South African native Bongani Radebe came to America with the dream to be the first person in his family to get an education in the U.S.
“For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to study in the US,” Radebe told the College Fix. He received a scholarship from the State Department that allowed South African residents to study in U.S. community colleges for one year.
But a few months into his U.S. education at Edmonds Community College outside of Seattle, Wash., Radebe learned the hard way that American college students are not only sensitive, but that college men have few rights and receive no benefit of the doubt when accused of sexual assault.
Radebe met his eventual accuser — a 17-year-old high school student in a program that allowed her to earn college credits — at a bus stop near campus. Two weeks later he invited her to his dorm room after the two had exchanged texts. She came over and the two talked for awhile. Radebe claims he asked her to come to him and she did. He said he held her hand and complimented her eyes. He says she thanked him. Radebe says he asked if he could kiss her.
The woman would then accuse him of sexual assault. She told police, according to Radebe’s account of the police report, that she consented to the kiss, but she told college administrators that he forcibly kissed her, pushed her to the bed and tried to undress her.
About a minute after they began kissing, Radebe said, she pulled away and told him to stop. He said he was confused and asked what he had done wrong. The woman told a campus investigator that Radebe wouldn’t let her leave. Radebe said the woman told him she needed to be closer to someone before they moved to the next step. Radebe said he escorted her to the common room. Again, the woman claimed to a campus investigator (according to Radebe) that he prevented her from leaving.
Radebe said he and the woman agreed to discuss meeting up again once the two were out of the dorm.
In texts provided to the Fix, the woman told Radebe she didn’t want to see him anymore. The woman claimed she had become anxious about the encounter to the point of physical illness. Radebe asked if “it was that bad?” and told her: “I hope you do know that I wouldn’t ever force myself on you.”
The woman responded by claiming she was “mentally ill — simple fact about me” and that she had “PTSD. Anxiety. Depression. Panic Disorder. ADHD. Anxiety is dehabilitating [sic] for me.” She told Radebe she had panic attacks three panic attacks prior to their encounter and that “it’s not about you, it’s about my own personal comfort.” She also said she was “tired of putting other people’s needs before my own.”
Six days after the encounter she accused Radebe of assaulting her.
Radebe told the Fix that he believes “the unrelated PTSD she confessed to be suffering from may have had a bearing on her hyper-reaction.”
Radebe said the police report indicated the woman wasn’t sure she had anything to report, but that her mother had convinced her to do so because she was 17 (the age of consent in Washington is 16). We’ve seen this before, where a mother (or friend or feminist professor) essentially forces a young woman to make a complaint against a man.
When the woman reported their encounter to school officials, Radebe was removed from his dorm and placed in a hotel. Five days later he was informed that he was in violation of the anti-gender discrimination statute known as Title IX and could appeal. Radebe’s appeal was denied and he was suspended for three years. This meant his visa would be revoked, essentially expelling him from the school and causing him to be deported back to South Africa, where he had to tell his family what he had done to lead to such an extreme situation.
Though the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights — which orders colleges to adjudicate sexual assault — said colleges and universities can take up to 60 days to complete an investigation, Radebe was suspended in less than two weeks.
The case is eerily similar to that of Justin Browning and Alphonso Baity, II, who are both, like Radebe, black. All three were accused by white women, and removed from their schools in record time. Browning and Baity were able to come up with the money to sue their school, alleging racism. Radebe has not sued his former school.
The day after Radebe’s appeal failed, police cleared him of any charges. This information fell on deaf ears at ECC.
“The college refused to take into consideration the police’s findings after ‘finalizing’ their decision even when it was repeatedly made available to them before I left,” he told the Fix.
He has sought legal advice upon his return to South Africa, and is trying to get ECC to reconsider his sanction. The Title IX coordinator responded only that his request was received and he would receive a response “shortly.” That was two months ago. He said he has tried calling and emailing, but heard nothing back. He considers that “unjustifiably long” considering the original “investigation” and sanctioning took less than two weeks.
Radebe is like many foreign students who have become easy targets for colleges and universities looking to prove they take sexual assault seriously. Without regard to the serious nature of the student’s situations, schools have callously discarded the student’s futures to prove their allegiance to Title IX.
Now we have students being deported for kissing.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
