NIC student sues college for its handling of alleged rape

North Idaho College is being sued in federal court by a former student who alleges she was gang-raped while intoxicated at an off-campus party in November 2013.

The civil lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court, states NIC violated the requirements of Title IX by failing to respond to the student’s reports of the sexual assault or take corrective action.

Under Title IX — the federal civil rights law that prohibits federally funded education programs from discriminating on the basis of sex — sexual violence is considered sex discrimination.

According to the complaint filed by Boise attorney, Rebecca Rainey, the student, who was 17 at the time of the incident, “suffered serious psychological injuries resulting in increased abuse of drugs and alcohol that subjected her to increased monitoring and disciplinary actions by the school.”

Coeur d’Alene Det. Jared Reneau said the student reported the alleged sexual assault to his agency in February 2014. It was investigated, Reneau said, but the case was closed with no charges filed after the county prosecutor’s office declined to prosecute.

NIC spokesman Tom Greene told The Press: “We cannot comment on pending litigation.”

The suit seeks compensatory damages to be proven at trial.