A former Louisiana Tech student has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that her rights under Title IX were violated after she was raped by a student previously accused of multiple incidents of sexual assault at different Louisiana university campuses.
The plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe, filed the civil suit May 25 in the Middle District of Louisiana. The complaint accuses the Board of Supervisors of the University of Louisiana System, which oversees Louisiana Tech, and other defendants of negligence, alleging that the board knew that student Daniel Silva had been arrested for second-degree rape in Baton Rouge and took no steps to protect students.
The state Legislature passed Act 172 in 2015 to highlight the need for shared communications and coordination among the state’s universities to protect students from sexual assaults.
“Defendants, however, chose to disregard their most basic duties under Act 172, refused to share information concerning reports of student sexual assault, continued to employ disjointed approaches to sexual assault complaints and, in the case of defendants (UL Board of Supervisors and Louisiana State University), ignored student rights guaranteed by Title IX,” the complaint states.
Such inaction emboldened Siva to rape the plaintiff in September 2018 when they were both students at Louisiana Tech, according tot the lawsuit. LSU previously banned Silva from attending its facilities after his arrest for sexual assault but permitted him to transfer to another Louisiana university, UL Lafayette, the complaint says.
In response to a request for comment, University of Louisiana System President Jim Henderson said the system had made progress on protecting students from sexual assaults in recent years.
“The work of the last two years to prevent power-based violence on college campuses in Louisiana was informed by deeply troubling narratives,” Henderson said in an email to the Louisiana Record. “A pillar of these advancements ensures effective communication between institutions and local law enforcement. Act 439 of the 2021 legislative session built on the work of Act 172, advancing our policy environment and illustrating the importance of continuous evaluation of policy and practice to protect students.”
Silva’s sexual misconduct history was reported in a May 2021 USA Today article, which helped to form the basis of the Jane Doe lawsuit.
“Ms. Doe seeks recovery for the significant damages she has suffered as a result of defendant Board of Supervisors’ deliberate indifference to the substantial risk posed by Silva and her report of his rape, and all defendants’ negligence, which caused her to suffer sever physical, emotional and other injuries,” the lawsuit says.
