I agree with @techmom99. The issue isn’t that it couldn’t happen anywhere else with regard to two students squabbling immaturely. The issue is if you agree with how the university handled it, or at least the initial appearance of what they did and did not do. That is overarching, potentially affecting any student that attends the school if they do something “wrong”, and could cause one great pause in deciding to attend that school. To me, that is the real issue of the story, not whatever happens between the two students.
This seems especially true if the report of the lawsuit being dropped and the statements by the parents that it was all a “big misunderstanding” is true. How could a thorough investigation by PSU end up finding Lader guilty and put on probation if the claims were not true, which to me is what a “big misunderstanding” says. It is frightening to me how easily these schools can and how willing they are to, if not ruin a student’s life, then certainly scar it based on apparently selfish considerations. In this case the effect could be very serious, given Lader’s desire to attend law school. Academic probation cannot be a positive in those applications.
It is something no one would have thought to say even 20 years ago, I would claim, but these days when researching a school a look at their record of disciplinary actions and outcomes might be in order given the current climate surrounding sexual claims, claims involving Greek behavior, etc. In other words, how fair does the school appear to be in adjudicating these issues and what kind of punishments do they hand out, or do they just try and cover their rears? I admit I nudged my D away from Duke when I had her read about the lacrosse scandal and the list of profs that signed that rush to judgement ad. She said that since they had no merit scholarships (at that time I guess) she wasn’t applying anyway, but the point is how unfair the faculty/administration appears to be is the kind of thing that can tarnish a school. I think it is worse with universities, where the people involved are supposed to be our most highly educated people of great consideration and deliberation, and above those kinds of prejudiced reactions, naive as that obviously sounds.
I learned a long time ago not to trust the scant reporting that goes with a story like this, and it should never be used to reach a conclusion as to what “should happen”. One either has to be actually involved in the case or wait to see the court transcripts for this to be anything more than speculative sport at this point.