By Ben Rappaport
Days after a St. Andrews University student reported in September 2021 that she was raped by a member of the men’s soccer team, the school called for an all-campus assembly.
In front of hundreds of students at the university’s campus in Scotland County, then-president Ellen Bernhardt set out to explain “the difference between fact, fiction and rumor.”
Elizabeth Hernandez, then the school’s Title IX coordinator, saw a draft of Bernhardt’s speech ahead of time and warned her that sharing details of a reported rape could violate student privacy laws. But Bernhardt moved forward anyway, according to Hernandez.
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“What took place was a sexual assault, not a rape,” Bernhardt told the students and staff who had gathered. “I repeat, what took place here was a sexual assault and not a rape.”
Then, a lieutenant with the Laurinburg Police Department recounted the story of the boy who cried wolf, emphasizing the dangers of making false accusations.
The student, identified as Jane Doe in court documents, sued St. Andrews in September 2022, saying the university’s actions—including the assembly—further traumatized her by questioning her credibility, minimizing her experience and making her feel isolated.
Superior Court Judge Dawn Layton heard oral arguments in the case on Monday at the Scotland County courthouse, ahead of a jury trial that is set for June.
The reported rape rocked the school, which enrolls fewer than 1,000 students. Doe, a freshman at the time, told investigators in 2021 that she was assaulted by Paulo Manzoni, a student from Italy. The lawsuit describes the attack as “violent, painful, and terrifying.”
Police charged Manzoni with second-degree forcible sexual offense the day after Doe reported the attack. St. Andrews allowed him to remain on campus but put in place a mutual no-contact order between Manzoni and Doe, according to the lawsuit.
Manzoni returned to Italy before the school concluded its investigation. He never went to trial.
Doe’s attorney, Emilia Beskind, argued on Monday that St. Andrews should have suspended Manzoni while it investigated the allegations against him, which is common practice under Title IX, the federal law protecting against gender discrimination and sexual harassment.
Beskind said the university, which has struggled financially for years, had reason to protect Manzoni. As the school ramped up the number of sports teams in an effort to boost enrollment, she said, St. Andrews made a push to bring in international student-athletes because they paid more in tuition and fees than domestic students.
International students account for about 5% of student enrollment at St. Andrews, according to the university’s website.
“Instead of focusing on how to protect students from the person charged with violent sexual
felonies,” Beskind said, “Defendant Bernhardt concluded that supposed rumors on the small campus had become the real threat to student safety, and to St. Andrews’ reputation.”
To avoid financial ruin, St. Andrews became a branch of Webber International University in Florida in 2011. The change likely saved St. Andrews, but some alumni say the culture at the liberal arts school has changed under the umbrella of a larger university. St. Andrews has cut liberal arts programs, shifted academic focus to online classes and recruited more student-athletes.
Webber is also named in the lawsuit, along with Bernhardt and Hernandez. Mary Cross and Ash Walker, both of whom led the school’s investigation into the assault, are also named. Bernhardt abruptly left St. Andrews in January 2023.
Stephen Pytlik, an attorney for St. Andrews, said during the hearing on Monday that the school followed legal protocols when Doe reported the assault and took reasonable action by enforcing a no-contact order. The university and its administrators should not be blamed for the trauma caused by Manzoni, he argued.
“Bernhardt and Hernandez’s statements were made in good faith in order to address concerns on campus and deal with a student disciplinary matter,” Pytlik said. “There is nothing in the record from which a reasonable juror could infer that Bernhardt or Hernandez acted with bad faith.”
In the weeks after she was assaulted, Doe, who was a member of the women’s soccer team, lost more than 15 pounds and had frequent panic attacks, according to the lawsuit. After seeking help from a therapist, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
Beskind said the university mishandled the situation beyond the assembly.
St. Andrews expelled Doe’s friend who posted a photo on social media of Manzoni with the words “say his name” the day after the reported assault. The expulsion, which was later retracted, was for spreading “the false information that Paolo Manzoni is a rapist,” according to the lawsuit.
Two days after Doe reported the assault, Manzoni said male students physically assaulted him, punching him in the face and destroying his cell phone. After investigating Manzoni’s claim “aggressively and swiftly,” Cross knocked on Doe’s dorm room door and called her in for questioning at about 2 a.m., less than 72 hours after the assault, according to the lawsuit.
Tensions grew between the men’s and women’s soccer teams, which often practiced and traveled together, the suit says.
Doe asked the university to provide a separate bus for the women. When the university denied the request and said Doe could ride in her coach’s car to games, the women’s team penned an open letter to Bernhardt in protest. The team forfeited the last game of the season by refusing to play, the lawsuit says.
Doe then quit the team, according to court records. The assistant women’s soccer coach, Ruby Bingham—whom Doe first told about the assault—also quit, citing the university’s mishandling of the situation, Beskind said in court on Monday.
At the all-school assembly, Bernhardt repeatedly emphasized that what happened to Doe was a sexual assault and not a rape.
Beskind said the assault was a rape because it involved forcible and non-consensual penetrative sex. She noted that St. Andrews later classified the incident as a rape in its annual filings, according to the U.S. Department of Education annual Campus Safety and Crime Survey.
Layton did not make a formal ruling on the arguments. A jury trial is scheduled to begin June 2.
Another lawsuit
Two other former students are also suing St. Andrews, alleging that it knowingly admitted a convicted sex offender who assaulted them on campus in 2022 and 2023.
Laurinburg police responded to the university on Jan. 12, 2023, after a student’s mother called 911, Lt. Jeremy White previously told the Border Belt Independent. That’s when three students said they had been sexually assaulted in student housing.
Mison Mickle, a wrestler who had enrolled that fall, was charged with sexual assault was sentenced to serve up to nearly 12 years in prison.
It wasn’t the first time Mickle had been in trouble.Two years after joining the Army in 2018, he was convicted of three counts of attempted abusive sexual contact and three counts of assault consummated by a battery, records show. He was ordered to serve 12 months behind bars and was dishonorably discharged.
Mickle registered as a sex offender in his home state of South Carolina but did not register in North Carolina when he moved to Scotland County.
Bernhardt abruptly left St. Andrews in January 2023.
