Jack Herrera

Stanford University

Students at Stanford University are demanding more action from the school in the wake of its handling of a 2015 sexual assault case.

A judge sentenced former Stanford student Brock Turner last week to six months in county jail, prompting public outcry across the country for a ruling many viewed as far too lenient.

The Stanford Association of Students for Sexual Assault Prevention (Stanford ASAP), a student activist group, launched a petition Sunday demanding, among other measures, that the university issue a formal apology to the woman whom Turner assaulted at a frat party. By Thursday morning, the petition received close to than 67,000 signatures.

Stanford ASAP’s co-president Stephanie Pham and Matthew Baiza, both sophomores, told USA TODAY College that they fear Turner’s light sentence could deter other rape survivors from speaking out and believe the university could take additional action to support the victim.

In an official statement Monday, Stanford said it "did everything within its power to assure that justice was served in this case, including an immediate police investigation and referral to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office for a successful prosecution."



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Lisa Lapin, the school’s chief media spokesperson, told USA TODAY College that the school’s statement was issued in response to media requests. She said Stanford has no plans to respond to the petition, because its statements "were either not accurate or already addressed by university.”

Besides calling for the university to publicly apologize to the survivor, Stanford ASAP’s petition asked the school to offer counseling and support services to the woman and to increase sexual assault counseling and prevention resources for the Stanford student body as a whole. The petition requested the university administer a “national, uniform climate survey” to study the prevalence of sexual assault on campus.

Lapin said Stanford issued a climate survey in the spring of 2015. She also said the university reached out confidentially to the victim to offer her support and tell her the steps the school is taking.

In its statement, Stanford said it has been a national leader in taking steps to prevent sexual assault on campus and supporting students who experienced sexual assault.

Pham told USA TODAY College she still stands by Stanford ASAP’s petition.

“The university has responded to some aspects of our petition in some ways, but clearly not in a way that has satisfied students," she said.



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Pham said she was disappointed Stanford “did not express any apology, or really show any form of sympathy to the survivor and family.” She also believes Stanford missed the opportunity to publicly offer help to the victim, whose name has not been released.

Pham and other student leaders also take issue with Stanford's 2015 survey. It found "about 2% of Stanford students surveyed, and just under 5% of undergraduate women surveyed, reported experiencing an incident of sexual assault as defined by Stanford policy during their time at Stanford.”

However, the Stanford Daily reported that the survey was criticized for its narrow definition of sexual violence and the limited statistics made available to students.

In a recent student senate election, more than 90% of Stanford students voted in favor of a referendum for Stanford to issue another climate survey using the methodology of an independent survey conducted in 2015 by Association of American University (AAU).

The AAU surveyed students across 27 different universities, and found that 11.7% of all students — and 23.1% of female students — reported “experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact by physical force, threats of physical force, or incapacitation since they enrolled at their university.”



John Herrera is a student at Stanford University and a USA TODAY College correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.