However, survivors of Bob Jones University's mishandling of sexual assault persist. And Kathryn Post centered them and their words in her article
Sheri Cotuna, whose account of being sexually assaulted by a BJU student in the 1990s was referenced in the report, said her interview with GRACE employees was the first time she heard the abuse condemned as “not of God,” and ultimately empowered her to report her abuser to police nearly two decades after the incident. Erin Burchwell, another abuse survivor and GRACE participant, said the report was the “beginning of connecting victims through social media, giving people a little bit of a voice.”
But some abuse survivors involved in the initial investigation fear too little has changed since the report. They say the university continues to implement a biblical counseling method critiqued in the report and to employ faculty members the report says promoted harmful practices. Referencing an ongoing lawsuit filed against the university by a former Bob Jones student in August 2020, they continue to call on the university to implement trauma-informed policies that prioritize student safety and healing over correction. ...
For Shielagh Clark, a former Bob Jones student who participated in the 2014 GRACE report, the situation feels eerily familiar.
Shielagh Clark. (Photo by Rachael Thompson)
Clark, a student of Bob Jones University in 2005, was asked to withdraw from the university after she became pregnant from what she has said was a rape by her longtime pastor, who was later charged with two counts of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature in relation to his crimes against Clark, which dated back to 2000.
Nearly a decade later, during the GRACE investigation, Jim Berg, who served as dean of students between 1981 and 2010 and oversaw the campus’s response to abuse disclosures, defended the university’s decision to remove her from school for lying to obtain a pass to leave the school the day of the alleged rape. The GRACE report called Clark’s case a “tragic example of someone who needed compassion and healing but instead received discipline.”
According to Clark, the university exhibits a pattern of being more concerned about “sin or obedience” than about people.
“It seems from the outside that they did the exact same thing,” said Clark about the lawsuit involving Jane Roe. “They prioritized the rules over the human being.”...
Cotuna recalls being counseled in this method by Berg after reporting her 1993 assault.
“Basically all of it was him asking the details about every little bit of what happened, and trying to get me to understand why God caused this. Because what kind of thing was in my life that would attract this, that would make this happen?” said Cotuna. “Yes, the offender caused me harm, but the greater harm was from the counseling and the school’s response, because they destroyed any hope I had of anything from God, any kind of comfort.”
Sheri Cotuna. (Courtesy photo)