Richard Strauss in his Ohio State College of Medicine photograph. Ohio State has interviewed more than 100 former Ohio State athletes with sexual abuse claims against former team physician Richard Strauss. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State
The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights announced Thursday it has opened an investigation on the allegations made against former Ohio State team physician Dr. Richard Strauss.
According to a statement released by the university, the OCR — which oversees the enforcement of Title IX — is investigating whether Ohio State is responding promptly to reports made by former students, including sexual misconduct allegations made against Strauss and the university allowing the abuse to continue.
The investigation will be run by the OCR Cleveland office
Gates Garrity-Rokous, vice president and chief compliance officer at Ohio State, said via statement that the university welcomes the involvement of the OCR and they “look forward to providing any information we can.”
“We responded promptly and appropriately to the allegations received in April about Dr. Strauss,” Garrity-Rokous said in the statement. “We are confident in the independence and thoroughness of the investigation we launched then as well as our ongoing commitment to transparency.”
Three class-action lawsuits have been filed against Ohio State citing the university knew about the alleged sexual misconduct by Strauss and ignored the complaints made.
Ohio State announced its own independent investigation in April run by Perkins Coie LLP and additional updates are expected to be announced at the Board of Trustees meeting this month.
According to the statement, Ohio State will continue to provide updates on its independent investigation and will report the outcome when it is completed.
