Ohio State University reached a preliminary agreement to pay about $100 million to settle claims brought by a group of people who said they were sexually abused by a former team doctor.
The “agreement in principle” is the latest development in a long-running case involving the alleged abuse of hundreds of athletes across at least 15 sports, and other students, dating back to the 1970s. An independent investigation launched by the university determined that physician Richard Strauss abused students for more than 20 years and that the university failed to respond appropriately to the complaints.
In 2019, the investigation concluded that school officials failed to take action despite numerous reports. Male students repeatedly complained that Strauss performed excessive and seemingly medically unnecessary genital exams, the report found, and the school had knowledge of sexually abusive treatment by Strauss as early as 1979. The university’s president at the time apologized to all the victims.
Strauss was fired in 1996, and he died by suicide in 2005.
Ohio State previously settled with 317 people for more than $61 million.
The university’s board of trustees announced Wednesday it had reached settlements with 279 of the remaining 280 people involved in the litigation, and had approved “in principle” the mediator’s proposal to resolve the claims.
The trustees released a joint statement with the plaintiffs saying that the mediation and its requirement of confidentiality are continuing as they work to finalize the details of the settlements.
“The survivors of the Strauss abuse are all Buckeyes and will always be a part of our family and our community,” Ravi V. Bellamkonda, Ohio State’s president, said at Wednesday’s board of trustees meeting. “We continue to be very grateful to them for their courage in coming forward.”
A lawyer for the plaintiffs could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.
Other universities have settled similar abuse cases.
Penn State has paid more than $100 million to settle claims of people who said they were abused by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who is in prison. In 2018, Michigan State University agreed to pay $500 million to settle lawsuits brought by more than 300 alleged victims of former sports physician Larry Nassar, who is serving an effective life sentence in prison. In 2022, the University of Michigan agreed to pay $490 million to settle claims brought by more than 1,000 people who said former sports physician Robert E. Anderson sexually abused them. Anderson died in 2008.
In 2021, the University of Southern California reached a $852 million agreement with hundreds of women who alleged sexual abuse by a former gynecologist at the student health center, George Tyndall — bringing the total of its settlements in the case to more than $1 billion. Tyndall died in 2023.
The post Ohio State preliminarily agrees to pay $100M to settle sex-abuse claims appeared first on Washington Post.
