Justice Department Secures $4.14 Million Settlement for Student-Athletes to Remedy Title IX Violations at University of Maryland, Baltimore County

 

Settlement Requires Financial Relief and Systemic Action to Address Sexual Abuse and Discrimination of Student-Athletes by Former Coach

The Justice Department announced a settlement agreement with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to resolve the department’s findings that UMBC allowed a former head coach of the swimming and diving team to sexually harass male student-athletes and discriminate against female student-athletes for years. The department conducted its investigation under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX).

“A school’s responsibility is to protect its students, not abusers who seek to exploit their positions of power,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The young student-athletes at UMBC experienced a double betrayal: their coach’s prolonged abuse compounded by their university’s utter failure to acknowledge, respond to or remedy this egregious conduct. UMBC has now taken full responsibility for its failures and has expressed its commitment to addressing them and rebuilding the trust of its community. The Justice Department recognizes the brave and resilient student-athletes who came forward and continue to come forward to share their stories with us. This settlement should send a resounding message to our nation’s colleges and universities: sexual assaults and harassment of students will not be tolerated.”  

The department found that in 2015, students reported that the head coach may have used a camera to film them while they showered in a UMBC locker room. Rather than investigate this report or take action to protect students, UMBC administrators warned the coach that campus police planned to search his locker, thwarting the criminal investigation. In 2019, a student reported unwanted sexual touching and harassment by the coach of male swimmers and again, UMBC failed to investigate or otherwise respond. The department also found that during this time, UMBC did not respond to female students’ reports of sex discrimination, including dating violence, while on the team. As a result of these glaring failures by the university, student-athletes were subjected to ongoing sexual abuse, harassment and other sex discrimination by their coach for years.

UMBC has agreed to pay up to $4.14 million in financial relief to student-athletes who were subjected to sex discrimination by the former head coach. Under this settlement agreement, UMBC will also:

• Significantly improve UMBC’s process for responding to complaints of sex discrimination;
• Provide additional resources and staffing for its Title IX compliance program, including a permanent Title IX Coordinator;
• Provide a full-time support person for those who have experienced sexual assault;
• Deliver training to student-athletes and athletics department employees on healthy relationships, intimate partner violence, power dynamics within the coach-athlete relationship and retaliation;
• Create and enforce a policy outlining expectations for coaching staff behavior and
• Administer surveys to student-athletes about their experiences with sex discrimination and take all necessary and appropriate corrective action.

The department will monitor UMBC’s implementation of the agreement, which will remain in place through the 2028-2029 academic year. View a summary of the agreement here.

Attorneys from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division’s Educational Opportunities Section and an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland conducted the investigation, with UMBC’s full cooperation.

Individuals with information related to the department’s findings are encouraged to contact the Justice Department at Community.UMBC@usdoj.gov.

The month of April is observed as Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The enforcement of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination, including sexual harassment and assault, in education programs and activities operated by recipients of federal financial assistance, is a top priority of the Civil Rights Division. This settlement is part of the division’s work to combat sexual harassment and follows the division’s resolution of investigations involving allegations of sexual assault of students at San José State University and at Case Western Reserve University. Additional information about the Civil Rights Division is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt and additional information about the work of the Educational Opportunities Section is available at www.justice.gov/crt/educational-opportunities-section. Members of the public may report possible civil rights violations at www.civilrights.justice.gov/report/.