Via Facebook.

Three George Washington University students had a message for the school during its commencement ceremony on Saturday: “GW Protects Rapists.”

Aniqa Raihan, a graduating senior at the college, held up a banner with two other students in protest of a senior who sexually assaulted her, but was still allowed to graduate and walk in the ceremony. They dropped the signs when his name was called to walk across the stage, according to the GW Hatchet.

Raihan told DCist in April that she was sexually assaulted in the spring of her freshman year at an on-campus dorm. She reported the incident to the school in the fall of 2016, kicking off a hearings process that ended in March when her assailant was determined to have violated the Student Code of Conduct by committing an act of sexual violence.

His punishment included making him ineligible to seek on-campus or university-owned housing, among other things, but he was still allowed to graduate this spring as long as he didn’t violate university policy for the remainder of his time as a student.

“For GW to know and acknowledge that there is a rapist on campus and they’re going to do nothing about it—it’s infuriating,” Raihan said at the time. “I’m just so angry at GW for failing me like that.”

She launched a petition with a series of demands for school administrators that has gotten more than 2,200 signatures. Since she created the petition, Raihan said that four other students got in touch with her privately and said that her alleged assaulter also abused them.

The attention from the petition led to a meeting between Raihan and Peter Konwerski, the GW dean of student affairs, though she said it did not result in any concrete promises to meet the petition’s demands.

She also led an email campaign to have her assailant fired from his job at a wellness center on campus, but the university said that they wouldn’t expel or terminate his employment, The Hatchet reported.

“We are here to make sure that if nothing else, our voice is still heard,” Raihan told the paper on Saturday.

Other students stood in solidarity with Raihan during the ceremony and held up another banner with “IX” written on it, a reference to Title IX.

“We didn’t want to watch him graduate so I was glad to have him covered. I didn’t want to see him cross the stage,” Jocelyn Jacoby, who helped hold up the IX sig,n told The Hatchet. “He doesn’t deserve to cross the same stage that people who don’t sexually assault others do.”

Filed Under: george washington university, gwu, rape, sex assault, title ix,