San Jose-San Jose State University and 15 former female student athletes who have been sexually harassed by long-term sports coaches reached a $3.3 million settlement agreement. This is the school’s latest liquidation. The threat of the year.
The settlement agreement with the victims of former sports medicine director Scott Shaw is the second in two months. The agreement will be divided among some of his earliest victims, which date back to 2009. Driven by an investigation by the US Department of Justice, the first $1.6 million settlement agreement involved at least 13 other victims, who agreed to each receive $125,000.
For some of the survivors interviewed on Saturday, the settlement reached through their lawyers was not enough.
"Everyone wants them to admit that they allow this to happen under their supervision. But it's more like,'We're sorry this happened to you,'" said 32-year-old Lindsay Volkentin. He was one of the original members of the swimming team in 2009, and he complained about Xiao's treatment. "But they allow this to happen. If they took action ten years ago, some girls would never have to go through this."
The exact number of victims is not yet known. So far, 28 women have been involved in these two settlements. The Department of Justice reported 23, but the agency said there may be more, and asked the university to get in touch with the more than 1,000 female athletes treated by Shaw.
The consequences affected the highest position in the university administration: sports director Mary Tuyt was demoted and then left the university in August. University president Mary Papazian, who joined the school in 2016, announced her resignation on December 21 . At the same time, Xiao did not step down until a new victim appeared last year. During the FBI's investigation, Shaw declined an interview request.
In a statement released on Friday, Papazian thanked the student athletes for sharing their "painful experiences" with her and other SJSU and California State University leaders.
Papazian said: “We apologize to students and their families for the heartbreaking departure of trust they have experienced.” “As a campus, we are making major changes to improve the safety and security of the entire SJSU community. Well-being to ensure that such incidents do not happen again."
The latest settlement was reached 12 years after swimming coach Sage Hopkins first filed accusations of more than a dozen female swimmers who claimed that Shaw reached under their bras and underwear during sports massages and improperly touched them.
At that time, an internal investigation based on the novice expertise of two junior trainers on campus quickly cleared Xiao's misconduct and found that his "pressure point therapy" was a legal form of treatment. Federal investigators said that although the swimming coach continued to complain and asked his own swimmers to stay away from Xiao, for the next ten years, the chief coach was allowed to continue to treat athletes largely "unconstrained".
"As people who participated in the preliminary investigation, hope and share what happened and be told that we were wrong-this has made us gradually lose trust in our intuition and trust in others," another swimmer, 32 years old Kirsten Trammel said. The 2009 team. "Knowing that this situation continues to happen, and talking to young women who have experienced this situation, and knowing that this situation has lasted so long is really heartbreaking."
Trammell said the two women-Papazian and Tuite-"had the power to support us at the time, but it was not really frustrating." "We believe and hope that the university will elect someone who can protect student athletes and advocates to power in the future. Related article Tesla carried out “rampant sexual harassment” of women at the Fremont factory. The lawsuit alleges that Muslim prosecutors sued California County for alleged sexual and racial harassment by the former senior DA director. FBI: Dublin prison guards demanded imprisonment of women Provided nude photos to try to cover up other suspected sexual abuse Oakland students walked out of the classroom to protest the school district’s handling of sexual assault and harassment of the mayor of Southern California. The second plaintiff withdrew the lawsuit and accused her lawyer of lying
The scandal did not make headlines until 2020, when the swimming coach submitted his off-campus complaint to the National University Sports Association, and Papazian ordered a new investigation into the old allegations.
Although the new investigation overturned the original findings and defended the victims, the Civil Rights Division of the Ministry of Justice warned that the review had serious flaws, partly because it apparently failed to find possible new victims. The Department of Justice also accused the Papazian government of launching the 2019 investigation only under pressure from the NCAA.
This liquidation was drawn from extensive discussions nationwide about the sexual harassment of young athletes by authority figures, especially after the famous US gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was accused of sexual abuse by hundreds of athletes. The case ended when Nasser was sentenced to 40 to 125 years in prison and the victim reached a $500 million settlement with Nassar's employer, Michigan State University.
The San Jose athlete cited Naxal’s victims as an inspiration and clarification of Shaw’s behavior. The $3.3 million settlement was reached through the survivor’s lawyer Shounak Dharap, who said the agreement is important for closure and accountability.
Dalap said in a statement: “Through this process, these brave young women have inspired change and provided courage to other students across the country to speak freely and report incidents through all available channels.” “Their actions. It has brought institutional changes to ensure effective responses to allegations of sexual harassment at universities, and we hope that other universities across the country will accept this approach."
For survivors, settlements are just a step forward.
"The reality is that no reconciliation and no apology can eliminate what happened to us," said Trammell, who had traveled to the Bay Area for final reconciliation negotiations with two other survivors. "This is what we will spend the rest of our lives."
Special writer Fiona Kelliher contributed to this report. Report error policies and standards Contact us
Get morning reports and other email communications