Photo by Joe Thomson.

Earlier this year in April, a former football player at St.FX University was charged with sexually assaulting four women at the university. Now, one of the survivors is suing the school for failing to protect her and the rest of the student body.

On April 14, 2023, Ohmogbolahan “Teddy” Jegede was charged with four counts of sexual assault for incidents that occurred in September 2022 and February 2023. In the lawsuit, the student, who’s identity is protected under a publication ban, claims that she and another survivor went to the university multiple times to report the assaults and ask them to ban Jegede from campus.

In a statement shared with members of the St.FX community, the school’s acting president and vice-chancellor, Dr. Amanda Cockshutt, says that the school’s policies and procedures related to sexual violence are survivor-centered and trauma-informed. In the lawsuit, the student claims that she expected St.FX to apply this survivor-centered and trauma-informed policy to her experience with sexual violence on campus. Instead, she says that St.FX banned Jegede from his dorm room on campus but allowed him to continue to use meal halls and campus facilities.

The student first disclosed the assault to St.FX on March 3, 2023, and had three more meetings with the school asking them to take further measures to protect her and other students from Jegede between then and March 14, 2023. Then, on March 15,2023, she and another survivor decided to bring the matter to the RCMP even though she says the university tried to dissuade them from doing so until they could complete their own investigation.

The very next day, Jegede was banned entirely from St.FX’s campus.

The lawsuit claims that St.FX performed its duties to oversee the care, control, and protection of its students in bad faith and that they had a duty to protect the student from physical, sexual, mental, and emotional abuse which they failed to uphold.

In their original release about Jegede’s arrest and the four charges laid against him, the RCMP’s said they believe there may be more victims.