A lawsuit filed against San Jose State and California State University officials was brought to light just after SJSU released its first public statement admitting wrongdoing for not thoroughly investigating sexual misconduct allegations against the university’s former sports medicine director.
Swimming and diving head coach Sage Hopkins filed suit in March 2021 to the Santa Clara County Superior Court against administrators including current Athletic Director Marie Tuite for retaliating against him after ignoring his claims against Scott Shaw, according to the 93-page court documents obtained by the Spartan Daily.
Hopkins wrote a letter to SJSU President Mary Papazian two months ago stating the administration has been trying to silence him, according to a Sunday Mercury News article.
“Your administration attempted to bully and silence me in a revolting and abusive attempt to silence the victims of Scott Shaw and protect those administrators’ roles in the cover-up and enabling of this abuse,” Hopkins wrote in the letter.
SJSU first investigated sexual misconduct claims against Shaw in 2009, but the university concluded its investigation in 2010 after finding no evidence of wrongdoing, according to an April 17, 2020 USA Today article regarding Shaw’s misconduct.
The investigation was reopened in December 2019 Hopkins sent a 300-page dossier detailing 17 former swimming and diving female athletes’ accounts of Shaw touching them inappropriately during physical therapy. Shaw was the director of sports medicine from 2008 until his resignation in August 2020.
Papazian was hired as president in 2016 and Tuite was hired as the athletic department’s chief operations officer in 2010 and was promoted to director of athletics in May 2017.
Hopkins’ introduction in his lawsuit against SJSU and the CSU stated while he’s relieved his efforts have ended the sexual abuse of dozens of students-athletes throughout the last 12 years, he’s “outraged and heart-broken” over the abuse that was enabled by university leaders.
Kenneth Mashinchi, SJSU’s senior director of media relations, said in a Monday email to the Spartan Daily the university received Hopkins’ letter and “responded accordingly.”
Mashinchi said the same Mercury News article, which reported on the cover-up and retaliation allegations regarding Shaw’s sexual misconduct, was “disappointing, misleading and very one-sided.”
He said SJSU was surprised by the article’s content, which seemed “inconsistent with the standards of acceptable professional journalism.”
Mashinchi then referred to Papazian’s April 15 campuswide email that stated the external investigation concluded the recent and previous misconduct cases are substantiated.
“To the affected student-athletes and their families, I apologize for this breach of trust,” Papazian stated in the email. “I am determined that we will learn from the past and never repeat it.”
Mashinchi said for a “better understanding of the situation,” a frequently asked questions (FAQ) document will be posted on the SJSU For Your Information webpage this week that details the December 2019 investigation.
Mashinchi said the FAQ page will also explain why a Title IX Procedural Response Investigation is necessary and what steps the university will take to protect the SJSU community.
Papazian stated in the April 15 email that as the investigation continues, the university will add more resources to its Title IX office and add more education and orientation programs focused on sexual assault prevention.
Chloe Limargo, an industrial design junior and current swimming and diving athlete, said adding new resources won’t solve the issues students face when their allegations and claims are ignored.
“Well, it's not like we [didn’t have] anything like that [sexual assault resources and education programs] before,” Limargo said in a phone call. “It's just that they've ignored it. More resources may make it easier to report it, but that's not solving the problem.”
She said student-athletes listen to a Title IX lecture every year and it’s not the students that need to be better equipped with Title IX protocols, but the university’s administration.
“This is on them, not us,” Limargo said.
The California Faculty Association, a union of SJSU faculty and staff, sent a letter to CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro calling for Tuite’s suspension, according to an April 15 Mercury News article.
Tuite declined to address the allegations against her, citing respect for the ongoing investigation, pending lawsuits and privacy issues in a statement to the Mercury News Friday, according to the Sunday article.
When asked if Tuite and the athletics department will be investigated, Mashinchi said the university will determine “the appropriate course of action after the ongoing Title IX investigation has concluded.”
Shelby Mullendore, an economics junior and current swimming and diving athlete, said she’s bothered because student-athletes want to look up to Tuite and Papazian as female leaders in power, but “how could they when [Tuite and Papazian are] not sticking up for them?”
“[Tuite] prides herself on being a female athletic director and you have to portray that to your female athletes, that you are truly there for them,” Mullendore said in a phone call. “All of the decisions she’s made up to this point have proved otherwise.”
