SJSU admits fault in sexual abuse cases
SAN JOSE >> In the school’s first public admission of fault, San Jose State University President Mary Papazian apologized Thursday to student-athletes who say they were sexually abused by an athletic trainer and acknowledged that a 2009 investigation clearing him was wrong.
The case has cast SJSU on a national stage of shame with Michigan State University and USC. Last month, USC paid $1.1 billion to the former patients of Dr. George Tyndall, a campus gynecologist. Larry Nassar, a longtime employee at Michigan State, was the doctor at the center of USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal who is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to molesting female athletes.
It also has cast a harsh light on Papazian and her athletic director, Marie Tuite.
Wednesday, the SJSU faculty union sent a letter to Chancellor Joseph I. Castro asking for Tuite’s suspension. Papazian’s apology Thursday came in the form of a letter to the campus community.
“To the affected studentathletes and their families, I apologize for this breach of trust,” Papazian wrote. “I am determined that we will learn from the past and never repeat it.”
SJSU and the California State University system are facing a handful of legal actions over the handling of a 12-year-old case that alleged athletic trainer Scott Shaw had inappropriately touched 17 women athletes under the guise of physical therapy. Shaw continued treating athletes at San Jose State for 10 years after the initial investigation.
Shaw, who resigned in August, has denied the allegations through an attorney. No charges have been filed against him.
Papazian, who reopened the investigation into Shaw in December of 2019, said it resulted in additional allegations. The chancellor’s office oversaw the inquiry, she said.
“San Jose State’s public acknowledgment that that sexual harassment happened is an extremely important step,” said Shounak S. Dharap, a lawyer representing a group of former SJSU women athletes. “That doesn’t negate what happened. And it certainly doesn’t roll back the 10-plus years that our clients and many survivors suffered trauma as a result of what happened.”
Papazian said the school needs answers to questions about the 2009 investigation and whether the university “properly responded to subsequent concerns about that process.”
In her letter of apology, Papazian also announced reforms in how athletes will be treated for injuries. Papazian wrote the athletic department will adopt a new sports medicine chaperone policy to begin by the fall semester.
The president also said the school is restructuring its Title IX office and adding more resources to it. She said San Jose State also will add a full-time campus survivor advocate and focus more training and education on sexual assault prevention.
Last month, former deputy athletic director Steve O’Brien filed a wrongful termination and retaliation lawsuit in Santa Clara County Superior Court alleging he was fired for trying to preserve the integrity of an internal investigation into the women’s claims of sexual abuse.
According to O’Brien’s suit, the women who first brought the allegations against Shaw told swim coach Sage Hopkins about eight years later that the abuse was ongoing. That spurred Hopkins to push the school to reopen the case, which happened after he circulated a document of nearly 300 pages detailing the allegations to officials at SJSU, the Mountain West Conference and the NCAA.
After Hopkins took action, Tuite asked O’Brien to reprimand the swim coach, according to O’Brien’s suit. O’Brien alleged in the lawsuit that he was fired in retaliation for not carrying out the order.
According to a summary of the investigation released Thursday, a San Jose State Human Resources administrator interviewed 18 peo