Jhavonne Waters felt the young man’s hand as she was praying. It was during an evening class at Oakwood University, spring semester 2013, and Waters was sitting on the back row. The class had bowed their heads for the prayer.

The young man, a fellow classmate who was in her major, was sitting next to her, she said.

“He took his hand, while we were praying,” she said, “and he slid it between my legs.”

She reported the young man to her teacher and to her dean. He was eventually suspended for the rest of the semester for his behavior, she said. But he was back the next semester, and because they shared a major, she had to take classes with him if she hoped to graduate on time.

On Thursday, allegations of sexual harassment and assault on Oakwood University’s campus were shared on Twitter and other social media under a hashtag, #OUMeToo. Twitter users identifying themselves as current and former students said they’d been sexually harassed or assaulted on campus, and felt the university hadn’t done enough to punish the perpetrators.

The stories surfaced Thursday after a now-deleted Twitter account called @oumetoo1 began sharing allegations of sexual misconduct at Oakwood.

Waters, who graduated from Oakwood in 2014, said the lack of response from the school is what has prompted student and alumni to come forward on social media.

“This shouldn’t happen,” she said. “No woman should feel uncomfortable on Oakwood’s campus.”

Oakwood University is a private, historically black Seventh Day Adventist school located in northwest Huntsville, Ala. It has an undergraduate enrollment of about 1,700 and a motto of “God first!”

The university issued a response to the stories Thursday evening on Twitter, encouraging students to report sexual harassment or assault to the school’s Title IX office, which is in charge of handling those complaints.

Oakwood President Leslie Pollard said Friday in another statement that he has “directed university leadership to evaluate our current campus safety and security measures and our support services,” including sexual assault prevention and dating violence education.

Pollard said in his statement that the university would seek justice on behalf of students or employees accusing someone of sexual misconduct, and on behalf of those who are accused of sexual misconduct.

“The rights of both the accuser and the accused will be duly honored by the University in its policy and procedures,” he said.

It’s unclear how many complaints of sexual harassment or assault have been made at the school. Representatives from Oakwood’s Title IX office have not returned AL.com’s requests for comment.

Three rapes were reported on campus in 2017, according to the university’s most recently available security report, and none the previous two years. There were two reports of “fondling” in 2017, four instances of stalking on campus and two of domestic violence.

Reaction from Oakwood alumni has been mixed online. Some called for caution in publicly airing allegations, while others demanded action from the university.

David Daniels, who attended Oakwood in 2005 and who has a relative currently at the school, said he’d heard enough corroborating evidence to worry that “there are repeat offenders running around campus and the administration has not done much.”

He said he expects to see students and alumni put pressure on the university to do more.

“It’s not new,” he said. “I need people to understand this has been going on for years, and has been kept hush hush. We’re just in an age now with social media where people have resources to spread this story.”

Paula Sanders Blackwell, an Oakwood alumna, said the students need prayers.

“I’m heartbroken,” she said, “over the pain and hurt I’ve seen in the past few days.”

Aaron Muriu, a 2018 Oakwood graduate, said he’d been hurt to see people he considers friends who were named publicly in the #OUMeToo conversation online.

“I love my school and met a lot of lifelong friends there,” he said. “Oakwood is bigger than any movement, but we’ve been turning a blind eye to sexual matters, as a church, for decades. It’s important these victims are heard and the predators are punished.”

He thinks part of the problem stems from a broader Adventist community attitude toward sex education.

“The leadership of OU tries to reflect the values and traditions of the Adventist Church,” said Muriu. “Many of the students there come from Adventist academies around the world. When abstinence is the only instruction, kids try to figure it out themselves.

“Students aren’t given a safe space to explore sex, (and) this movement is a direct result of cutting off the conversation.”

Jhavonne Waters said she felt like some school administrators didn’t take her own situation seriously, or looked for ways to blame her for what the man had done.

She said she’s been in contact with other alums who have similar stories, and they plan to work toward change.

“I’m not fearful,” she said. “I’m going to tell this story, whatever backlash comes.”