OSU case shows law should change
“Dreams were broken, relationships with loved ones were damaged, and the harm now carries over to our children.”
This is the experience of former Ohio State University swimmer Kent Kilgore, a sexual assault survivor of Dr. Richard Strauss — the now-deceased Ohio State team doctor who was found to have sexually abused at least 177 young male students.
For decades, hundreds of victims of sexual abuse by Strauss have been denied justice due to narrow statutes of limitations in Ohio.
And on Sept. 22, their hopes for justice were once again lost as a federal judge dismissed lawsuits fro victims of sexual abuse by Strauss, ruling in favor of OSU'S argument that the two-year legal window in Ohio to bring claims related to the federal Title IX law had passed.
The scope of this scandal and the judicial system's failure to provide victims with a path to justice should compel our nation's leaders and the federal government to fix the antiquated laws that continue to protect predators and the institutions that shield them over victims.
That fix starts with Congress establishing Title IX regulations that set a federal statutes of limitations standard that guarantees survivors access to justice and the ability to come forward when they are ready.
Approximately one in five female students and one in 16 male students are sexually assaulted while attending college.
For victims of sexual abuse at academic institutions subject to federal Title IX requirements, their claims are governed solely by states' statutes of limitations. This creates vastly different access to justice based on nothing more than where victims live when they suffer abuse.
For example, earlier this year, the University of Southern California agreed to pay more than $1.1 billion to settle lawsuits from hundreds of women who were sexually abused by a campus gynecologist the past several decades.
In 2018, Michigan State agreed to pay $500 million to settle lawsuits by 332 alleged victims of former sports physician Larry Nassar.
Compare that with Ohio State University, which announced a meager $40.9 million settlement with 162 survivors. That is because Ohio's current statute of limitations law requires college students to file civil lawsuits within just two years of when their abuse occurred, with criminal statutes as short as six years
A uniform, extended statute of limitations for Title IX claims, regardless of geographic boundaries, would help identify sexual predators and the institutions that shield them.
These reforms would also help shift the cost of abuse from the individual and the state to the abusers and perpetrators themselves.
These reforms will prevent taxpayers from paying
Let’s let this OSU debacle be the last story of a predator winning over victims. Let’s ask our lawmakers, elected officials and the nation’s leaders to fight for justice and begin the process of healing that every survivor deserves.
for the crimes of predators and the institutions that protect and enable them.
More victims would be able to bring civil claims and seek compensation directly from abusers, rather than being relegated to the state for support when the impacts of sexual violence affect their lives in the form of depression, PTSD and substance abuse, among other problems.
There is no monetary settlement that is equivalent to restoring the youth and innocence of bright young students who were tainted at the hands of a predator and neglected by the institution that harbored them — and in many cases, continues to employ them.
Congress and the White House need to work together to hold predators and the institutions that enabled them accountable for their actions by reforming decades-old laws that continue to protect abusers.
It is our responsibility to protect our children — past, current and future students and athletes — from the abuse of sexual predators and the lack of oversight and diligence that so many of these institutions continue to display.
Let's let this OSU debacle be the last story of a predator winning over victims. Let's ask our lawmakers, elected officials and the nation's leaders to fight for justice and begin the process of healing that every survivor deserves.
Attorney Kathryn Robb is executive director of CHILD Usadvocacy, an organization dedicated to ending child abuse and neglect through better laws for child protection.