UK blames newspaper for drop in sex-assault reports. Expert calls that claim ‘shameful.’

University of Kentucky officials claim in new court filings that stories in its student newspaper about alleged sexual harassment and assault by an associate professor have made students afraid to report such assaults, a claim one journalism group called a “shameful manipulation.”

According to the court filing, 59 people reported some kind of sexual assault to UK’s Violence Intervention and Prevention Center between July and October 2015. This fall, the number had fallen to 38 as of Oct 26.

“Since publication of the Kernel’s articles, new students to the VIP Center have asked pointed questions regarding who will find out about their reports and specifically fear their story might appear in the paper,” Ashley Rouster, the intervention program coordinator at the VIP Center, said in an affidavit filed in court. “Based on my experience in this field, I believe the Kernel’s publication of articles related to this case has caused students to be reluctant to report incidents of interpersonal violence for fear of media attention.”

That surprises Kentucky Kernel Editor Marjorie Kirk, who wrote the stories about how James Harwood, an associate entomology professor who resigned from UK in February in the midst of a sexual harassment investigation against him, faced no disciplinary action by UK and was paid through August.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article110836427.html