Two former UCLA students have dropped their lawsuit against the UC Regents in which they alleged they were sexually assaulted and hazed by veteran student counselors at a 2022 mountain summer camp who allegedly subjected them to forced nudity and made them drink alcohol.
Attorneys for plaintiffs Samea Derrick and Lydia Dixon filed court papers Monday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel Murphy asking that their case be dismissed. The papers did not say if a settlement was reached or if the pair are not pursuing the case for other reasons.
In their court papers, UC Regents attorneys denied the pair’s allegations, said the regents took “prompt and appropriate corrective action” and that the lawsuit should be dismissed.
The two plaintiffs said they were hired in the summer of 2022 as camp counselors at Bruin Woods, a Lake Arrowhead summer getaway for alumni. They and other new staff members were legally too young to drink alcohol, but the veteran counselors and other Bruin Woods employees allegedly coerced Derrick and Dixon to consume unsafe quantities of alcohol with the intention of getting them drunk so they would be talked into taking off their clothes and eventually become unconscious, the suit filed in October 2022 alleged.
The plaintiffs also had to contribute money to purchase the alcohol that they allegedly were forced to consume and their money was rerouted through multiple accounts in an effort to avoid detection, the suit stated.
Derrick and Dixon were told not to talk to their families, friends and other co-workers about their Bruin Woods experiences, according to the suit, which also states the plaintiffs had to engage in non-consensual sexual activity.
The pair left one week into the 11-week program due to their “intolerable work conditions, living conditions, abuse and hazing” as well as in concern for their safety, the suit stated.