On Oct. 16, 2020, more than 150 former and current students of Patrick Henry College signed a open letter written by ten alumni that claimed Madison Cawthorn's time at the school was marked by "gross misconduct towards our female peers, public misrepresentation of his past, disorderly conduct that was against the school's student honor code and self-admitted academic failings," and that the then-candidate "established a reputation of predatory behavior."
A little more than five months later, BuzzFeed News spoke with over three dozen people from Peace Henry College who made allegations about "sexual harassment and misconduct on campus, in Cawthorn's car, and at his house near campus." The people interviewed included four women who recalled Cawthorn "calling them derogatory names in public in front of their peers, including calling one woman 'slutty,' asking them inappropriate questions about their sex lives, grabbing their thighs, forcing them to sit in his lap and kissing and touching them without their consent."
Cawthorn would allegedly invite women on "fun drives" off campus where he would grill them about their sex life. "I realized he was taking me out to the middle of nowhere, Virginia," former classmate Caitlin Coulter said. "We were on these small, like, one- [or] two-lane back roads, and I just felt so uncomfortable and nervous and not even something I think at the time I could put a finger on, but just, like, danger warning."
