PITTSBURGH – A University of Pittsburgh Law School student’s retaliation claims against the university survived the defendant's request for summary judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Hannah Rullo sued the school alleging it infringed on her “rights to be free of gender bias, retaliation, and hostile environment under Title IX, 20 U.S.C. section 1681(a),” according to the March 26 opinion. Ultimately, she accused the school of not properly conducting a Title IX complaint in the wake of an assault and battery complaint that a classmate filed against her.
Because Rullo detailed multiple incidents in which she was allegedly discriminated against because of her gender – including the associate dean allegedly minimizing her injuries and being told she shouldn’t post feminist ideas on social media – the motion for summary judgment for this claim was denied. The same held true for the hostile environment claim.
“As alleged in the complaint, because of her gender, the university failed to act for over three weeks to ensure Rullo could attend classes without intimidation or harassment,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Maureen Kelly wrote.
“Such conduct, if proven, may lead a reasonable jury to conclude that the university’s inaction caused Rullo to suffer frequent severe threatening or humiliating conduct that unreasonably interfered with her ability to remain at the law school.”
Kelly also determined that considering Rullo’s claims that she was ordered to take a leave of absence and was removed from the program shortly after she lodged her complaints, she also properly alleged that the university retaliated against her, causing the court to deny summary judgment for this claim as well.
Rullo was taken into custody on the assault claims, but insisted that her classmate, Leonel Mendieta, was the one to blame, and that she was the one who was physically injured during the dispute. Mendieta informed the law school’s associate dean of students and filed the Title IX complaint.
Rullo said during meetings, she was discriminated against because she’s a female, including by the associate dean, Kevin Deasy, who told her she “should stop acting like a victim,” according to the lawsuit. He also told her to steer clear from the university, so she doesn’t “cause a spectacle with her face,” the lawsuit claims. Deasy maintains he never made these statements.
Mendieta also allegedly spread Rullo’s mugshot around to classmates. She said she reached out to Deasy to take a leave of absence and was told shortly after that she was booted from the school and had to repay her student loans. While she enrolled in a different law school in Florida, she later took legal action.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania civil action number 17-1380