”

Louk’s federal complaint asks the Department of Education to conduct two investigations of the Visible Music College.

One investigation would check whether or not the school violated the Clery Act, a federal campus safety law that requires colleges to advise students who report a sexual offense of their rights and assistance options.

The other would evaluate if the school had discriminated against Louk under the gender equality law Title IX.

“Visible has retaliated against Mara in numerous ways,” the complaint alleged. “Instead of investigating the rape and providing support to Mara, Visible punished Mara for coming forward.”

The college declined to comment on the allegations, according to the outlet.

Visible Music College president Ken Steorts said in a statement that the school cannot comment on student matters, and had not seen a copy of the complaint.

“Visible will cooperate with any investigation of the allegations made in the complaint,” he continued.

The Department of Education said that it cannot comment on pending complaints.