Lawsuit claims TCU mishandled campus rape complaint
FORT WORTH, Texas - A recent scandal has brought more attention to the issue of campus rape and how claims are handled at colleges and universities across the country.
One ongoing lawsuit against Texas Christian University accuses the Fort Worth university of mishandling a complaint and goes even further with claims of deceptive recruitment.
TCU denies many of the allegations, but the case does highlight the complexity of handling campus rape cases.
TCU Sexual Assault Lawsuit
What we know:
A federal lawsuit filed by a former TCU student from Virginia accuses the university of violating Virginia’s Consumer Protection Act by making false statements in its recruiting process.
The plaintiff, known in the suit as Jane Doe, said she chose TCU over other schools in large part because it claimed to keep women safe. She now believes that to be a blatant misrepresentation.
"TCU deceived Jane by coming to Virginia and marketing their institution as safe for girls. The truth was… TCU protected rapists rather than survivors," the plaintiff’s attorneys said.
Timeline:
Jane Doe said she was raped on campus in October 2024 while unconscious and unable to consent. She reported the crime to TCU's Sex Assault Hotline and the Office of Institutional Equity, which addresses complaints of sexual assault and Title IX violations.
The following month, she retained counsel and TCU began interviewing witnesses.
In February 2025, TCU held an all-day hearing, finding the male student guilty of raping Jane Doe. His punishment was a three to four-page paper on the importance of mutual consent and to discuss it in private with a TCU faculty member. He was also required to rewatch short orientation videos on consent.
Jane Doe’s appeal of the hearing outcome was later denied. And in April 2026, TCU filed a motion to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction in Virginia, arguing some of Jane Doe’s allegations were unsubstantiated.
The other side:
TCU’s attorneys emphasize that the vice chancellor for Student Affairs reviewed the punishment in Jane Doe’s case and found that it was not proportionate. She "increase[d] the sanctions imposed by the hearing panel and suspended the respondent … for the length of [Jane Doe’s] tenure as a student at TCU or for two academic semesters, whichever is longer."
The lawsuit also referred to federal reporting requirements for colleges and universities. It notes between 2020 and 2024, TCU recorded 564 reports of sexual assaults but claims less than 5% were formally investigated.
TCU called that comparison inherently flawed because the data "may or may not be duplicated in the overall reporting numbers."
The university added that there are stringent reporting requirements under a state law called SB 212, but in some cases, complainants wish to remain anonymous, or they are reluctant to proceed with disciplinary hearings.
Each such report provides a list of reasons why any reports of sexual harassment did not initiate a disciplinary process.
What's next:
Jane Doe’s attorneys said she no longer attends TCU due to the trauma she endured.
She is demanding a jury trial and $250 million in damages.
The Source: FOX 4's Dionne Anglin gathered information for this story from interviews with attorneys for Jane Doe and TCU.