State high court hears dispute over whistleblower protections in Galvin v. Roxbury Community College

A panel of justices heard oral argument in Thomas Galvin v. Roxbury Community College over whether Galvin is entitled to whistleblower protections for reporting alleged failures to comply with the Clery Act.

Attorney Brown, counsel for the plaintiff, Thomas Galvin, told the court that factual admissions and investigative reports in the record establish Roxbury Community College violated the Clery Act for failing to report a series of campus sexual assaults that occurred between 2000 and 2006. Brown said the trial record and the O'Connor Drew and independent-counsel reports show those incidents were reportable under the Clery Act and were not included in the institution's required reporting, a finding Brown said the lower court relied on in granting partial summary judgment to Galvin.

Brown said those record concessions resolve the first element of a statutory whistleblower claim because they show Galvin had an objectively reasonable belief that a violation had occurred. He…