More students fault schools for failure to protect them after rapes, assaults.(NEWSWATCH)(cases of sexual harassment in colleges)

* At Bishop State Community College in Alabama, a jury has ordered the school to pay $285,000 in damages to a former student who sued it for failing to comply with Title IX. Kimberly Howard, a former student in the school's culinary arts program, claimed school officials failed to respond to her complaint of harassment by an instructor.

Howard said that the head of the culinary arts program made unwanted sexual advances toward her in 2003, in his office as well as in the classroom. After one alleged advance, Howard never returned to classes with the instructor.

After alerting the school's HR director to the situation, Howard said she was told she could either face her alleged harasser in class or end her studies in the culinary arts program. Unsatisfied with either option, she sued the college under Title IX, which requires schools to investigate and remedy complaints of sex discrimination.

The court's ruling "is a tremendously important decision at a key time," said Leslie Annexstein, director of the AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund that supported Howard's lawsuit. "Sexual harassment is still a reality for too many women college students across the country," according to the AAUW's Web site, www.aauw.org and a press release.

* A student at Berry College in Georgia has filed a lawsuit claiming that the school did not protect her from a student who raped her repeatedly, even after she reported the attacks to campus officials and police.

The woman claims that fellow student Marcus Sandelowsky stalked, assaulted and raped her. Two other women also accused him of attacking them after the first woman reported her assault. The lawsuit says Berry College treated the attacks as a disciplinary matter and failed to inform local police of them.

* At Erie Community College in New York, a student is filing a lawsuit accusing school officials of responding with indifference to her claim that the men's basketball coach assaulted her. Although the woman filed her civil suit in September 2003, Alexander Nwora continued teaching and coaching until November 2004. The college's executive VP for student affairs said he did not learn of the situation until then. "As soon as we became aware, we took actions," said Daniel Penfold.