Nearly two-dozen schools across five major college sports conferences have paid millions in sexual harassment settlements in recent years to keep victims quiet.
The big picture: Schools and universities throughout the country have struggled to handle complaints of sexual assault and harassment for decades. With the #MeToo movement in full swing, how schools react to these cases will be more scrutinized than ever before.
Over the last two years, schools from within the power five conferences (Big 10, SEC, ACC, Pac 12, Big 12) have paid out more than $10.5 million in sexual harassment settlements, reports the Wall Street Journal.
In some cases, schools pay the accused to make them go away without having to go through the process of firing them, removing them or revoking their tenure.
Be smart: This isn't a new phenomenon limited to the past two years. Schools have used this strategy in cases in and out of court for years.
It's not limited to schools in big conferences:
It still happens. Just this year, Michigan State settled for $500 million with the 332 women and students abused by Larry Nassar. Nassar, however, was sentenced to 125 years in prison.
The bottom line: In many of these cases, instances of sexual harassment remain are swept under the rug through payments and not dealt with criminally in order to avoid long, drawn out plans of discipline.
