Nov 14, 2013 11:15 AM EST By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Last year, a student at UConn witnessed someone physically and verbally assaulting his girlfriend and called the police, resulting in that person's arrest, but the student claims the school told her she was better off not getting involved.

The night of the incident Oct. 5, 2012, the attacker was University of Connecticut (UConn) Huskies running back Lyle McCombs and the witness was Alyssa Palazzo. She told the Huffington Post the football player was hitting, yelling and spitting at his girlfriend while others, presumably his roommates, watched.

According to the Hartford Courant, he was arrested that night and charged with a misdemeanor second-degree breach of peace. For violating team rules, Paul Pasqualoni, head football coach at the time, sat McCombs for the 15 minutes of the Huskies' next game.

Palazzo was not comfortable, she did not feel safe and she was afraid for the girl. The night of the incident, she shouting woke her up in the middle of the night because the man's room was right below hers.

Some time later, Palazzo provided a witness testimony and said she could not keep her identity hidden from McCombs, who could easily discover it was her who called the police on him. Palazzo was concerned with testifying against him and asked the assistant director in the Office of Community Standards what would be done to keep her safe.

She said the administrator told her, "If you feel unsafe, then you shouldn't say anything at all."

Palazzo is one of seven current and former UConn students that already filed a complaint against the school for discouraging its students from reporting campus violence. The complaint is still pending with the U.S. Education Department's Office of Civil Rights and also alleges the school did not properly respond to other instances of sexual misconduct as well.

After Palazzo provided her testimony to the school official, she said she told the administrator she felt sexual misconduct was a prevalent issue on campus. Palazzo said she had been groped on the bus, seen women experience the same thing elsewhere and even knew victims of sexual assault.

"Well, I don't see it happening all the time on campus, but if you think that's the case, then you should join a women's group because they'll do something about it," Palazzo said the assistant director told her.

Said the student of her experience with the administrator, "I think she just wanted honestly to get rid of me and she wanted the interview to be over."

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