{"id":1983833,"date":"2023-07-27T03:20:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T07:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/northwestern-sports-hazing-scandal-is-burying-the-big-10-university-in-lawsuits\/"},"modified":"2023-07-27T03:23:21","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T07:23:21","slug":"northwestern-sports-hazing-scandal-is-burying-the-big-10-university-in-lawsuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/northwestern-sports-hazing-scandal-is-burying-the-big-10-university-in-lawsuits\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwestern sports hazing scandal leads to numerous lawsuits for Big 10 university."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnorthwestern-sports-hazing-scandal-is-burying-the-big-10-university-in-lawsuits%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1983833&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>A Hazing Scandal Rocks \u200bNorthwestern University Athletics Department<\/h2>\n<p>A hazing\u2063 scandal in \u200dthe Northwestern University athletics department that has already \u200dcost\u200c two coaches their jobs is no closer to subsiding as lawsuits \u200cagainst the Chicago area university \u200dare beginning to pile up.<\/p>\n<p>On July 10, Northwestern fired \u200blongtime head football coach Pat Fitzgerald amid revelations that he had overseen \u200da culture that allowed\u2064 for extensive hazing and\u200b sexual abuse. Three days later, the school\u200b fired baseball coach Jim Foster, citing a \u2063culture \u2064of bullying on the team he led for only \u200bone season. The\u200b firing of Fitzgerald came days after the university president, Michael Schill, \u2062had initially suspended him following an independent investigation of the football\u200b program.<\/p>\n<h3>High-Profile \u200cFirings Draw Greater Scrutiny<\/h3>\n<p>The two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/northwestern-sports-hazing-scandal-is-burying-the-big-10-university-in-lawsuits\/\" title=\"Northwestern sports hazing scandal leads to numerous lawsuits for Big 10 university.\">high-profile firings shook<\/a> an athletic department that has prided itself as one of the nation&#8217;s premier collegiate sports programs, boasting numerous alumni in professional sports. But \u200bthe firing of \u2062the two coaches has only served to draw greater scrutiny \u2062to the embattled university as the scandal has invited a growing avalanche of lawsuits from current and former football\u200b players as well \u2064as a women&#8217;s volleyball player.<\/p>\n<p>Patrick Salvi II, a\u200d partner at the law\u200c firm Salvi, Schostok &#038; Pritchard, \u200dtold the Washington Examiner in an interview that the \u2063four\u2064 lawsuits filed by his firm are\u200b just the beginning \u200cand to expect more in \u2064the future.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re preparing complaints \u200cright now to be filed,&#8221; Salvi said. &#8220;I expect more people to come forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Salvi&#8217;s firm is currently representing three football\u2064 players who have sued the Northwestern University \u200bathletics department \u200ddue to the \u2062football team&#8217;s alleged culture\u2062 of \u2063hazing and \u200dsexual abuse. The lawsuits \u200ddescribe \u2063a wide range of behaviors\u2064 common on the\u2063 team that included\u2062 forcing student-athletes, usually freshmen,\u2062 to engage in several\u2062 activities while naked.<\/p>\n<p>In one incident described \u200din a\u200d lawsuit, freshmen players\u200d on\u2064 the\u2064 football team\u200d were forced to &#8220;rub up against a line of [naked] men to get to their showers&#8221; in a tradition\u2064 called &#8220;the carwash.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a case that&#8217;s\u200d going to grow in size,&#8221;\u200d the attorney said in the interview. \u2062&#8221;And I see\u200b it being a reckoning at Northwestern and the hazing culture\u2063 generally that exists in sports.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The four lawsuits filed by Salvi, Schostok &#038;\u200c Pritchard are not the only complaints filed against Northwestern.\u200c Ben Crump, a\u2064 prominent attorney\u2062 who has represented several high-profile litigants, including the family of George Floyd, has also filed a lawsuit against Northwestern and \u200bsaid Monday\u200d that he expects to file as many as 30 individual lawsuits against the school \u200bfor\u200b hazing in \u2064the sports programs.<\/p>\n<p>Salvi told the Washington\u200d Examiner that issues of hazing and abuse were \u2064not contained to one program, \u2064indicating the athletic department had \u200callowed the culture of abuse to fester across sports programs \u2062and\u2064 that the\u2063 school had taken a haphazard approach to\u200b addressing the reported cases of abuse before the scandal becoming public news. He specifically pointed to Schill and the athletic director, Derrick \u200cGragg&#8217;s decision to initially suspend Fitzgerald from \u200cthe team\u2062 for a period of time before \u200clater firing him. Schill\u200d became president of the university last year, and \u200bGragg\u200c has\u200c led the\u200b school&#8217;s athletic department since 2021.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to ESPN, university\u200c spokesman Jon Yates\u200c noted\u200b that an incident of hazing in a \u2064lawsuit brought by a women&#8217;s volleyball player predated Schill and\u200c Gragg. But Salvi\u200c said \u200dhe sees more of the \u200csame from the new administration, which replaced former president Morton Schapiro and former athletic director \u2063Jim Phillips. \u200dBoth are \u200bnamed in\u2064 the\u2063 lawsuits.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have to wonder why \u2064we \u2062would think that\u2063 [the culture changed] in light \u2063of [Schill&#8217;s] handling of the Fitzgerald matter [and] why it was a suspension\u200c to start\u2063 with,&#8221; Salvi said. &#8220;That sounds like it\u2064 was from the\u2064 same playbook, sweep it under the rug, hope it\u200c goes away, and we don&#8217;t\u200c have to address the problem. But \u2064now there&#8217;s a reckoning because the \u200ctruth is coming to light.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The attorney called the \u200bstate of Northwestern&#8217;s athletics &#8220;sad&#8221; and said the school &#8220;has a lot \u2062of work to do \u200cin order to restore\u200d its reputation in the wake \u2063of this scandal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t get \u200dover the fact \u2064that these are just kids,&#8221; \u200dSalvi \u2064said. &#8220;I think now that\u200d we&#8217;re getting\u200d into some of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-to-nearly-double-counteroffer-to-bidens-1-7t-infrastructure-plan\/\" title=\"GOP to nearly double counteroffer to Biden\u2019s .7T infrastructure plan\">nitty-gritty details<\/a>\u2064 of what is occurring and the lasting effect it \u200bcan \u2064have on young\u200d people. It&#8217;s just gotta\u200d stop.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Yates said the university has taken steps to address the\u200d hazing concerns after the details of the\u200b independent investigation were made\u200c known to university officials.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Shortly after learning \u200dthe results of the independent investigation into hazing on the\u2062 football team, the university announced a series of steps including\u2064 the monitoring of the football locker\u2064 room,\u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/university-football-coach-suspended-team-already-under-investigation\/\" title=\"University football coach suspended, team already being investigated.\">anti-hazing training<\/a>, \u200dand the\u2063 establishment of an\u2063 online reporting tool for complaints,&#8221; \u200dYates said. &#8220;These steps, while\u2064 necessary and appropriate, are \u2063just the start, and we will be\u2063 augmenting \u200dthem in the coming weeks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The university spokesman said the university intends to hire \u2064a\u200b firm to investigate\u2063 the \u200cathletic department at large &#8220;to evaluate the sufficiency of our accountability mechanism and to detect threats to the welfare of our\u200c student-athletes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We also will examine\u200b the culture of Northwestern Athletics\u2064 and \u200cits relationship to the\u2062 academic mission,&#8221; Yates said. &#8220;Both of these\u2063 reviews will be\u200d conducted with \u200bfeedback and engagement of faculty, staff, \u2063and students, and both will be \u2062made publicly available.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/northwestern-university-hazing-scandal-lawsuits\">CLICK HERE TO \u200cREAD MORE \u200cFROM THE WASHINGTON\u200c EXAMINER<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A hazing scandal at Northwestern University athletics department continues to escalate with lawsuits piling up against the Chicago area university. Two coaches have already lost their jobs, including longtime head football coach Pat Fitzgerald, who was fired on July 10 for overseeing a culture that permitted hazing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1983834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1983833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1983833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1983834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1983833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1983833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1983833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}