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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) The University of Kansas has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a former student who alleges she was raped by a football player on the Lawrence campus.
In a filing in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, the university called the alleged 2014 rape ''tragic'' but ''not one for which (the federal law) Title IX makes the university liable.''
Daisy Tackett alleged that she was raped in Jayhawker Towers in fall 2014 while she was a freshman and a member of the school's rowing team. She reported the rape to university officials about a year later after another rowing team member said she had been sexually assaulted by the same man. In a lawsuit filed in March, Tackett accused the university of failing to properly investigate her report and not protecting her against retaliation by the man and her rowing coaches.
''I did not feel safe after my report,'' Tackett said in a statement in March. ''KU did not protect me, and I was not able to be a student or an athlete there.''
The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sex assault, but Tackett has said she wanted her name used. She has left the school and returned to her home state of Texas.
The lawsuit cited Title IX, which requires universities to investigate and take steps to prevent sexual harassment and sexual violence.
The university is liable only when it is aware of continuing sexual harassment and remains ''deliberately indifferent'' to it, Kansas attorney Mike Leitch wrote in the school's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, The Lawrence Journal-World reported (http://bit.ly/1O55fe4 ).
A four-month investigation by the university's Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access concluded the accused, who has not been named, committed the sexual assault and he was expelled. That action, the filing said, as well as giving Tackett an escort on campus, ''demonstrate KU's commitment to addressing cases of sexual violence - both in her case and others - while respecting the due process rights of students accused of such assaults.''
The student who alleged she was sexually assaulted by the same man also sued the school, as have Tackett's parents, who claim the university misled the public by claiming campus housing is safe.
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Information from: Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, http://www.ljworld.com
