First Published:
10:26 AM PDT, May 11, 2022
A 22-year-old college student has filed a federal complaint against her former school, saying she was kicked off campus after reporting a sexual assault.
Mara Louk, an aspiring singer and songwriter, had one semester left until graduation at Visible Music College, a private Christian school in Memphis, Tennessee.
“I went to the school hoping that they would protect me, along with the other students and instead they punished me,” Louk said.
The alleged incident happened when a male student was visiting Louk at her off-campus apartment. They were playing board games, and it was the first time the two had ever been alone together. Suddenly, Louk says the student choked and raped her.
She reported the incident to the college.
“Very much from the beginning, the tables had turned on me and they weren’t supportive. It seemed as if they were very much in support of the perpetrator,” Louk said.
Louk and her parents, John and Joy, recorded a phone call with school administrators that they thought would be about the alleged assault. Instead, school officials scolded Louk for supposedly having had premarital sex with another student, her ex-boyfriend.
“We’re not talking about the issue she had with [alleged rapist]. What I’m here to address is the breach of contract that happened prior to the allegation,” the administrator said on the call. “You’ve breached the contract by violating Visible’s values and code of conduct.”
“This young woman was raped, and you’re trying to be the freaking bedroom police! What is wrong with you people? Shame on you!” said Louk’s father, who was on the call.
“It was hard to believe that it was happening. It was just unfathomable,” John Louk said.
Mara says she was asked to sign a contract and “admit to violating the school’s rules or be expelled.”
“Everything that has happened has just been so crazy and honestly just so unbelievable that this is truly happening and especially at an institution where they claim to be Christians,” Mara said.
“They literally said, because it happened off campus they would do nothing. But then said because she allegedly had premarital sex in that same off-campus apartment, they were going to punish her, remove her from the campus and also silence her,” Mara’s attorney Cari Simon said.
When Mara refused to sign the contract, she says she was forced to withdraw from school, one semester shy of earning her degree.
“The entire experience was so dehumanizing,” Mara said.
The student Mara accused of rape was not charged. The school tells Inside Edition they have not received the official complaint, but says they take situations like this extremely seriously and seek to support all students with care.
