Yesterday, news broke that Garrett Wittels was arrested last Thursday after being charged in a rape case with two 17 year old girls. Michael Wittels (Garrett’s Dad) stated to the Miami Herald that Garrett’s arrest was a personal matter that doesn’t involve Florida International since it occurred off-campus and over winter break.
Actually, this does involve the Florida International University jurisdiction as it states in the school’s student code of conduct: “The following offenses will be used in charging all students, organizations or clubs whether the offenses are committed on campus or off-campus as described in Section 3 of this code:”
According to Alcohol Section of the code, he violated the following:
6. Public intoxication, Excessive drinking and intoxication will not be tolerated.
10. Hosting a gathering where underage individuals are drinking alcohol.
Both of these rules are violated according to the report from the Miami Herald.
The Code of Conduct also goes into Sexual Misconduct
(n) Sexual Misconduct
- Any sexual act that occurs, regardless of personal relationship, without the consent of the other person, or that occurs when the other person is unable to give consent.
- Obscene or indecent behavior, which includes, but is not limited to, exposure of one’s sexual organs or the display of sexual behavior that would reasonably be offensive to others.
- Conduct of a sexual nature that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive campus, educational, or working environment for another person. This includes unwanted, unwelcome, inappropriate, or irrelevant sexual or gender-based activities, comments or gestures.
As we know, this case is based around an alleged rape so each of these can be applied to this case.
The most interesting part of the Student Code of Conduct at FIU is the fact that he could be facing an interim suspension.
In situations where the Vice President (or designee) determines that an emergency exists, which affects the health, safety, or welfare of the student or University community, an interim (temporary) suspension will be imposed. This includes but not limited to, sexual assault, physical assault, hazing, possession of a firearm or explosives, felony drug possession, and other acts of a similar nature.
As of right now, I would highly doubt that Garrett Wittels will be a student at FIU during the spring semester based on the FIU Student Code of Conduct.
