Go/Doe, Students Protest Against John Doe's Return

Last week, students publicly demonstrated their displeasure with the recent John Doe v. Middlebury College ruling from the State of Vermont.

On Thursday night, the words “Doe must go, I stand w/ Jane” were chalked on the pavement leading up to Mead Chapel and the go/doe link was established.

The link — which leads to a simple and clear WordPress blog — allows easy public access to the court documents of Doe’s suit against the College. It also encourages students to send “a note to the Trustees, and take a stand on social media.”  The call to students from the page is best summarized by the tag-line: “it’s time for us to determine what our standards are when it comes to sexual violence.”

In the John Doe case, a student was accused of sexual assault while on an SIT study abroad program in the fall of 2014. He was found not responsible by the program’s own internal investigation. Once he had returned to the College, the alleged victim reached out to the College, who then ran a second investigation that found John Doe responsible and he was to be expelled.

However, on September 16 when sued by John Doe, the College was ordered through federal injunction by a United States District judge to re-enroll the student, while the legal proceedings continued.

Whilst the campaign perhaps risks appearing as a witch-hunt against the alleged perpetrator —  especially through the chalking of a public space —  its organizer, who wishes to remain anonymous, states that it was intended more as a way of instigating important conversations.

“The John Doe case does a really interesting thing because it allows us to consider campus sexual assault without necessarily having to worry about the impact [on] the survivor because the survivor isn’t on this campus.”

Crucially, the John Doe v. Middlebury case did not actually explore Doe’s potential culpability. The student behind go/doe pointed out how possibly the most obvious victim, Jane Doe, was “symbolically annihilated” from the conversation.

“Go/doe is a moment that was spawned through some conversations through very few individuals just feeling that its really disrespectful that this campus is not feeling outraged by this and that there isn’t more attention,” said the anonymous student.

Criticism of the College’s handling of the John Doe case has also come from other sources.

The Campus critiqued the College’s responses to the initial investigations in in last week’s editorial.

The Student Government Association has also previously pressed for changes to the College’s sexual assault policies. Last year, an SGA resolution on sexual respect recommended that investigators record their work so that they can be held accountable through the process. No such changes have been made thus far.

Vice-President for Communications and Marketing Bill Burger says that there are currently no plans to update the Policy against Sexual Misconduct, Domestic Violence, Dating Violence and Stalking in light of the John Doe case.

Nonetheless, he emphasized that the College has not finished with the controversy: “Middlebury College will comply with order of the federal court in all respects even as we appeal the decision to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.”