SJSU finds ex-athletic trainer violated sex abuse policies.
President apologizes for wrongly clearing athletic trainer in ’09
SAN JOSE >> In the school’s first public admission of fault, San Jose State University President Mary Papazian apologized April 15 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.
On April 14, the SJSU faculty union sent a letter to Chancellor Joseph I. Castro asking for Tuite’s suspension. Papazian’s apology April 15 came in the form of a letter to the campus community.
“To the affected student-athletes 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 people in the 2009 inquiry. In May 2010 the investigator, Arthur Dunklin, cleared Shaw of wrongdoing.
According to the summary, the trainer was exonerated because the “evidence established that Shaw’s method of treatment — pressure point therapy — is a “bona fide means of treating muscle injury.”
But the new inquiry found Shaw had touched the women inappropriately during physical therapy sessions, the report said.
Investigators said in the summary that eight former women athletes and two current SJSU athletes alleged that Shaw had touched them inappropriately. The report said Shaw declined to participate in the inquiry.
“The allegations included that Shaw touched their breasts, skinto-skin, (under the bra and close to the nipple) and/or near their genital/groin area (under clothing) when treating back or hip injuries,” the investigators said in the report.
The incidents occurred primarily between 2006 and 2009, according to the report.
Last month, 10 former SJSU athletes filed tort claims with the California State University system as the first step to filing a civil lawsuit. The claimants, whose names were redacted in the documents, allege they were victims of sexual abuse, harassment, and discrimination.
The university’s handling of the case also is under investigation by federal authorities, according to a lawyer representing a former SJSU athletics administrator. The lawyer, Jason Smith, said he sat in on two interviews of his client by Department of Justice and FBI agents.
The San Jose State faculty union’s letter April 14 to the chancellor’s office said members are concerned about the administration’s handling of the athletes’ allegations.
“Instead of taking immediate action to investigate and protect our students, the SJSU Administration ignored persistent complaints by student-athletes and Coach Sage Hopkins,” the faculty letter said. “The SJSU Administration engaged in the destruction of evidence, intimidation practices, and retaliatory acts against the people who stood up to protect our students. SJSU Athletics Director Marie Tuite has violated the California Whistleblower Protection Act and CSU Executive Order 1096 in her retaliation against Coach Sage Hopkins, who reported these Title IX violations.”
The letter asked the chancellor to place Tuite, senior women’s athletic director Eileen Daley and two other university officials on administrative leave while officials conduct “a proper investigation” into what happened.
The California Faculty Association chapter president did not respond to an email April 15 seeking to discuss the letter.
Papazian said that an investigation into what happened with the original inquiry and subsequent follow-up complaints will be handled by an external investigator and overseen by the chancellor’s office.