My name is Jane Doe. Through tireless effort, I overcame poverty, an unstable and violent home life, and long-untreated disabilities to become a first-gen college graduate with a degree in Molecular Genetics at the age of 20. Two years later, I was excelling in a biology research lab at my alma mater, The Ohio State University– taking post-bacc classes, volunteering in Student Government, and preparing to apply to PhD programs later that year. I was well on the path to the research career I’d always dreamed of.
But I made the mistake of entering a relationship with Quais Naimul Hassan, II, an MD/PhD student in the lab six years my senior with a penchant for holding me captive in his apartment or car whenever I would try to leave a heated argument.
On March 23rd, 2020, the eve of Ohio’s COVID shutdown, Quais’s control issues spilled into our workplace as we finished up an experiment late at night. I told him that we were over for good and that I was going home, and in response, he repeatedly wrapped his arms around me and wrestled me to the floor to prevent me from leaving. Out of desperation, I bit his arm to try to escape his hold, but he still didn’t let me go until my twisting back and forth had resulted in my MCL and meniscus being torn.
OSU intercepted the police report I filed that night, redacted all of my testimony from it, didn’t save the evidence I sent them (including video of Quais holding me captive on prior occasions), and fired me along with my abuser, claiming that any use of self-defense, even if reasonable and provable, is a violation of OSU’s “relationship violence” policy. Months later, even though I was no longer enrolled in classes, OSU pressed charges against our student statuses as well. The Title IX coordinator admitted (on a recorded call) that they intended to find me guilty again under the same secret No Self-Defense policy without even considering the evidence. My termination was already a serious complication to my budding career, but a “relationship violence” notation on my transcript would make me inadmissible to any graduate school and end it entirely. After initiating this double jeopardy, OSU ruled that Quais could use the second investigation as an appeal process for the employment investigation, but that I would be denied that opportunity even if found innocent. The president of the Association of Title IX administrators was brought in to adjudicate, and since he correctly interpreted OSU’s public policies to not preclude good faith self-defense, I was indeed found innocent… but so was Quais. Because I’d been honest about my depression diagnosis, the adjudicator bought Quais’s argument that he was justified in holding me in captivity on a whim– all he had to do was claim that he believed I was going to hurt myself.
So in the end, OSU welcomed my kidnapper back to his old position, buried the evidence of crimes he committed against me on other occasions, and kept me blacklisted from research there. Despite my innocent verdict, OSU has offered me no apologies for getting it wrong initially, no promises of policy reform, and no compensation for draining my life savings in attorney’s fees and forcing me to rewatch videos of my own abuse for years until I developed PTSD.
But why would they do all that? Why would OSU protect an abuser and relentlessly attack his victim?
Because an MD/PhD student is worth more funding.
In their efforts to punish a lowly research assistant for resisting and reporting someone more powerful, The Ohio State University and representative employees knowingly and provably engaged in illegal retaliation, discrimination on the basis of sex and disability, tortious conduct, and violations of Title VII, Title IX, the ADA, Ohio law, Constitutional law, and their own policies and contractual obligations at nearly every possible opportunity. OSU broke so many laws so blatantly, that the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights AND the Ohio Civil Rights Commission both opened investigations into them over their response to my police report.
And these agencies agreed to take up my case because as you will see, I have proof of everything.
The bare minimum evidence to prove both Quais Hassan’s and The Ohio State University’s misconduct is attached below on this homepage, but I urge you to click through the tabs above and explore the full story. I recognize that “self-defense” is a politically charged term that is sometimes weaponized to justify wanton violence, and that you would have no reason to believe me over him if it were just he-said-she said. That’s why I’m releasing all the investigation files— including my abuser’s arguments— and you can see for yourself how overwhelming the evidence is anyway.
Going public is a last resort, and not a decision made lightly in a post-#MeToo internet era where many people still seek out easily digestible and selective quips over hearing victims and all of their evidence out. I know that I run the risk of being accused of seeking attention. But as the case files also reveal, I never wanted any of this to happen. I’d begged OSU to explore informal resolution options instead of firing or expelling Quais, and he’d done the same for me.
And even after the internal investigations ended, OSU has refused to privately come to the table about any restorative justice options– whether that’s reimbursing my expenses, allowing me to return to a career in my desired field of biology and city, exploring therapy or rehabilitative pathways for Quais and other abusers, striking down their internal No Self Defense policy and codifying protections for future victims that report fighting back, etc. Since I’m a lone person with no power or resources, OSU’s default response is to stick their tongue out at me. It’s been made clear that both OSU’s Title IX office and Quais Hassan have learned no lessons, and plan to remain a danger to others for the foreseeable future. So if OSU won’t do the right thing in private, maybe they will under public scrutiny.
And even if my story doesn’t spark reform from the top down, it needs to be told as a cautionary tale. This case calls into focus policy gaps that concern women's rights, disability rights, student rights, worker rights, and abuse victims’ rights, and people need to know the risks before reporting sexual misconduct and/or self-defense to indifferent, profit-driven institutions. Especially The Ohio State University.
