San Jose State scandal heading into Nassar territory
It is ugly at San Jose State right now. Ugly in a LarryNassargymnasticsscandal kind of way, which is to say as ugly as it gets. Bad news is coming fast and furious.
On Thursday, a local law firm announced it had filed tort claims — predecessors to formal lawsuits — against the California State University system on behalf of 10 former San Jose State studentathletes who allege they were sexual abuse victims of former SJSU athletic trainer Scott Shaw.
That development comes two days after former SJSU deputy athletic director Steve O’Brien sued the university, including his former boss, athletic director Marie Tuite. The suit alleges wrongful termination and retaliation against O’Brien, saying the athletic department attempted to punish a whistleblower in the same sexual misconduct case.
In other words, the suit says, the people who are supposed to protect studentathletes instead tried to thwart an investigation into the wrongs perpetrated against them.
Responding Wednesday to O’Brien’s filing, the university said in a statement: “San Jose State University is currently reviewing the lawsuit.”
The wrongs have been confirmed. Last week, CSU investigators found that Shaw was responsible for sexual misconduct. The investigation refuted SJSU’s decadeold internal findings that Shaw’s procedures were medically appropriate. Instead, CSU’s medical expert found the
procedure of “trigger point massage” — yes, the same procedure used by Nassar — was inappropriate and unethical.
The news is not only ugly but compounding quickly. But for the victims — now mostly adult women in their late 20s and early 30s — the path toward justice has been agonizingly slow.
The details of the Shaw sexual misconduct case came to light last year, in reports by USA Today. A decade ago, Shaw was cleared by SJSU of inappropriate behavior after a perfunctory and quiet internal investigation. But Spartans swim coach Sage Hopkins collected evidence from swimmers and other athletes who believed the investigation was flawed and incomplete and contended the inappropriate behavior was ongoing.
Hopkins sent his file to the university’s Title IX office and eventually circulated it to NCAA and Mountain West Conference officials, leading to a reopening of the investigation.
The allegations against Shaw, who resigned last summer, are disturbingly similar to those against Nassar. The former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics physician was sentenced to life in prison following convictions of serial abuse, and his actions — and the coverups surrounding them by a variety of institutions — created a wave of fallout throughout youth and collegiate sports, organized gymnastics and the entire Olympic movement.
His case was not an isolated incident. Both the University of Michigan and Ohio State have investigated allegations of longtime sexual misconduct against athletes, by individuals who are now deceased.
And, now, San Jose State. According to this week’s tort claims, the university not only didn’t take action against Shaw but promoted him and continued to allow him access to athletes without supervision.
“These young women trusted SJSU to protect them and act in their best interests,” attorney Shounak Dharap said in a statement from the Arns Law Firm. “The findings of the investigation demonstrate the opposite.”
The lesson to universities should be clear: It doesn’t matter how long ago the abuse took place, or how many people looked the other way. Institutions must be held accountable.
O’Brien’s civil suit alleges that he was told to punish swim coach Hopkins, but that after he raised concerns that any punishment would be viewed as retaliating against a whistleblower, he was fired.
His suit alleges a “culture of fear and intimidation perpetuated by Tuite,” and that the athletic director “aimed to stifle legitimate compliance activities.” O’Brien, now a senior dean for external relations at Santa Clara University’s law school, filed his suit one year after he was terminated.
The allegations of a culture of retaliation at SJSU have also been raised in a Department of Justice investigation into the university’s handling of other Title IX investigations, as first reported by Sportico.
What’s going on at San Jose State will ring familiar to anyone who has experienced or witnessed behavior that was inappropriate or abusive and had their concerns or claims belittled and dismissed by the people in charge. Hang around sports long enough and you’re bound to hear a lot of those stories.
Dharap said other claimants may join the tort claims, to which CSU has 45 days to respond.
“I think there is, at least for some the women, a small sense of closure,” Dharap said. “A sense that this is the first step down a path to actual justice.”
“We are,” former Spartan swimmer Linzy Warkentin told USA Today last week after investigators ruled Shaw was responsible for sexual misconduct, “officially acknowledged.”
But it has been a very long time coming.