San Diego State University Dropped the Ball on Allegations of a Professor Sexually Harassing Students
Jul 20, 2015
Sacramento, CA (Law Firm Newswire) July 20, 2015 – A San Diego State University (SDSU) professor who has been accused of sexual harassment by two female students continues teaching at the university.
According to the latest information coming out of SDSU, a group of upset students held a silent protest calling for the removal of Vincent Martin, the Spanish language professor in question and the subject of an internal investigation by the Office of Employee Relations Compliance at the university.
“The most disturbing part of this story is that students only found out about the accusations against a Spanish language professor courtesy of reports aired by NBC 7 news. The on-air report included comments from two students stating he had made advances toward them, sent 600 highly questionable texts and attempted to kiss one of them while they were at an out-of-town conference,” said sexual harassment attorney, Deborah Barron.
Internal investigations confirmed that Martin sexually harassed the two female students, and in doing so, violated Executive Order 1074, a California State University policy dealing with sexual harassment. The findings were not released. The group wants, at the very minimum, for Martin to be suspended from working with students until some decision is reached about disciplinary action. It appears that Martin’s attorney-of-record suggests he did not sexually harass anyone, as defined by university policy, because he did not make any sexual advances.
The complaints against Martin were filed in 2013 and were followed by a lengthy investigation that found in the affirmative for the students. In the meantime, Martin is still teaching Spanish courses on campus. The protest demanding he be removed from his post was due to the university’s lack of disciplinary action against Martin after the allegations were made.
“It seems apparent that this university and others do not take allegations of this nature seriously, until the media become involved. This has to stop,” said Barron. “No one deserves to be harassed at anytime by anyone, particularly those that may be seen as an authority figure. The allegations in this case were proven and in doing nothing, the university has exacerbated a thorny problem that is not going to go away unless it is dealt with head-on.”
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