Metro

Columbia ignored me when I was raped in my dorm: lawsuit

A Columbia University student sued the Ivy League institution on Tuesday, saying university staffers were apathetic and unresponsive after she reported being raped and harassed multiple times on campus.

Amelia Roskin-Frazee’s Title IX lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, claims the sexual abuse began in October 2015, just months after ​the woman enrolled at the ​u​pper Manhattan university.

An unknown assailant with curly hair, whom she believes to be another Columbia student​,​ “viciously raped” ​Roskin-Frazee in her dorm room after slipping in through an unlocked door while she was asleep, her lawyers said.

Unlike other dorms that were equipped with automatic locks and key card access, Roskin-Frazee’s room had old-fashioned key access so the door was constantly left unlocked by suite mates, the lawsuit said. “This could not have happened with the automatic locking system,” said her lawyer Alex Zalkin.

Roskin-Frazee was in so much pain from the attack that she passed out, the lawsuit sa​id.

Roskin-Frazee didn’t immediately report the rape, but she attempted to seek medical help. A few weeks later, she contacted Columbia’s Sexual Violence Response hotline, where a representative told her to call the police and advised her to use birth control.

The Columbia hotline rep never advised her of her rights under Title IX, which prohibits sexual harassment and assault for schools receiving federal funds, the lawsuit said. The university also failed to investigate the claims, said Roskin-Frazee, now a sophomore.

“If they had investigated, they might have​​ been able to identify him before he hurt me again,” Roskin-Frazee ​told The Post on Tuesday. Also, had they addressed her allegations quickly, “I wouldn’t have been in my same room,” she said.

Columbia, which declined to comment, has been in the spotlight for its handling of campus rape allegations, including that of Emma Sulkowicz, known for carrying a mattress around campus after her allegations of rape were questioned by school administrators before being dismissed.

The second alleged rape occurred a few months later, in December. ​Roskin-Frazee, who is gay, said she was attacked entering her dorm room at night — again by an unknown assailant​, according to the suit.

“The room was completely dark,” she said. “Her assailant pulled off her shorts and underwear, tied her hands above her head to her desk chair with her underwear and an iPhone charging cord, and shoved her shorts into her mouth.”

Roskin-Frazee was reluctant at first to file ​a complaint because Columbia ​allegedly ​had not handled her first rape ​complaint ​well, the lawsuit said. But after received harassing notes on the public bulletin board — including one that read, “Isn’t it fun to wake up to someone fucking you?” — Roskin-Frazee officially reported the rape in August 2016, the lawsuit said.

In September, Columbia initiated a formal investigation, but it lasted only 26 days and the investigators did not interview a single person, her lawyers said. The investigators also did not check the dormitory building logs for who entered the building on the nights of Roskin-Frazee’s sexual assaults, and could not access any security footage because it had been erased due to the length of time that had elapsed before Columbia finally decided to investigate, her lawyers said.