Former Harvard University women’s hockey coach Katie Stone filed a gender discrimination lawsuit in federal district court in Massachusetts on Tuesday, alleging that the university expelled her last year over allegations of misconduct and bullying that Stone claims are false, and that the university also discriminated against her for her gender and subjected her to unfair pay practices.
Stone resigned from the program last summer amid multiple reports and investigations into the culture of the women’s hockey team.
She was accused of overseeing programs where bullying was allegedly taking place, including “mental health ‘Hunger Games'” in which athletes participated in “naked skating.” According to The Athletic.
But according to her lawsuit against Harvard, she now claims she was forced to leave the university.
“I will no longer stand by in the face of inequity and injustice and allow one of the world’s leading universities to continue to hide behind a veil of unfair fairness,” Stone said at a press conference on Tuesday. The Boston Globe reported.“The loss of my career, my reputation and my ability to earn a living doing what I love is heartbreaking. The damage is real and affects me every day.”
Stone’s lawyer, Andrew Miltenberg, argued at a press conference that Harvard had used these allegations to undermine Stone and try to remove him from his position.
The Boston Globe and The Athletic published extensive reports alleging bullying and abusive behavior during Stone’s tenure.
But Tuesday’s lawsuit alleges that Harvard has essentially ousted Stone, which she claims is part of a “larger culture at the university where female coaches are undervalued, underpaid, highly scrutinized and held to shockingly stricter standards of conduct than their male coaches.”
The 33-page lawsuit details allegations by the former women’s hockey coach that a double standard existed in Harvard treating its men’s team differently for issues similar to those that allegedly occurred with the women’s hockey team, which contributed to her leaving the program.
“Female coaches like Coach Stone are expected to nurture their female players and guide them with compassion and sensitivity, while male coaches are allowed to take a ‘strict’ approach and hold male players accountable for their actions,” the lawsuit states.
Stone, who left the school as the fourth-winningest coach in girls hockey, said she also raised concerns about the pay disparity between herself and the men’s coaches, despite the girls’ hockey program’s success compared to the boys’.
“Katie Stone raised this issue with the administration and was told that men have to make quicker decisions during matches,” Miltenberg said at a press conference on Tuesday. By WCVB.
Stone did not answer questions from reporters at the news conference. The Athletic reported.However, several of her former players were in attendance and spoke in defence of their former coach.
Stone called those who spoke out against her “a small minority of people who felt unsupported.”
The former hockey coach also named 50 Jane Doe defendants who are suing the Boston Globe and Harvard University for defamation for making false statements.
She is seeking more than $5 million in damages from 50 Jane Doe defendants.
