Current and former students of Brigham Young University say they're being investigated by the school's Honor Code Office, and in some cases punished, for reporting their sexual assaults to the university.

In an investigation by the Salt Lake Tribune, one student survivor said her future enrollment at BYU is on hold pending the results of an Honor Code Office investigation into her rape case, which also led to a criminal case in Provo, Utah. She spoke at a rape awareness conference on her campus last week and challenged the way BYU handles sexual assault investigations. "I said, 'I'd like to propose that victims of sexual violence have some kind of immunity clause from the Honor Code, because it creates a hostile environment for victims who think they're going to get in trouble for reporting.' Everyone clapped," she told the Tribune.

But according to the Tribune, Sarah Westerberg, BYU's Title IX coordinator, publicly disagreed with the student survivor's statement at the rape awareness conference, saying "her office would 'not apologize' for referring abuse victims for discipline." Westerberg didn't reply to the Tribune's request for comment.

At Brigham Young University, a private university in Utah owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Honor Code Office is responsible for investigating students who may have broken one of the school's many rules on dress code, curfew, drug or alcohol use, or consensual sex. While BYU officials denied student claims that sexual assault survivors are referred to the Honor Code Office for investigation, saying that Honor Code investigations are "independent and separate" from Title IX investigations, several student survivors disagree.

One survivor, a former student named Brooke, told the Tribune she was expelled and is barred from reapplying for two years, even though the school assured her that reporting her rape wouldn't lead to an investigation by the Honor Code Office. After being raped while high on acid, a friend of her attacker (also a BYU student) urged her to report the crime to BYU, so that he might be removed from campus.

You can't just chop up the rape into little pieces and take out the parts you want to punish people for.

"When I called, I asked, 'Will I get kicked out of BYU for reporting this?" Brooke told the Tribune. "I'm being honest with you, but I was doing drugs. Will I get kicked out?' They said no." That summer, a dean initiated a video conference call with Brooke and the Honor Code Office. She said she spoke with them for two hours, telling them everything, and they said they'd pray for her case. The next day, she was told she was expelled and couldn't reapply for two years.

"I thought, I'm reporting someone who raped someone," Brooke told the Tribune. "Why would they punish me?"

In a statement given to the Tribune, BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said the school's sexual misconduct policy makes it clear that violations of University or Honor Code policy don't put a sexual assault at fault, and any violations (which may be tied to the assault, as in Brooke's case) are to be investigated separately from the "sexual misconduct allegation."

Student survivors "scoff" at the claim of separate investigations. "'Separate.' That's the word they constantly use to justify sending victims to the Honor Code," one survivor told the Tribune. "You can't just chop up the rape into little pieces and take out the parts you want to punish people for. You still get investigated. That's what's so frustrating. I was raped, and I waited four days to report because I was so terrified about my standing at BYU."

Westerberg, the Title IX coordinator who said her office wouldn't apologize for working with the Honor Code Office in a room full of sexual assault survivors, allegedly told one student (an assault survivor) that the reason the Honor Code Office is so strict, and gets involved in the first place, is because "people falsely report rapes because the Honor Code Office is so strict on premarital sex, and people report rapes so they won't get investigated."

Keep in mind that school officials deny this is happening at all, despite the myriad students who came forward to the Salt Lake Tribune, many of them using their real, full names, to say that it very much is.

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Hannah Smothers Hannah writes about health, sex, and relationships for Cosmopolitan, and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram

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