UCLA students sue UC Regents for alleged sexual abuse from camp counselors
Two UCLA students are suing the UC Board of Regents after facing alleged sexual abuse and hazing at Bruin Woods, a UCLA-run family resort for alumni where the two were employed as camp counselors.
The students — Samea Derrick and Lydia Dixon — worked at the camp in Lake Arrowhead in June as first-time counselors for five days before leaving, according to the Los Angeles Times. Derrick and Dixon’s lawsuit alleges negligence, civil rights violations, hazing, gender violence, two cases of assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The lawsuit is seeking a jury trial and $50,000 in damages and compensation for legal fees and medical expenses. The suit is also leveled at other camp counselors, including two men accused of sexually assaulting them.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the hazing activities at the camp are referred to by counselors as “traditions” and have occurred for decades.
“Every single night, it would just become more and more intense, like they would cross more and more boundaries,” Derrick told the Los Angeles Times.
Dixon also said that during the camp’s 2022 training, new counselors were informed that four Title IX lawsuits were filed after the camp’s 2021 session, but that traditions were more “intense” then and had since been toned down.
Derrick and Dixon are represented by attorney Scott Carr, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of them.
“They bring you in, talking about how they’re going to be your best friends, and they get you to trust them, and then once you trust them, they get you to protect their secrets,” Carr told the Los Angeles Times. “And that’s exactly what happened here.”
UC Davis student-sponsored Turning Point USA event canceled following protests
An Oct. 25 event at the UC Davis Conference Center organized by Turning Point USA, a right-wing student group, was canceled following fighting among protesters.
The event featured Stephen Davis, a conservative speaker known as “MAGA Hulk,” and was canceled by the students organizing the event out of concerns for safety, according to a statement from the university.
The original protest was organized by a campus chapter of Cops Off Campus, who posted on Instagram on Oct. 20 calling for students to “show up and make it clear that [Turning Point USA isn’t] welcome on our campus.”
After the protest began, participants knocked over the metal barricade and pounded on the doors of the Conference Center to get the attention of those inside, according to The California Aggie, UC Davis’ student newspaper.
One hour later, counter-protesters — some wearing Proud Boys-labeled apparel — arrived, and fighting and usage of pepper spray broke out among the crowd of 100, a statement from the university said.
The university released a public statement the same day stating that the UC Davis Police Department was not deployed at the event, and that it was “unfortunate the event could not proceed as planned.”
“We affirm the right of our students — in this instance, Turning Point USA at UC Davis — to invite speakers to our campus, just as we affirm the right of others to protest speakers whose views they find upsetting or offensive,” the statement read.
A version of this article appeared on p. 2 of the Nov. 3, 2022 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
