This petition is to make sure the voices of victims of abusive behavior are heard at Loyola University New Orleans. This issue impacts the entire Loyno community and we need change now. Please sign and share with others!

**Trigger Warning** R*pe and S*xual A*ssault**

On April 18th, 2021, President Tania Tetlow addressed the Loyola New Orleans community via email (in response to the nola.com article), reporting on the rape allegations filed by the survivor Tim Ballard against Fr. Ted Dziak, a former faculty member and university priest at Loyola. 

Rather than taking the opportunity after the nola.com article was published to show solidarity for Tim Ballard and all victims of sexual assault, Pres. Tetlow chose to protect the Loyola University reputation first, failing to take responsibility on behalf of Loyola University. By encouraging students to “ await the facts” and “ not rush to judgment”, Pres. Tetlow denied the pre-existing fact that behavioral complaints were filled at Boston College in 1998 by Eilers, McDargh, and Stautberg and that these complaints, which include coerced nudity and inappropriate touching, are only the beginning. Evidence uncovered diligently by the Maroon proves Katrina Weschler organized students and staff to “report Dziak’s alleged abusive behavior to the university and the archdiocese in 2010 and 2011 when she was a Jesuit fellow at Loyola”. Pres. Tetlow failed to even acknowledge Tim Ballard by name, who, in his attorney’s words, cited from the Maroon, was “so relieved to have the story out and then, when he read the statement, in a way, he’s abused all over again”. 

As a community, we can and must do better than this. As a collective student body, we demand:

- An apology email sent from the Office of the President, which acknowledges the harm the original email caused, rescinds the tone-deaf suggestion to seek “pastoral care”, when less than three years ago, Dziak was a part of that same clergy group, and a new message that draws attention to Tim Ballard’s courage as a rape survivor.

- The institution, starting in Fall 2021, of a mandatory, annual training session for every person employed by or at Loyola, and any student who attends here, online or otherwise, on the processes of reporting ANY behavioral complaints at Loyola, including an explicit outline of how Loyola reviews and investigates these complaints. A brief overview at Paws and Reflect by Krewe Leaders at first-year orientation, and the occasional Diana Ward in-class talk, is not enough. 

- Increased accessibility to the reporting form link, through direct access on LORA and permanent signs with a linked QR code posted in academic buildings and residential halls.