BOSTON (AP) – Civil rights investigators for the U.S. Department of Education have ruled that Boston University acted properly in its handling of sexual assault allegations made by two students.

The Office for Civil Rights investigated two separate complaints brought by women who claimed that Boston University discriminated against them after they complained of alleged sexual assaults in 2000 and 2002.

The women filed the OCR complaints after reporting the alleged assaults to the school’s internal judicial panel, then being punished for violating the school’s alcohol and drug policy. Both university reviews failed to find evidence supporting the women’s reports.

In their complaints to the Office of Civil Rights, the women said the school failed to adequately consider the evidence, and retaliated against them by punishing them for using alcohol or drugs during the alleged episodes.

The federal investigators ruled in both cases that there was insufficient evidence to find that the university retaliated against the students or discriminated against them based on their gender.

The Office for Civil Rights said BU had applied its a “zero-tolerance” alcohol and drug policy which it has applied uniformly over the past two years.

University attorney Michael Rosen said the decision vindicated the school’s judicial affairs and student safety workers.

“Our view throughout has been we knew that the hundreds of men and women (in student safety and student affairs) take very seriously the safety of our students,” Rosen said.

Wendy Murphy, an attorney for the complainants, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

AP-ES-04-25-03 2033EDT

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