Vermont Swimmer Says School Mishandled Sexual Assault Investigation

A University of Vermont swimmer is one of seven women suing the NCAA for failing to protect them from sexual assaults.

Kendall Ware told the Burlington Free Press that the school mishandled an investigation after she reported a sexual assault. Ware was originally unnamed in the lawsuit, but spoke publicly with the newspaper this summer, the Free Press reports.

Ware says she was raped by a fellow Vermont student. The student, who was her boyfriend at the time, is a member of the Vermont men’s basketball team. Ware says that the school gave her misleading information during the Title IX investigation and pressured her to resolve the complaint per the Free Press.

Back in April, seven women sued the NCAA for fraud, breach of contract and negligence. The seven women say they were sexually assaulted by male student-athletes at three different schools. At the time, the lawsuit said the schools included Michigan State, Nebraska, and an unnamed school from the America East Conference.

The lawsuit said that a swimmer at the America East school was raped by a men’s basketball player in September of 2019 and reported the assault about a month later.

SwimSwam reached out to Vermont for comment on Ware’s allegations that the school mishandled her complaint, but has not yet received a response.