San Jose State University will pay $1.6 million to 13 female student-athletes who were sexually harassed and assaulted by a former athletic trainer after mishandling their complaints as part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Officials said in a release Tuesday that a Title IX investigation by the department's Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office of Northern California determined that the university "failed for more than a decade to respond adequately to reports of sexual harassment, including sexual assault" of female student-athletes by Scott Shaw, the university's former director of sports medicine.
Prosecutors said the university also retaliated against two employees, giving a negative performance evaluation to one who reported Shaw's harassment internally and externally, then firing another after they raised concerns about the retaliation against the first employee.
"The Justice Department thanks the current and former students who came forward and shared their experiences, and the employees who unceasingly advocated for their students," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division said in a release. "Because of them, San Jose State University will adopt major reforms to prevent such an abuse of authority from happening ever again."
Among the changes, the university must hire at least four new Title IX officials, create and maintain a database of all claims of sex discrimination, issue a campus-wide survery in three years to measure the university’s effectiveness in enforcing Title IX and provide biannual reports to the Department of Justice.
In addition, the university will conduct a survey among all female student-athletes who attended the school during Shaw’s tenure. It must offer "financial relief and/or supportive measures and remedies" to those surveyed who were found to be victims of sexual harassment.
"The department's findings provide a stark reminder that schools must respond quickly to protect students from sexual harassment. Title IX requires no less," Stephanie Hinds, acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, said in a release.
Shaw stepped down in August 2020, four months after USA Today reported San Jose State reopened a probe into allegations of sexual harassment and assault by 17 members of the women’s swimming and diving team from 2009. The university cleared Shaw of wrongdoing in 2010, despite allegations he repeatedly touched their breasts, groins, buttocks and pubic areas without consent or explanation.
Swimming coach Sage Hopkins resurfaced the allegations in 2018 and the university told the outlet that Hopkins had informed NCAA and Mountain West Conference officials of the complaints as well. That disclosure prompted a university investigation, which was released in April and substantiated the student-athletes’ claims.
Hopkins sued the school in March for retaliation, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Steve O'Brien, the university's former deputy athletic director, sued the school for retaliation and wrongful termination that same month. Neither employee the university retaliated against was identified by the Department of Justice.
San Jose State said 23 student-athletes participated in either of the school's investigations or the Department of Justice's own inquiry. Of those, 13 accepted the $125,000 the school agreed to pay to participants in the investigations.
Former Athletic Director Marie Tuite, whom Hopkins and O'Brien alleged retaliatiated against them, was reassigned to a fundraising role in May and left the university last month. San Jose State President Mary Papazian remained in her role despite calls for her resignation, apologizing to affected students and their families "for this breach of trust" as part of a campus-wide letter in April that said their 2009 claims were substantiated in the university's subsequent investigation.
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