A HOSTILE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT FOR MALE STUDENTS: University lifts suspension on accused student — months after charges dropped.

The San Diego district attorney’s office declined to bring charges against a student accused of sexual assault, but that didn’t stop his university from keeping his suspension in place for months afterward.

Francisco Paiva Sousa was arrested for alleged sexual assault on Dec. 9, 2014, but posted bail. Charges were dismissed on Jan. 28. The district attorney declined to give a reason for dropping the charges.

Despite the dropped charges, the school Sousa attended, San Diego State University, kept his suspension in place while it continued its own investigation into the matter. When Sousa was first arrested, the school sent out a campus-wide email about the arrest. But it didn’t send a follow-up email announcing that the charges had been dropped or that the suspension had been lifted after finding the allegations to be unsubstantiated.

Sousa, a transfer student from Portugal, sued the university to try and learn the evidence against him and the specific accusation. Sousa’s attorney says he will now sue SDSU for his legal fees, which are estimated to be roughly $100,000.

I’d add a couple of zeroes there. Related: NYC commissioner: ‘Validate the experience’ of sex assault accusers. What if they’re lying, like “mattress girl” Emma Sulkowicz, New York’s most famous accuser?