Court permits former student to sue Penn State professor over disclosed abuse details
A federal court in Pennsylvania has allowed a former graduate student to pursue privacy and emotional distress claims against a Penn State professor who revealed the student's childhood sexual abuse in a book.
In a Pennsylvania federal court, a former graduate student was granted permission to bring a lawsuit against a Penn State professor for violating his privacy and causing emotional distress. The professor had urged the student to share his childhood sexual abuse experiences during private seminars, knowing the information was highly confidential. Despite this, she included the student's identity and abuse details in a recently released book.
The court ruled the professor could be held liable for the disclosures. Parallel claims targeting Penn State were thrown out, as the university neither authored nor promoted the book in a way that revealed the student's trauma.
