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The University of Kentucky is suing its student newspaper to keep sexual assault records private

This segment originally aired Dec. 15, 2016, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.

The University of Kentucky is suing its independent student newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel, in a bid to keep records from a sexual assault investigation private.

The school says it’s protecting students’ privacy by denying the paper’s request for the documents, which detail a sexual assault on a student by a former professor. The paper is arguing that the university should release the documents with the victim’s name redacted.

“We’re just trying to correct a system that has for decades allowed the shuffling of people who are responsible for sexual misconduct to make their way in and out of academia without notice,” said Marjorie Kirk, the editor-in-chief of the Kentucky Kernel.

The state’s attorney general sided with the Kernel and told the university to release the records. In order to appeal the attorney general’s decision, the school sued the newspaper.

VICE News visited the independent paper on its last night of the semester, as staffers expanded their reporting — while a judge weighed the university’s appeal.