Anemona Hartocollis reports:
In 2020, after Lilia Kilburn, a graduate student, filed a formal complaint notifying Harvard University that an anthropology professor was sexually harassing her, an investigation was opened, as required by federal law.
What happened next stunned Ms. Kilburn, according to her lawyers.
In the course of that investigation, Harvard obtained notes from her psychotherapy sessions, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week in Boston, and gave them to John Comaroff — the professor she had accused of kissing, hugging and groping her — who then used them to try to undermine her credibility, according to the lawsuit.
Read more at The New York Times, keeping in mind that allegations in a lawsuit are just that — allegations — that have not yet been proven or disproven by evidence examined by impartial others.
This case sounds messy on a number of levels, but it should be possible to determine whether Kilburn did, or did not, sign any consent to permit her therapist to provide the school with confidential therapy records. It is not clear from the reporting whether the therapist is also being sued or has had any ethics complaint filed for allegedly turning over records without Kilburn’s written consent, but the therapist is not a defendant in this federal lawsuit.
The case is: Czerwienski et al v. President and Fellows of Harvard College et al, in United States District Court, District of Massachusetts. CASE #: 1:22-cv-10202-JGD