SAN JOSE — In an explosive report, the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday castigated San Jose State University over its handling of female athletes’ sexual abuse allegations against a longtime sports trainer — and its retaliation against employees who tried to protect them.
The university agreed to pay $1.6 million to the victims — $125,000 apiece — and overhaul its Title IX office and its process for responding to sexual harassment complaints in a settlement agreement with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The lawyer representing the female athletes, Shounak Dharap, called the report a vindication for the women whose complaints in 2009 were dismissed after what federal investigators called the university’s “wholly inadequate” response that allowed the trainer to continue to have “unfettered access” to treat women for years.
“Our clients contend and believe that they were essentially gaslighted by the university over a decade ago. They were told that what they experienced and what they reported didn’t happen the way they said it did,” Dharap said. “Living with that for over a decade, it’s incredibly traumatic.”
The finding, he said, “brings us one step closer to justice.” But it does not resolve the issue: Civil suits against the university are continuing, and on Tuesday there was new focus on San Jose State University President Mary Papazian’s role in the scandal and its aftermath.
Federal investigators concluded 23 student athletes were inappropriately touched by athletic trainer Scott Shaw, but only 13 have accepted the university’s settlement offer to date. It was not clear Tuesday what will happen with the 10 other athletes.
The deal comes after years of scandal at the university that started in 2009 when Spartans swim coach Sage Hopkins first brought forward the allegations of more than a dozen female swimmers who contended that Shaw reached under their bras and underwear and inappropriately touched them during sports massages.
Not only did an internal university investigation at the time quickly clear Shaw of wrongdoing, calling his “pressure point therapy” legitimate, but little was done to prevent him from abusing athletes over the next decade, federal investigators found. During that time, at least two more victims came forward, a dire consequence of “ignoring ongoing concerns,” the report said.
“No student should be subjected to sexual harassment at a college or university in our country, especially by an employee who wields a position of power,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement Tuesday.
The Justice Department also blasted the university for the inadequacy of its subsequent investigations. Although the university launched a second investigation in 2019 that reversed the original findings and vindicated the athletes, it came only after Coach Hopkins — who complained to university officials in emails for years about Shaw — took his complaints outside the university, to the NCAA and other groups. Even then, just like after the first investigation, the trainer inexplicably continued to work on female athletes.
“The Athletic Trainer sexually harassed a student-athlete as recently as February 2020, after the Athletic Trainer was explicitly directed not to treat student-athletes pending SJSU’s investigation,” the report said.
Shaw, who has declined to comment to this news organization, resigned last year. The FBI is investigating for possible criminal charges.
The university also refused to widen the scope of its follow-up investigation despite learning that other athletes had complaints, the report said.
“In some cases, SJSU made minimal or no effort to interview those additional potential victims,” the report said.
The Justice Department on Tuesday also admonished the university for retaliating against two employees. Although not named in the report, the whistleblowers are presumably Coach Hopkins who was given poor performance evaluations after bringing his complaints about Shaw and the university’s inaction to officials at the NCAA, and former deputy athletic director Steve O’Brien, who defended Hopkins and was fired.
However, earlier this year, the athletic department’s top official also lost her job. In May, the school reassigned athletic director Marie Tuite to a fundraising role, and in August, she left. She along with deputy athletic director Eileen Daley have been accused of retaliation. Daley has been on medical leave for several weeks.
Now, President Papazian is coming under fire. She joined San Jose State in 2016, seven years after the allegations first surfaced, but some are calling for her ouster. In letters to Papazian earlier this year obtained by this news organization, Hopkins accused her administration of attempting to “bully and silence” him.
“The ones who get punished are the ones protecting, not the ones abusing or covering up for the abuse,” said Jason Laker, a SJSU professor and previous whistleblower who sued the university for similar issues of covering up sexual harassment in the classroom.
In a statement Tuesday, San Jose State said it looked forward to partnering with the DOJ to build a stronger Title IX program.
“The health and safety of our campus community remains our top priority,” the university said. “We will continue to learn from the past so we never repeat it.”
CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro said in a statement Tuesday that he is “deeply concerned” that the Shaw’s misconduct was not properly addressed.
“We thank and applaud the students and employees at SJSU who courageously brought the truth to light,” Castro said.
The report also requires a reckoning of another kind: Although Papazian apologized in 2019 to Shaw’s victims, acknowledging a “breach of trust,” she refused to acknowledge Hopkins’ efforts to expose the ongoing issues with Shaw. In the Justice Department settlement, the university agreed “SJSU’s President will express appreciation, in writing, for (Hopkins’s) efforts to protect Student-Athletes from Sexual Harassment by the Athletic Trainer.”
