State Rep Wants Georgia Tech President to Resign Over Decisive Handling of Sexual Assault Cases

For the past several years, Georgia Tech been aggressive in punishing students accused of assault and harassment. In August, a black woman complained that members of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity at Georgia Tech had shouted racial slurs at her through a window. The fraternity claimed there was no proof, but it was suspended and required to partake in sensitivity training. An investigation from the Atlantic Journal Constitution found that the school had expelled or suspended “nearly every student” it had investigated for sexual misconduct in the past five years. One state representative thinks this hardline denies the accused due process.

Rep. Earl Ehrhart condemned the school’s decision to suspend the fraternity given the small amount of evidence (“These young men have lost an entire half-year of their college experience”) and has since called upon Peterson to resign, citing what he labels as the school’s refusal to give accused perpetrators due process.

“We grant that to criminals, why not to students?” he asked in an interview with the AJC.

“It’s such a great school, but the president and the administration are just clueless when it comes to due process on that campus and protecting all those kids,” he said, according to the Marietta Daily Journal. “If I have to talk to another brokenhearted mother about their fine son where any allegation is a conviction and they toss these kids out of school after three and a half years, sometimes just before graduation, it’s just tragic.”