The horrific stabbings of four University of Idaho students in November 2022 are often framed as a sudden, unpredictable act of violence, but a civil lawsuit filed by the victims’ families suggests that Bryan Kohberger’s path to that night was paved with ignored reports and administrative paralysis.

At the heart of the litigation against Washington State University (WSU) is a damning allegation that the institution didn’t just fail to see the signs, they allegedly received a mountain of formal complaints and chose to do nothing.

While Kohberger has been sentenced to life in prison, this civil case focuses on a different kind of culpability: institutional indifference to sexual harassment and stalking.

Title IX Complaints Ignored

According to the complaint, WSU’s Office of Compliance and Civil Rights (CCR) received at least 13 formal reports regarding Kohberger’s predatory behavior toward female students and staff during the Fall 2022 semester.

These reports described a terrifying pattern of behavior. Kohberger allegedly followed women to their cars, trapped female graduate students in their offices, and stared so aggressively at female classmates that they fled rooms in tears.

Despite this volume of evidence, the university official responsible for acting on these complaints reportedly admitted she had never even met or spoken with Kohberger.

Warnings of a “Predator”

The failures extended deep into the faculty hierarchy, where the level of internal concern had reached a fever pitch months before the murders.

The Complaint alleges that Kohberger engaged in disturbing and menacing behaviors at WSU towards women. One of his fellow graduate students described Kohberger as a “stalker” and  “sexual assaulter type” and predicted that he would eventually do something “inappropriate” to a student.

Another fellow graduate student described Kohberger as a “possible future rapist”.

One faculty member, who claimed to work with predators, explicitly warned colleagues that if the university continued his Ph.D. track, Kohberger would eventually be in a position to harass, stalk, and sexually abuse students.

The WSU faculty member who supervised Kohberger knew that several female graduate students had filed complaints that he made them feel uncomfortable and unsafe.

As early as mid-September 2022, professors were discussing the urgent need for an “intervention” due to Kohberger’s treatment of women.

This was not just a general worry. Multiple students and staff were so frightened that WSU police and faculty members had to provide them with routine security escorts to their cars after work.

Prioritizing Fear of Suit Over Student Safety

One of the most disturbing allegations in the lawsuit is the claim that WSU’s inaction on numerous Title IX sexual harassment complaints against Kohberger was motivated by legal and financial fear.

The complaint asserts that Kohberger’s supervising instructor was concerned that removing him from his position as a Teaching Assistant would open the university up to a civil lawsuit from Kohberger himself.

By choosing to avoid a potential wrongful termination suit, the university allegedly elevated its financial interests above the safety of its students and the surrounding community.

The “Trigger” and the Fatal Outcome

Title IX is more than a compliance checklist. It is a federal safety mandate that requires schools to act reasonably when they have actual knowledge of harassment.

WSU’s own threat-assessment protocols, the WAVR-21, warn that problematic individuals are most likely to turn violent following a “shameful or rejecting event”.

It turns out that just days before the murders, WSU forced Kohberger to attend a remedial harassment training that reportedly embarrassed him in front of his entire cohort.

The lawsuit argues that because WSU provided Kohberger with housing, a salary, and internet access while ignoring his escalating threats, they effectively provided the infrastructure he needed to plot and commit the murders.

Ultimately, this litigation underscores that the fundamental purpose of Title IX is proactive prevention, not merely post-hoc explanation, and institutions do not have the choice to ignore credible reports of harassment for their own financial or reputational benefit.

Federal law imposes an affirmative obligation on universities to investigate, assess risk, and take corrective action once they have actual knowledge of a threat. Universities cannot simply file sexual harassment complaints away and wait for a catastrophe.

By allegedly prioritizing the avoidance of a potential lawsuit from Kohberger over the safety of the community, the university breached a federally mandated safety obligation that exists to ensure every student has equal access to a safe and inclusive educational environment.