Tables are turned in the Notre Dame sex scandal where a female is in the hot seat for alleged harassment of a male student
Just weeks ago, news broke of a disturbing sex scandal at the University of Louisville where a male staff member of the school’s men’s basketball team was accused of providing prostitutes and strippers to recruits and their guardians.
While Louisville investigates these allegations, the University of Notre Dame finds itself involved in an equally serious scandal. What sets this scandal apart from others is that the person at the center of the controversy is a woman, and the target of her inappropriate and degrading antics was male.
According to a recently-filed lawsuit against the university, a white female academic coach whose job was to help athletes manage their schoolwork used her position to coerce athletes into sexual relationships with her daughter, arranging sexual liaisons with several African-American football and basketball players in exchange for academic favors.
Typically, men are at the center of the most widely publicized cases of sexual misconduct. Female perpetrators are not rare, yet the severity of their crimes and misdeeds are minimized. They often follow the same modus operandi as male perpetrators, using their position of authority to sexually exploit the people they are entrusted to help.
Earlier this year, 16-year-old Cameron Clarkson, a Minnesota high school football player, spoke out about the abuse he experienced at the hands of a 25-year-old female teacher, Gail Gagne. Not only were the teacher’s crimes ignored, Clarkson, the victim, was vilified. “People kept telling me that I ruined that poor girl’s life,” he told The Washington Post.
Though the interactions between Clarkson and Gagne were nonviolent, they were not consensual. The victim’s age and the teacher’s position of trust made the encounters sexual assault. When males are assaulted by women, their claims are often taken less seriously, and the perpetrators, viewed as naive instead of evil, receive lighter sentences than their male counterparts. Some even consider the victims lucky. Who, after all, wouldn’t want to have a sexual encounter with a hot teacher, so goes the faulty reasoning.
Though the alleged victim in the Notre Dame case is male and the accused is female, these circumstances do not diminish the severity of the allegations. According to legal documents, the academic coach was “commanding, directing, encouraging and convincing the Plaintiff to engage in sexual relations” with her daughter, according to NBC. The academic coach allegedly provided hotel rooms and condoms, and made “racially charged comments about his sexual prowess and genitalia.”
Even more disheartening, when the student reported the incidents to Notre Dame, the university failed in its responsibilities, which according to the complaint were to “provide Plaintiff John Doe with the same racially and safe educational environment that it provides to similarly situated non-African-American male students.”
It is common for male victims to be ignored. Myriam Denov of McGill University has done extensive research on female perpetrators of sexual abuse and found that their victims face an uphill battle. Females are supposed to be nurturing and compassionate. Moreover, most people erroneously assume that females do not perpetrate sex crimes or engage in sexual harassment. These factors make the victim’s plight even more difficult as he is more likely to be met with skepticism and disbelief.
As Notre Dame calls the legal action “an allegation that is nothing more than cynical attempt to attract publicity,” news has emerged that the academic coach in question has been fired and several other student athletes have come forward with similar complaints.
All college students, regardless of gender and ethnicity, should be able to pursue their education and enjoy a college experience that isn’t marred by a person of trust exploiting them and objectifying them in such a degrading way. A person tasked with empowering student athletes instead allegedly used her position to find sexual partners for her daughter. Extreme outrage is the only response to this latest college scandal.