One of the University of Virginia’s proudest features is an Honor Code that extends far beyond simply academic cheating to holding UVA students to high standards of personal behavior. It’s a holdover from the Virginian tradition of gentlemanly conduct that provided America with individuals such George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Robert E. Lee, and George C. Marshall. Not surprisingly, Sabrina Rubin Erdely of Rolling Stone found Virginia’s Honor Code highly repugnant.
It’s hard to imagine a more flagrant violation of the UVA Honor Code than Jackie Coakley’s slanderous hoax that she repeatedly perpetuated from age 18 through 20. She began by elaborately concocting electronic evidence for a dream date suitor she called Haven Monahan to entrap a freshman boy named Ryan in a unwanted romantic relationship. When she failed to make Ryan jealous, she invented a horrifying story of sexual abuse. But Ryan only slept on her floor that night, along with another male friend, rather than comfort her one on one.
The next semester, Jackie used her gang rape story on Dean Nicole Eramo as an excuse for her bad grades, later exposing Dean Eramo to a national campaign of personal vilification. Coakley then joined a support group and lied repeatedly to her fellow coeds. She became a minor campus celebrity in the feminist racket. She repeated her preposterous story, specifying one particular fraternity, to yellow journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely, causing a mob of Social Justice Warriors to carry out a Kristallnacht on that frat house.
She brought nationwide vilification down upon her fellow students at UVA.
UVA Frat Won’t Pursue Honor Code Case Against ‘Jackie’ Apr 9, 2015, 5:17 PM ET By BROCK VERGAKIS Associated PressA University of Virginia fraternity will not pursue an honor code violation against a student who told Rolling Stone for a story that has since been retracted that several brothers gang-raped her during a party, a spokesman said.
Virginia has the oldest student-run honor code in the country, which prohibits lying, cheating and stealing. Those who are found guilty of violations by a panel of students are faced with a single penalty: expulsion.
Rolling Stone based much of its November article on the account of a person identified only as “Jackie,” a U.Va. student who said she suffered a brutal sexual assault at the hands of seven men at the Phi Kappa Psi house at a party her first year at the school in 2012.
Phi Kappa Psi has said it is exploring legal action against Rolling Stone, but not against Jackie.
“From the fraternity’s perspective, this is about reckless reporting, careless editing, poor fact-checking and a negligent legal review,” fraternity spokesman Brian Ellis wrote in an email to The Associated Press.
… The reporter interviewed Jackie eight times and a fact-checker spent four hours on the phone, with both finding the story plausible. …
At U.Va., the definition of lying entails “the misrepresentation of one or more facts in order to gain a benefit or harm another person, where the actor knows or should know that the misrepresentation will be relied upon by another person.”
In other words, Jackie lied countless times to slander fellow UVA students. I used to assume that she had some serious problems involving delusions, but the evidence is clear now that she lied over and over for rational reasons of gaining various petty advantages for herself, like trying to snag a handsome boyfriend, getting out trouble for bad grades, being a star on campus in today’s anti-straight white male atmosphere of hate, and becoming a quasi-national celebrity on campus.
Any student or faculty member could bring an honor code complaint against Jackie, and the school’s honor committee regularly works to get students to bring forward more complaints. So far, no one has brought such a complaint publicly against Jackie.
UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan should file Honor Code charges against Jackie Coakley in the name of all UVA students past and present.
