Liberty University Has Silenced Its Accusers. Now They’re Speaking Out.

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*This is an editorial piece and should be read as such. The views expressed are that of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this She’s a Full on Monet. We are a platform for women’s voices that welcomes and encourages all voices from women of any and all walks of life.*

I wake up nearly every morning to my old college group chat going off about something new that investigators, the news, or students have said about Liberty University. The news is never good.

Liberty University currently teaches 110,000 “Champions for Christ” and is known as one of the ‘safest colleges in America.’ The catch? The school is actually a “Champion for Itself” and is only considered “safe” because the University neglects to report rapes and other acts of sexual violence. They supposedly do this in order to “protect” their students (the rapists, that is – not the survivors).

My Liberty

I was a student at Liberty for 4 years, 3 of which I lived on campus, and 1 of which I was on hall leadership. Before I start this article, I need to say this: I love Liberty University.

Liberty was and still is one of my favorite places in this world. It was my home and my safe space for the longest time. I made my best friends, met my partner, learned from experts, and grew in my relationship with the Lord there. I learned who I was, got baptized, celebrated Jesus, and had the time of my life.

“I’m finding very few reasons to like Liberty [right now]. It hurts ‘cause so many good memories took place there. But until they can practice what they preach, they’re making a mockery of the Gospel and have completely misrepresented what the entire purpose of Jerry Sr.’s mission always was. They’re no longer a “light on the hill” for the evangelical community; they’re quickly becoming a blight on us all.”

–  Andrew Pickett, LU Student 2015-2020

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Leadership on Campus

To explain the issues with Liberty, one needs to start with the leadership. While a Board of Trustees full of white old men is slightly concerning (read: very concerning), one of the core problems with Liberty is the student leadership. 

Liberty’s leadership requires a much more hands-on approach than most other college campuses. Every member of leadership upholds and enforces the Liberty Way, which is a 24-page document of all the rules and fines at Liberty University. While having a code of conduct and a rule book for a college campus isn’t necessarily a problem, the rules are arbitrary and get in the way of the students’ safety.

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The Rules

The Liberty Way is infamous for being outdated. The rules are not unheard of for a private Christian college: no academic cheating or misconduct, keep to the dress code, no sex, alcohol, drugs, spending the night out, etc. but some rules are arbitrary while others merit a bigger punishment than a fine and a slap on the hand. 

The rules are based on a point scale. One-point offenses include being late to the weekly chapel or late to curfew, but those points add up. Five-point offenses ($15 fine) include absences from required hall meetings, disturbing the weekly chapel, dress code violation, curfew violation, possession of tobacco or nicotine, vaping, gambling, attending a dance, and violation of ‘community respect.’

Ten-point offenses ($50 fine) will be given out if you’re visiting a member of the opposite sex off-campus or allowing one to visit you, entering a different gender’s residence hall, and watching certain movies. 

Fifteen-point offenses ($150 fine and/or 15 hours of community service) are given if the student is involved in academic misconduct, a legal misdemeanor, falsification of a document (specifically the curfew sign-out sheet), “Obstruction or making bad-faith claims,” “failure to properly identify oneself,” attending a party or an event where alcohol is present, profanity, possession of drugs, sexual misconduct, threatening to hurt someone, theft, and vandalism.

Finally, 30-point offenses ($300 fine, 30 hours of community service, and possible expulsion) are given for more serious cases of plagiarism, sexual harassment or misconduct, having consensual sex (yes, raping someone and cheating on your test are ‘equal’ in Liberty’s eyes), suicidal activity (I know of someone who was fined for wanting to kill themselves), “Disruption to the university community,” absence from class, drug dealing, possession of alcoholic beverages, refusing a drug or alcohol test, “Procuring, financing, facilitating, or obtaining an abortion,” stealing, unauthorized possession of weapons, and “Conduct inconsistent with Liberty’s mission or purpose that compromises the testimony or reputation of the university, or disrupts Liberty’s Christian learning environment.”

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The Leadership Positions At Liberty

Resident Directors are adults employed by the school to supervise residence halls and their RAs. They are the ones who go through with punishments and give out penalties. They also keep the property and the dorms safe. They deal with noise complaints and they’re the ones the RAs report to. They are the highest in command on the leadership totem pole. Once Liberty University has anyone on its campus, the RDs are on call 24/7.

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Resident Assistants — there are roughly two on every hall in every building. These are the people tasked with enforcing punishable offenses. They enforce curfew (midnight on weekdays, 12:30 on weekends), dress code, and other rules. They report to the RD if someone on their hall does something Liberty considers a ‘top offense’ (drinking, self-harm, and sexual activity). I was reported (without my consent) a few times because I self-harmed, but I didn’t have to pay a fine.

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Resident Shepherds — Resident Shepherds. There are also two of these on every floor. They’re tasked with being spiritual leaders for LU’s students. Their responsibilities include going to the hospital with you, praying with you, and generally being the floor ‘moms.’

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Community Group Leaders. This was my job and is the ‘lowest ranking’ leadership position. Community Groups are small groups of the people on your hall. After every Wednesday night sermon, community groups meet to discuss the sermon and talk about real-life issues. Leaders will have roughly 10 girls per group and attendance isn’t required. CGLs have little to no “power” but are required to report anything that could be punishable. I asked one of my girls to stop talking about something because I didn’t want to have to report them. Some CGLs have gotten their girls to talk and then reported them. Whether it’s out of fear because you will be fired if it’s found out you kept an offense a secret, or if someone genuinely wants to report them, many CGLs have been confided in and then reported their group behind their backs. 

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Hiring Leadership

Have you ever been to a job interview where the boss asked you about your sex life? What about your prayer life? How about your relationship with your parents, loved ones, community service, grades, past struggles, enneagram type … and all other manners of personal questions. This was what the interviews for hall leadership positions are like. 

In my RS interview, no questions were off the table. I was interviewed by adults who were employed by the school. They asked me when the last time I self-harmed (they called me in twice and asked this multiple times), how I did it (“What method did you use?”), and why I did it.

The CGL hiring process was worse because students were interviewing me. We were quizzed on our “quiet times”, our enneagrams, our Bible knowledge, and our personal lives. I was as honest as possible and shared with roughly 40 girls the thousands of times I’d cut, felt suicidal, and dealt with other personal issues. After my interviews, I found that it was best to sound like you’ve been through hell and back because that will make you more valuable to the hall. No one wanted to hire a girl for leadership if she’d only dealt with anxiety – they wanted to see you’ve gone through the ‘dark stuff.’

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My Story

I originally wrote this section as an anonymous source. This article isn’t about me and I want the voices of the Jane Does and other people at Liberty to be heard and supported throughout it. But after hours, days, weeks, months, and over a year of prayer; I’m ready to tell my story. 

A quick thank you to Andrew, the love of my life who has supported me through the backlash of this. Thank you for holding my hand and my heart as I cry, process, scream, and rage through this. You are my light. Thank you to my friends from Liberty who stood by me and loved me throughout it all. Y’all are the reason I’m still alive. Thank you to the unnamed person on leadership who let me tell them my story without reporting. I can never thank you enough. Thank you to Tess for giving me the strength to share this. Thank you for endless phone calls and for listening to me process what this experience has been from 100,000 miles away. And finally and most importantly — to the Everlasting God, you are my strength, my source, my love, and my reason. Thank you for giving me my voice. You are my life. 

I stopped loving Liberty during my junior year on leadership. I was lying about half of my life and caught up in so much sin and darkness. I couldn’t tell anyone about my life because I would be fired and shamed. I went home once a month, got drunk, and was abused. And no one could know because alcohol and sex were involved.

I was dating someone who wasn’t a Liberty student, so he wouldn’t get punished and all the blame would fall on me. 

During the year I was on leadership, my life was threatened once a week. I was hit, yelled at, threatened, and forced to have sex with someone over and over and no one ever knew. I couldn’t tell anyone that my life was in danger every single day. After the relationship was over, I told someone at the school that I was being stalked. It became a running joke they loved to tell everyone who would listen. 

I don’t blame Liberty for my abusive relationship, but I know it would have ended if I could have talked about it without knowing I’d be thrown out. The only reason I can talk about it now is because I graduated. I got my degree from a college that is now the laughing stock of America and it just cost me two years of silent suffering and trauma that might never go away. 

Abusive relationships, gaslit relationships, sexual relationships — Liberty doesn’t know how to handle any of these subjects. The moment that sex is mentioned, it’s the reporter’s fault. It doesn’t matter if you’re being forced to do it or if you’re being threatened. What matters is that you got in bed, naked with someone, and you’re a sinner. It doesn’t matter if they had to get you blackout drunk and force your clothes off to get into that bed. 

Every time I came back to Liberty, I had to lie. I put on a smile and told my friends it was a great weekend. I would report back to hall leadership, cover my scars, cuts, and bruises, and smile. The people on my hall called me ‘mom’ and it broke my heart every time because I was lying to all of them. The second anyone knew anything true about my relationship, I would get kicked out. So no one ever knew. 

I was in an abusive relationship and I couldn’t process it without shame.

The silent grasp of Liberty’s leadership and my position caused me to feel isolated. I was a victim of the shame and the purity culture that Liberty forced on its students. 

There was one time when I thought I was pregnant. I was terrified because I knew I would be chastised, isolated, kicked out of Liberty, or worse — forced to marry the abuser I was dating. I started cutting my stomach every night. And then I realized that was another sin I had to hide. But I couldn’t tell anyone. I was completely alone.

I left Liberty leadership and my boyfriend.

Today, the trauma of the relationship remains. Honestly, at the time it was also evident. I lost over 30 pounds that year. I would shake incessantly and couldn’t look at most men. Today, I can’t ride in a car some days because of the trauma. I can’t go a week without a panic attack or PTSD making me blackout. I will literally never be the same.  

I can’t imagine how the girls who are on the same campus as their attackers feel. If I saw him, I would die. And their attackers are the poster boys for Liberty’s football. We might have a life-sized poster of their rapist on the football stadium, and no one cares because he’s making them money.

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Truth Comes Out

The summer before my senior year, the rumors that had been circulating about our school President, Jerry Falwell Jr., finally made national news. Jerry Jr. inherited the school from his father, Jerry Falwell Sr.. While Sr. wasn’t quite the figurehead of inclusivity, he did his job as the founder of a private, Baptist college very well. 

Jerry Jr., however, made everyone uncomfortable. He would make inappropriate comments about his wife (usually about her body and their sex life) onstage at our tri-weekly required worship service known as Convocation, or ‘convo’. There were always rumors about a pool boy and Jerry, but everyone thought they were just jokes.

In August of 2020, news finally (officially) came out that Jerry Falwell had been paying a 20-year-old pool boy to have sex with his wife as Falwell watched. Earlier that month, Jerry had posted the infamous “black water” photo of him standing next to his daughter-in-law, both of their pants unzipped, and him drinking what he claimed to be “black water.” Drinking is prohibited for the students and the faculty, so surely Falwell wouldn’t be drinking alcohol… with his pants unzipped… on his family’s private yacht. On August 7, Jerry was put on indefinite leave from Liberty University.

Liberty was crumbling under Jerry Jr.’s rule and people were beginning to resent it. It’s also worth mentioning that Jerry Jr. had been a lawyer, and he did an excellent job of covering up the issues at the school. Jerry Falwell left a school that needed an update. The student body, the rules, the faculty, and the required Convocations that shoved his Republican views down the students’ throats all needed to end. I truly believe that when Falwell left, Liberty’s well-constructed system that protected abusers rather than victims finally began to fall apart.

People began to speak out about how horrible Falwell actually was. 

“During COVID, teachers had to record their classes for the students who could not attend. I had a teacher stand in front of us shaking because she couldn’t say anything for fear that she’d get in trouble because the board could watch her class back.”

–  Anonymous Student

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Post Falwell

The majority of the student body rejoiced when Falwell left. I saw Falwell’s leave as a chance for Liberty to finally turn itself around and become a place that wasn’t immersed in political agenda. I was hopeful, but wrong again. 

The school then hired Jerry Prevo to be the acting President.

On October 27, 2021, Scott Lamb, now former Senior Vice President for Communications and public engagement at Liberty University, told POLITICO about a conversation he had with Prevo. 

The 76-year-old pastor told Lamb his main goal for the school was to get Republicans elected. He went on to say, ​​”I have a 50c3 church…. For 30 years, I’ve known how to handle that and not get into trouble. The homosexual community has tried to take me down for at least 30 years, and they have not been successful because I know how to work the 50c3.”

While “the homosexual community” is now not the only group of people trying to “take him down,” it’s good to know where Liberty University’s President stands on Mark 12:31: “The second [commandment] is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Obviously, Prevo believes that Jesus left out the part where you don’t have to love your neighbor if they’re homosexual or getting raped by your football players.

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A Falwell Returns

Jonathan Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church (TRBC, Jerry Sr.’s church that is attached to Liberty) was announced as the new Campus Pastor at the end of the 2020-2021 school year. The new hire made sense because Falwell Sr. most likely stated somewhere that a Falwell should always be at Liberty in a leadership position, but it was another stab to the student body. 

Jonathan Falwell replaced David Nasser, a student favorite. Nasser was the campus pastor for many years and he was one of the people who saw Liberty’s flaws and tried to minister and love everyone at the university.

While there was nothing wrong with adding Jonathan to LU’s staff, the outright boot that Nasser got made the student body realize that Liberty University might not be God’s University, but the Falwell’s.

Disclaimer: When I visit Lynchburg, VA I go to TRBC. I love Jonathan and think he’s an excellent pastor who loves God with his whole life and heart. I will be one of the first to say that he is not at all like his brother. I will also say that David Nasser saved my life and retaught me everything I know about Scripture. So I’m torn.

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The Podcast

On May 26, 2021, Gangster Capitalism came out with a podcast about Liberty University and even more crap hit the fan. 

The first few episodes discussed Jerry Falwell Jr., his political relationship with Donald Trump, his sexual voyeuristic relationship with his pool boys, and his funds (which all come from Liberty’s students because Liberty is a ‘nonprofit’). 

The podcast then went on to tell a few women’s stories. These were the stories of the “Jane Does.”

These stories are not mine to tell. But if you listen, you will hear the heartbreaking stories of women being betrayed, lied to, and forced to cover up their assaults. Women who would go to their RA’s, RS’s, or CGL’s and be told that their secrets would be kept, just to find that the opposite had happened. 

Many women didn’t come forward and many still don’t because the second you are involved in a situation that strays from the “Liberty Way,” you’ll be punished.

Again, these are not my stories to tell. If you want to read more, I suggest reading this article. The Jane Does of Liberty University are human beings. They’re currently undergoing trials, investigations, and lawsuits. They are the voice for the thousands of girls, myself included, who have been sexually harassed and hurt because of Liberty University. The Jane Does of Liberty University are the pinnacle of strength and dignity, and should never be treated as anything less than that, especially by the college that allowed it. 

If you want to support the Jane Does of Liberty University, I suggest checking out any of their informative Instagram pages and this website.

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Jane Does 1-12 v. Liberty University

After telling their stories, many Jane Does came together to create a lawsuit against Liberty University. The lawsuit “claims that the Title IX Office failed to investigate multiple claims of rape and sexual assault. Federal laws require that investigators in Liberty University’s Title IX office fully investigate such claims.”

Liberty isn’t the only college where sexual assault violations happen. But it is one of the only colleges that covers them up, doesn’t report them, and then fines the victims for getting raped. The reason why Liberty is ‘one of the safest colleges in America’ and ‘has so few violence reports’ is because Liberty students know they’ll get in trouble if they report an assault.

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Fan the Flames

There is no one group of rapists on campus. In the end, anyone could be a rapist. But there is a group that has emerged as one of the most problematic in the last year. Members of the football team have been accused multiple times.

Liberty University recently finished construction on a new football stadium and hired Hugh Freeze to coach the boys. The football coach is currently paid an estimated $3 million a year.

I will never doubt anyone’s salvation story or repentance, but if you want to read more about Hugh Freeze, this article might help. I honestly believe that Hugh Freeze is a good person. But I do not believe that Liberty’s football team is handling sexual assaults in the way they should.

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Sydney’s Story

Sydney was set to graduate in May, but she decided it was best for her to leave Liberty and Lynchburg after her sexual assault and suicide attempt earlier this semester. This is her story. 

When asked about her general experience with Liberty, the word that stands out to Sydney is “loneliness.”

Sydney said that Liberty University is truly one of the most isolating places for someone who isn’t a blind follower of others. “It warped my perception of Christianity, friendship, and love.”

While a student, Sydney reached out numerous times to friends, teachers, leaders, the counseling office, and people who claimed to be her ‘brothers and sisters in Christ.’ 

“I’ve been turned away from the counseling office and they told me once they had no room the day I came, and said to come back next week. There’s a lot that can happen between today and next week. I could have died.”

Sydney assumed that she could go to Liberty’s counseling office to get help, considering part of her $20,000 tuition included counseling. Sadly, she was wrong. 

The only times she got support was after her world fell apart twice. 

“My Christian friends will text me ‘praying for you,’ but they only do that when I post about it. This made me feel like LU was the loneliest place on earth and God didn’t love me. Countless people would prescribe me a Bible verse instead of actually helping. People, even my family, would brush me off as [being] overdramatic. A lot of people at Liberty think I’m “a lot” because I don’t think everybody is called to be this quiet, timid person. And if I did die, all they would say is, ‘Oh, let’s pray for the family. Only God knew what was going on.’

“They all knew. I’d been crying out.”

During Sydney’s freshman year, she said she was still a very ‘harsh’ and practicing Christian. “It was the time when I had to pretend the most and was hurt the most. I had come to a place that was supposed to radiate God’s love and it put a dirty taste in my mouth when people talked about religion.”

It was during the quarantine and her sophomore year that she realized how few resources there were for anyone who was really struggling. 

Once she reported her sexual assault, she started to receive calls. She would get calls from Liberty’s offices and the Lynchburg Police Department (separate from LUPD). They would say that they were taking it seriously. She wasn’t sure what to do because if she kept quiet, no one would do anything. But if she spoke out, her attacker could make her life hell.  

“As far as the sexual assault goes, I’m still trying to figure out what to do. People are telling me that the longer I go [without saying anything], the less important it will be. Others are saying to let it go and let it be a life lesson. I’m terrified, I love justice, but this guy doesn’t think he did anything to me. 

“He specifically said to me, ‘Don’t go telling anybody I raped you.’ So if anything comes out, he’s gonna tell his teammates that I’m lying, then they’re going to tell their girlfriends, then they’re going to tell their community groups, then only girls LU [a Facebook group for Liberty girls], and then everyone’s going to think I’m lying.

“The guy who sexually assaulted me, I don’t know where they’re picking these people. This dude doesn’t have any interests, he just came to play sports. Why are we letting random people walk around this campus?

“I’m terrified to be at campus and run into him. I changed my hair color. I still have friends who follow this dude. I still have people who post about the football games saying, ‘Yipee, we won!’ Won what? Won at raping people?

“I like to think of myself as a strong person, but when you are sexually assaulted by someone who is a believer in Christ, it is so hard…. When other people ask, I have to try so hard to explain it to people and not make it sound like it’s my fault.”

As a student, Sydney knows how quickly Liberty can turn on the person attacked to back the attacker, specifically when the attacker is a high-ranking Liberty University football player. She doesn’t want the blame to fall on her because she was in her house alone with a guy.
“After I got assaulted, a freshman at Liberty said, ‘Oh, that’s just how boys are…and people don’t want to get to know you beyond fucking you.’”

This is just one of the ignorant responses Sydney has received.

“It’s really interesting because the most supportive people are not Christians. After I got assaulted by a member of the Liberty University football team, I’ve started to walk away from ‘Christians’.”

Sydney is still trying to navigate her faith as she continues this new chapter of her life. Her Senior year, her safe Christian private school, and her supportive group of friends all fell away when something bad happened.

As sad as this sexual assault case is, it’s not the only problem at Liberty. She went on to describe how African American students, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and other marginalized groups don’t fit into the ‘box’ of Liberty. The isolation seems to reach everyone at the university, and she wanted to highlight the groups of people who are ‘different’ from Liberty’s cookie-cutter perfect student mold. 

“And I was one of them. I was dating someone in pastoral ministry and he expected me to treat him like I was just a pastor’s wife. And I just went to school there, I was just dating him.”

The culture and the pressure to act like a small, timid housewife (even though she was only dating the guy) got to Sydney, who stated that she was unsure of how to love and traumatized that she would “mess up” again. 

“There are a lot of good people at Liberty. We have our rallies, we have our protests. But at the end of the day, there are still people who pay money every week and go to the football games, knowing that I and so many other people were sexually assaulted by members of the football team.

“If Liberty has done anything, they’ve shown me who I don’t want to be because I’ve been on the other side. And I wouldn’t wish that on someone else. I cannot imagine someone who isn’t a Christian coming to Liberty and trying to find hope and love and Jesus. Because it is so skewed to find that among the toxic purity culture. The culture at Liberty is not even close to what Jesus would say is right. It is pure hate and oppression and I will not be a part of it.”

Sydney asked for her first name to be shared because she wanted girls who are struggling with the same thing to be able to put a name to the struggle.

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Give Me Liberty

The students know everything that’s going on with Liberty. We live in an age of social media, podcasts, articles, Tweets, Instagram accounts (all of the Jane Does have Instagrams!), and so much more. I went back to LU’s campus a month ago and girls were walking around with teal ribbons around their wrists, backpacks, and hair to show support for the Jane Does. We know what’s happening, and the fact that Liberty waited from May to November to say a single thing says a lot about their true feelings about confession, repentance, and restitution. 

“Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” – Proverbs 28:13

Students also went to Instagram to voice their complaints because no one on campus would listen to them. Liberty University’s official Instagram has blocked all comments. Liberty University’s Football page bans everyone who says something negative (I got blocked for commenting, “Maybe if you taught your players where they can and can’t put their balls, we wouldn’t lose”). 

Liberty loves freedom of speech — as long as it’s in line with their political, social, and religious agendas. 

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The Cover-Ups

Scott Lamb was fired from Liberty University on October 6, 2021, for speaking out about the flaws in Liberty’s Title IX. He filed a lawsuit soon after. Lamb was the Senior Vice President of Communications and Public Engagement. 

During a meeting on October 4, Lamb expressed how upset and dismayed he was that the University has strayed so far from its original mission, to “train champions for Christ”. It was after this meeting that the lawsuit suggests Jerry Prevo threatened to terminate Lamb’s employment and demanded that he resign.

The lawsuit reads, “Despite Plaintiff’s achievements in his role, Defendant terminated his employment in retaliation for his opposition to the University’s mishandling of Title IX sexual misconduct accusations, including many allegations of sexual assaults by current and former male staff and students against current and former female students and employees of the University, and his participation in an internal investigation conducted by outside counsel of the same”.

“Plaintiff repeatedly stated that he would not be silenced or participate in a cover-up of activities within the University that Plaintiff believes contradicted the law, including, but not limited to, the University’s mishandling of many well-publicized reports of sexual assault, harassment, and discrimination on campus committed by current and former male students and staff against current and former female students and staff.” This is apparently not the first time Lamb has fought for good.

Lamb’s Twitter is full of discussion about breaking NDAs and protesting Liberty. The lawsuit also said that Liberty offered to buy Scott’s silence through a severance offered at termination.

“Plaintiff refused the proposed terms of the separation because he would be required to resign immediately and to sign a non-disclosure agreement Plaintiff telephoned that day Ms. Wallace and she informed him of his immediate termination,” the lawsuit reads.

A Liberty University spokesperson claimed, “Liberty University categorically denies Mr. Lamb’s claims that his termination was in any way the result of advice he had given on how the university should respond to the Jane Doe Title IX lawsuit. In reality, Lamb was terminated with cause as a result of a meeting about a recent review of the area under his management. Lamb’s lawsuit is a transparent effort to rebuild his own reputation by shamefully playing on the goodwill of supporters of sexual assault victims. We look forward to addressing his claims in court.”

This is the second lawsuit Liberty University is currently facing in regard to the sexual abuse coverup.

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Prevo and the Jane Does

“I didn’t think Prevo was going to be a problem. He seemed like a nice old man. Yeah, he didn’t wear a mask and the COVID protocol was nonexistent, but he didn’t seem bad until he started shutting Jane Does up.” –  Former Liberty student

Prevo did much more than “shut Jane Does up.” On October 27, over 4 months since the “Jane Does 1-12 vs. Liberty University” lawsuit was filed, Prevo finally spoke on it. His words all but denied the validity of these women’s cries for help.

In his statement above, he says, “I hope and pray these allegations turn out to be false.” The Jane Does took to Instagram saying that they weren’t lying and Prevo’s attempt to cover up the school’s dirty secrets was not helping. 

Instagram account @thelastjanedoe said, “We aren’t liars, President Prevo. You can’t pray away our truth. We don’t want your empty promises, we want justice.”

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Prevo Taking ‘Steps’

At Liberty University’s November 3rd Convocation, Jerry Prevo took the stage to address the Title IX policy. He started by saying that the current Title IX policy is being “misrepresented big time.” He went on to say, “We encourage people to report any kind of sexual misconduct.”

Then he began to cover himself. “Since I’ve been here [fall of 2020], I don’t know what happened in the past.” And with that, his microphone got cut off and he started preaching about the rapture. If you watch the video, the students then erupted into chants of, “Let’s go Brandon” which is quickly muted. For anyone who doesn’t know, “Let’s go Brandon” is ‘code’ for “F— you, Biden”. The stadium turned to chaos, and the serious tone of the Title IX report was lost.

Jerry Prevo doesn’t give a damn about this topic. The SECOND his mic went off and he thought people at home/in the stadium couldn’t hear him, he didn’t hesitate. He asked for people to start chanting “I love you, Jesus” and then said, “Have y’all heard about the rapture?” Not only that, but the students, who are supposed to be ‘champions for Christ,’ immediately went from listening to how Liberty is helping their peers getting raped to chanting, “Let’s go Brandon.” It’s astounding. It reflected poorly on the University and everyone attending that Convo. 

Jerry’s mic was fixed and he snapped back to the Title IX discussion, saying that he ‘does not know what happened before he came,’ even though he did. “I can tell you this, we’re not going to try to cover up anything. We’re going to look back, have that investigated. And also, if we’ve done wrong, we’re going to correct that wrong the best we can. I’m not here to cover up, I’m here to clean up if it needs to be cleaned up….Give us some time here at Liberty University to look at that.”

Prevo kept saying phrases like, “I don’t know” and, “If it happened.” They did mess up. The Jane Doe case came to the light during his Presidency. People have been raped this year. Jerry Prevo should not be blaming it on Falwell (though he wasn’t great either). Take it, realize you messed up, apologize, and make amends. 

“I think he is so far removed from the idea that Liberty is not always a safe place. He made a statement saying IF the allegations are true, he will take action. Not really comforting for victims who have had their voices stolen.”  – Former Liberty Student

Prevo went on to say that Liberty University is now going to give amnesty for those that were violating the Liberty Way and were sexually abused during that time (drinking, being off-campus at a party, being alone with a member of the opposite sex). He then said not to claim something happened to you to get out of trouble.

They then announced that they were in the process of installing Blue Boxes. Blue Boxes are call boxes that students can go to when they’re in danger – they will alert the police, the hospital, and campus security that something is wrong. This was campaigned for on all the Jane Doe’s Instagrams and Prevo did take credit for making it happen. Ironically, he said the boxes (as of now, it looks like there will only be 13 for the over 7,000 acres that the school owns) would be placed around where people “could get assaulted” – yet there will be absolutely none anywhere near the football stadium. Prevo also is adding cameras everywhere on campus, “I authorized about 8.5 million dollars to add these cameras.” Again, cameras are scattered everywhere, but there are very few around the football field. 

Prevo and his wife then threw out candy to the audience.

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Justice For Janes

On November 4th and 5th of 2021, students gathered to have a silent protest and prayer walk around Liberty’s campus. They were able to get Rachael Denhollander to come and speak. Denhollander was “Part of the Army that took down Larry Nassar” for the Olympic gymnastics team.

Rachael came to Liberty, held a small press conference, and stood in front of the students who came out to protest. In the press conference, Dr. Karen Swallow Prior, a former English professor, said Liberty would, “…cease to be God’s University when the interests of the institution are put before the stewardship of souls.” 

When the students arrived at the protest, small cards were handed out that read, “We [Liberty University] sincerely welcome your intercession for our community, and there are places where you can meet adjacent to the campus that do not require approval from Liberty University.”

Rachael and Dr. Prior stood with the current students right outside of the bookstore, because that’s the only place Liberty would let the protestors stand.

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The Results

Hours before the protest, Liberty University announced that “Jerry Prevo agreed to ask the Evangelical Christian Institution’s Board of Trustees to approve an independent investigation into the school’s handling of assault cases.”

As of right now, more Jane Does are coming forward and using their platform to change Liberty’s handling of their cases better. Liberty is in the news every day and the battle is not nearly over.

Two Jane Does just went public with their stories, faces, and names. Their strength is helping others, like myself, to come forward and fight Liberty’s abusive reign on its students. I hope to see a Liberty where the spirit of the Lord is (2 Corinthians 3:17), but as of right now, I’m not sure that can ever happen. For the University to heal and make right all of its wrongs, it would take the Board, Staff, and Students to ask themselves if they really wanted the true liberty and freedom that can only come with confession (James 5:16), or if they want the false Liberty that fosters a spirit of fear and punishment.

Have you heard about the Liberty case? What do you think they should do? 

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