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Gustavus Students Protest School's Response To Alleged Sex Assaults

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Hundreds of students are protesting the way a Minnesota college has handled alleged sexual assaults on campus.

Petitions were sent to the president of the Gustavus Adolphus College demanding change in their tolerance of sexual assault cases.

The petitions popped up amid comments on Facebook and Twitter calling out two Gustavus students, accusing them of alleged recent sexual assaults. The comments expressed anger that the two individuals were still enrolled at the college.

One of the students mentioned, 22-year-old Justin DeWitz, faces felony charges of sexual assault from an incident that allegedly occurred on the Gustavus campus in December. Court documents say the first-year student raped a woman in her dorm room after they met at a party earlier in the night.

The other student has not been criminally charged.

School officials would not comment on whether or not DeWitz had been suspended.

"When you hurt another student that way, you've violated the community and you don't belong here anymore," student group Womyn's Awareness Center co-president Leah Soule said.

Students were informed of the alleged Dec. 13 incident nearly two months later. More than 500 students signed petitions protesting the college's response to the incident.

"Gustavus Adolphus College does not tolerate sexual misconduct of any kind," college president Rebecca Bergman said.

She sent a letter to students Tuesday announcing a new task force to review the demands for harsher punishment for alleged sexual predators.

When asked about DeWitz's active status on the hockey team, Bergman said the season was over.

"We're hopeful," Womyn's Awareness Center co-president Jessica Green said. "But we're kind of at a point where we'll believe change when we see it."

DeWitz could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

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