The University of Notre Dame has fired an academic coach amid allegations that she coerced Notre Dame football and basketball players to have sex with her daughter, according to the New York Daily News, which obtained an internal school report.
Also, a student filed a lawsuit against the university on Friday in St. Joseph County (Ind.) Circuit Court, alleging the university employee pressured him into having sex with the coach's daughter and claiming he was a victim of sexual harassment and racial discrimination.
The academic coach and her daughter are not named in the report, nor is the student-athlete who filed the lawsuit. The student, who is identified as African-American, claims the coach orchestrated “sexually and racially motivated” trysts with her daughter by including condoms, transportation and hotel rooms for academic favors, the Daily News reported.
“[The academic coach] was exploiting African-American males,” the student’s attorney, Peter J. Agostino, told the newspaper. “He was invited to the family’s private home to facilitate the relationship.”
The student was on an academic scholarship at Notre Dame and began the alleged relationship with the coach’s daughter during the spring semester, the newspaper reported. The relationship lasted five months and included out-of-state sexual liaisons.
According to the lawsuit, the coach interrogated the student about the “nature, frequency, and quality of the sexual activities” he had with her daughter, and making “racially charged comments about his sexual prowess and genitalia,” NBC News reported. The lawsuit also said other African-American male students, including members of the Notre Dame football and basketball teams, were targeted.
Paul Browne, vice president of public affairs and communications for Notre Dame, said in a statement to the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune: “The allegations against the University of Notre Dame in the complaint are unfounded, as are gratuitous and unfounded references to ‘student athletes’ — an allegation that is nothing more than a cynical attempt to attract publicity.”
Browne did not respond to a request seeking comment by the Daily News about the reported firing of the academic coach.
