(RNS) — A gaggle of Liberty College college students and alumni plans to carry a prayer rally on the college’s campus in Lynchburg, Virginia, on Thursday (Nov. 4), calling for an unbiased, third-party investigation of Liberty’s dealing with of sexual assault and harassment circumstances.
Abuse advocate Rachael Denhollander will communicate on the rally, which is able to coincide with a dinner for Liberty’s board of trustees, which meets this week.
Denhollander, a former gymnast whose testimony helped result in the conviction of former USA Gymnastics coach and serial abuser Larry Nassar, has grow to be a number one voice in addressing sexual abuse amongst evangelicals.
This previous summer time, a gaggle of 12 girls, together with former Liberty college students and workers, sued the evangelical Christian faculty, alleging that its insurance policies made it “troublesome or unimaginable for college students to report sexual violence.” In late October, the college’s former spokesman additionally filed a go well with, claiming he was fired after criticizing faculty leaders, together with President Jerry Prevo, for the way they responded to sexual assaults on campus.
As well as, a latest ProPublica story stated that a number of college students who reported assaults had been warned that they might be punished for violating the Liberty Approach, the college’s honor code, which limits conferences between female and male college students.
Former gymnast Rachael Denhollander offers her sufferer affect assertion throughout the seventh day of Larry Nassar’s sentencing listening to Jan. 24, 2018, in Lansing, Michigan. (AP Picture/Carlos Osorio)
Denhollander plans to carry a information convention on the Craddock Terry Resort in Lynchburg earlier than the rally, with Dustin Wahl, founding father of the Liberty alumni group Save17; former Liberty professor Karen Swallow Prior; and members of Justice for Janes, a pupil group calling for campus reforms at Liberty.
Below former Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr., audio system who referred to as for prayer rallies that criticized the college had been banned from campus. In 2018, campus police escorted Christian creator Jonathan Martin off faculty property the night time earlier than a deliberate protest, a choice Falwell later defended. Writer and speaker Shane Claiborne was additionally barred from campus.
Wahl stated he hopes faculty officers will permit the prayer rally to go ahead.
“We really feel that somebody of Rachael’s caliber can be listened to,” stated Dahl.
A college spokesman stated outsiders are usually not allowed to protest on the faculty.
“Liberty College’s campus actions are reserved for residential college students, college and administration. Demonstrations which can be deliberate properly prematurely, for which house is requested and reserved are permitted on Liberty College’s campus, so long as they contain residential college students, not most of the people,” the spokesperson instructed Faith Information Service in a press release.
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Prior, who taught English at Liberty for twenty years earlier than leaving the school in 2020, stated the rally is an try to carry the college’s board accountable for long-delayed reforms. Whereas the Liberty board introduced plans for an investigation into the troubled tenure of Falwell Jr., who resigned in 2020, that report has not been made public.
When Falwell Jr. departed, Prior and others hoped that issues would change for the higher at Liberty. To this point, these hopes haven’t come to go underneath Prevo, who was named performing president after Falwell Jr.’s departure.
“I feel he has been a disappointment,” stated Prior, who’s a columnist for RNS. “I’m much less hopeful than I used to be a yr in the past.”
Based by the late televangelist and non secular proper preacher Jerry Falwell Sr., Liberty College is likely one of the largest Christian colleges in america, with whole belongings of greater than $3 billion.
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