On Aug 10, 7:27 am, CY <168....@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am a student-athlete at a university and I recently filed a sexual
> harassment complaint against my sports team coach with my school.
> However, the school only took a little bit of time to investigate my
> case and then returned to me with an answer stating that there is not
> enough evidence for my allegations. But how am I suppose to have
> evidence for something that the coach did behind closed doors?!
Firstly, sorry to hear about your situation. Please don't take any of the following to infer that I disbelieve your claim that you suffered an event you found traumatic and your gut feeling that the coach acted inappropriately and should somehow be called to task for it. The question is, what and how.
You don't say what exactly the coach did, and anyone trying to analyze your situation would need to know those facts, not just the conclusions ("he harassed me") you are trying to draw from those underlying facts (and which conclusions may or may not be correct, depending on your understanding of the law or lack thereof).
You also don't say on what legal basis you filed a complaint with the school administrators. Since you chose to use an internal process of the school rather than the legal system I am assuming you were relying only on the school's internal rules about sexually inappropriate conduct between staff and students, using whatever procedural tools (and standards of evidence) the school had set up to deal with this type of claim. So I have no idea what those rules of behavior were, or what the procedures to challenge them were, or what evidence the school's procedural rules would consider sufficient.
You do have other options, and your single-minded focus on trying to force the school to do something about this directly through their internal procedures may be counter-productive. The school and its administration are not a completely disinterested party in this matter, after all, and even if they are acting in good faith, their procedures may be inadequate. Why haven't you also consulted a lawyer about your rights in this situation? Why haven't you also tried pursuing other kinds of claims, directly against the coach, through the legal system? Or if you already have, and failed, doesn't that answer your question?
Depending on what the coach actually did, his actions could possibly land the coach, and/or the school, in trouble for violation of Title 9 (the section of the Civil Rights Act mandating equal treatment for women's athletics in schools receiving federal funding) or you could have a basis to either sue the coach for an intentional tort or to bring a criminal complaint and have him prosecuted for a sex offense. The fact that it is a "he said - she said" incident that occurred behind closed doors does not necessarily mean the defendant always wins: it depends on credibility of the witnesses, and whether there is any sort of corroborating evidence. Think of Bill and Monica and the protein-stained blue dress, frex, that proved he "had sex with that woman" contrary to his protestations.
It would not be very useful to speculate on what that tort might be, or what the criminal charges might be, without knowing all the facts. Depending on what the coach actually did, it might not even rise to the level that the law could do anything about -- if he simply hurled insults of a sexual nature at you, for example, that may be considered a "de minimis" (trifling) violation in the eyes of the law, too minor to do anything about -- and among coaches such insults are not uncommon (my HS football coach used to call us guys "pussies" if we weren't running wind sprints hard enough for him -- but that was before Title 9). You just need to develop a thick skin for that sort of thing and realize that the coach, not you, is the one being a jerk.
But if he touched you inappropriately, intentionally exposed himself to you, or otherwise forced himself on you sexually, you could have both a civil and criminal remedy in the legal system. You won't know until you make an appointment and consult a lawyer in a confidential setting where you can reveal all the pertinent facts. Most personal injury lawyers do not charge for an initial consultation, and will await the successful outcome of a tort suit before they get paid a percentage of your recovery as their fee for representing you if you do decide to hire them. You have nothing to lose by asking. Good luck,
--
This posting is for discussion purposes, not professional advice.
Anything you post on this Newsgroup is public information.
I am not your lawyer, and you are not my client in any specific legal matter.
For confidential professional advice, consult your own lawyer in a private communication.
Mike Jacobs
LAW OFFICE OF W. MICHAEL JACOBS
10440 Little Patuxent Pkwy #300
Columbia, MD 21044
(tel) 410-740-5685 (fax) 410-740-4300
No comments:
Post a Comment