Who is Mara Louk? Ex-Memphis Christian college student BANNED from campus after reporting rape
A former student of a Memphis Christian college accused the college of banning her from campus for allegedly having premarital sex with her ex-boyfriend after she reported that a fellow classmate raped her. Mara Louk, 22, filed a federal complaint with the US Department of Education last week against Visible Music College, claiming that the school did nothing after she reported that a classmate had choked and raped her in November 2021.
The complaint stated that on November 2, 2021, a male classmate came over to Louk's apartment to play board games. He then sexually assaulted her. She narrated her ordeal to a school administrator the next day. "I didn't expect them to actually expel him, but I did trust them enough to get a plan in motion to keep him away from me and other students," Louk told NBC News.
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She filed a sexual assault report with Memphis police the following day, but a week later, she was told there was not enough evidence to make an arrest. On November 15, school administrators informed her that the boy would be allowed to continue to attend classes since police did not charge him. Louk claimed that the administrators also accused her of breaking school rules against premarital sex with another student, even though she maintained that she did not. The accused classmate allegedly told school officials that she had sex with her ex-boyfriend that semester, claiming that the ex confirmed the same.
The Campus Safety section of the school's website reads, "The “Crime on Campus” reporting program is operated pursuant to the requirements of the “College and University Security Information Act”, (T.C.A. 49-7-2201, et. seq.) enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, effective July 1, 1989. The Act requires each institution of higher education to report to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation data relating to crimes occurring on the campus and in student housing. "The Bureau is required to prescribe the reporting form and format for the collection of such data and to publish an annual report of the results of such data submissions from each institution. The Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System (TIBRS) offense classifications are based on FBI definitions, which are used as the national standard for statistical crime reporting," it adds.
Louk has accused the school of subsequently threatening to expel her if she did not sign a confession. She was banned from campus and had to remotely finish the school year. Officials told Louk they would not be conducting a Title IX investigation as the alleged sexual assault took place outside the campus. Louk also accused the school of trying to coax her into keeping quiet and not telling anyone about the assault.
"I just felt like, why did I even speak up?" Louk said. "That's truly how I felt for a long time because everything seemed to keep getting worse." The school predisent, Ken Steorts, claimed that he has not seen the complaint yet. He told NBC News that the college will cooperate with the investigation. "Visible will cooperate with any investigation of the allegations made in the complaint," Steorts said.
However, they issued a statement to Louk earlier saying they would not conduct an investigation into an assault that they had no jurisdiction over. Louk called out the school's hypocrisy for punishing her or alleged premarital sex that took place off campus. "They weren't going to help me basically because it was off campus," she said. "But with a separate situation that was also off campus, they were going to handle that and punish me for it." "Along with what the school did to me being completely illegal," Lok added. "It was completely immoral — especially with a school that claims to demonstrate Christian morals and values. It's the complete opposite of what Jesus would do."