By Jasper Ward
Ohio State University has reached a $100 million settlement with nearly 300 former students who had accused the school’s campus doctor of sexually assaulting them decades ago, the school and a lawyer for the victims said on Wednesday.
The settlement with 279 of the 280 former students was ratified by the university’s board on Wednesday. It followed years of litigation over accusations of decades of abuse by Richard Strauss.
The abuse occurred from 1978 to 1998, the year he retired from the faculty.
“The mediation and its confidentiality are continuing as the parties work to finalize the details of the settlements, and additional information will be shared as appropriate,” the school and a lawyer for the victims said in a joint statement.
In February, the university reached eight additional settlements, bringing the total to 304 survivors and more than $60 million.
Strauss, who killed himself in 2005, was employed by Ohio State’s athletic department and medical staff for nearly two decades.
A 2019 report detailing the investigative findings said that Strauss had sexually abused at least 177 men, nearly all of whom were students, and that university staff who knew of the abuse failed to act. The abuse included groping and fondling of the students’ genitals and other acts under the guise of a medical examination.
News of the investigation and its findings prompted more than 500 plaintiffs to sue Ohio State, alleging they had been sexually abused by Strauss and that the school had shown deliberate indifference.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; editing by Donna Bryson and Lincoln Feast.)
