Lawsuits Against Ohio Skate University Over Homosexual Abuse By A Team Doctor Are Dismissed

[OSU Escapes]

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal judge dismissed some of the biggest remaining
lawsuits over Ohio State's failure to stop decades-old sexual abuse by
now-deceased team doctor Richard Strauss, saying Wednesday it's
indisputable Strauss abused hundreds of young men but agreeing with OSU's
argument that the legal window for such claims had passed.

"For decades, many at Ohio State tasked with protecting and training
students and young athletes instead turned a blind eye to Strauss's
exploitation," U.S. District Court Judge Michael Watson wrote in one
ruling. "From 1979 to 2018, Ohio State utterly failed these victims.
Plaintiffs beseech this Court to hold Ohio State accountable, but today,
the legal system also fails Plaintiffs."

Attorneys for at least some of the affected plaintiffs immediately vowed
to appeal.

Roughly 400 men and one woman had sued the university since 2018 over its
failure to stop Strauss despite concerns they say were raised with school
officials during his two-decade tenure, as far back as the late 1970s.
Many of the accusers say they were fondled in medical exams at campus
athletic facilities, a student health center, his home and or an off-
campus clinic.

Watson said their two-year legal window in Ohio for bringing such claims
under the federal Title IX law had passed. If the men have a legal path
forward, it starts at the Statehouse, not courts, he said.

"At all times since the filing of these cases, the Ohio legislature had
the power, but not the will, to change the statute of limitations for
these Plaintiffs," Watson wrote.

The university has publicly and repeatedly apologized and has said it was
committed to a "monetary resolution" for those Strauss harmed. It
previously reached nearly $47 million in settlements with 185 survivors –
an average of about $252,000 – and separately offered an individual
settlement program that recently closed and had drawn interest from
additional plaintiffs.

In total, the university has reached settlement agreements with more than
230 survivors, OSU spokesperson Benjamin Johnson said by email Wednesday.
He said he couldn't provide details on the total sum of settlements or the
average settlement amount for those in the individual program.

After the allegations came to light three years ago, the university
"sought to uncover and acknowledge the truth about Richard Strauss' abuse
and the university's failure at the time to prevent it," Johnson said.

But many of the men who'd been continuing the legal fight argued that the
university hadn't treated them fairly and had thus added to their trauma.
They maintained that the earlier settlements were too small and that they
deserve compensation more comparable to other recent sexual abuse scandals
in higher education. They point to Michigan State's $500 million
settlement for 500-plus female victims of now-imprisoned sports doctor
Larry Nassar, and the University of Southern California's $852 million
settlement with more than 700 women who accused a gynecologist of sexual
abuse.

Unlike those cases, the Ohio State accusers can't confront Strauss, who
died in 2005. Since his family's initial statement of shock, no one has
publicly defended him.

He had retired in 1998 with an unblemished employment file. Other records
show there was a state medical board investigation about Strauss in 1996,
but he was never disciplined.

Current officials at the board say evidence of misconduct was ignored in
that case but that they can't determine now why his case was closed back
then.

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/22/1039899108/ohio-state-sex-abuse-doctor-
richard-strauss

[SevenOverSix]

Homosexuals are a PROTECTED CLASS. This lawsuit
will be SQUASHED almost immediately. Likely it
will reversed to persecute the accusers.