When a University of Oregon rape survivor
sued the school earlier this year for bungling her case, campus officials dug into the student's confidential therapy records in order to counter her claim. It's a total invasion of privacy that also appears to be legal,
writes attorney and social justice advocate Katie Rose Guest Pryal.
The Oregon administration accessed the rape survivor’s therapy records from its counseling center and handed them over to its general counsel’s office to help them defend against her lawsuit. They were using her own post-rape therapy records against her.
It was a senior staff therapist in the counseling unit who blew the whistle on the administration’s actions. In her public letter, she sounds horrified that the work she thought was protected by medical privilege could be violated in such a fashion.
The university came firing back, arguing that because the rape survivor had asserted a legal claim of emotional distress, Oregon was entitled under, of all things, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to use her medical records to defend against her suit.
Pryal writes that she initially thought the university's legal justifications for its actions were ludicrous, but upon digging further, she concluded that they did have the legal authority to do what they did. "And that means everything has to change," she writes.
But legal considerations aside, this is truly frightening and someone—or multiple people—should be made to answer for it. It's worth noting that university officials also threatened the job of the therapist, who both sought outside counsel and eventually cried foul.
University of Oregon officials have now completely undermined any trust a student might have in accessing campus mental health services in the wake of something so horrific as gang rape. If that breach of trust isn't also a dereliction of duty, I'm not sure what is.