A Catholic University dean has been suspended for the rest of the semester over tweets questioning Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers.
University President John Garvey said the comments made by Will Rainford, a dean of the university’s social work school, were “unacceptable,” according to the Washington Post.
Despite a formal apology Thursday and deleting his Twitter and Facebook accounts, Rainford was suspended for a tweet he sent on his university Twitter account that Garvey said “unfortunately degraded” one of the women who have accused the judge of sexual assault.
On Wednesday, Rainford expressed disbelief about an allegation by Julie Swetnick. Swetnick alleges she was a victim of a gang rape at a party where Kavanaugh, who has denied all allegations against him, was present in 1982.
“Swetnick is 55 y/o,” Rainford tweeted, according to the Post. “Kavanaugh is 52 y/o. Since when do senior girls hang with freshmen boys? If it happened when Kavanaugh was a senior, Swetnick was an adult drinking with&by her admission, having sex with underage boys. In another universe, he would be victim & she the perp!”
In a tweet apparently referring to Christine Blasey Ford, who testified Thursday about Kavanaugh allegedly sexually assaulting her decades ago, Rainford questioned the California professor’s intentions.
“Riddle me this. Why would the accuser of Kavanaugh take a polygraph, paid for by someone else and administered by private investigator in early August, if she wanted to remain anonymous and had no intention of reporting the alleged assault?” he wrote.
Garvey said Rainford’s tweets “demonstrated a lack of sensitivity to the victim,” in an email to the campus.
“We should expect any opinion he expresses about sexual assault to be thoughtful, constructive, and reflective of the values of Catholic University, particularly in communications from the account handle @NCSSSDean. While it was appropriate for him to apologize and to delete his Twitter and Facebook accounts, this does not excuse the serious lack of judgment and insensitivity of his comments,” Garvey said.
Rainford has been dean of the university’s school of social service since 2013.
“My tweet suggested that she was not the victim of sexual assault,” Rainford wrote, referring to his tweet about Swetnick, in an apology letter to the school. “I offer no excuse. It was impulsive and thoughtless and I apologize.”
“I am aware that many of you are angry, frustrated, and hurt,” he added. “For this I am truly sorry.”
