Title IX and mandatory reporting

Urban Meyer, who is probably the greatest college football coach of all time, is also probably going to soon be an ex-college football coach, because he’s likely to be fired by his present employer, the Ohio State University.

What’s taking Meyer down (he’s been placed on administrative leave while the university investigates) is that there’s compelling evidence that he didn’t report to the school’s Title IX compliance office that in 2015 Courtney Smith, the then-wife of wide receivers coach Zach Smith, had told Shelley Meyer — Meyer’s wife and also an OSU employee — that Zach Smith was beating and stalking her.  Courtney Smith shared gruesome photos of the aftermath of one beating with Shelley Meyer, and they texted with each other about the matter:

“I am with you!” Shelley Meyer texted. “A lot of women stay hoping it will get better. I don’t blame you! But just want u to be safe. Do you have a restraining order? He scares me.”

“Restraining orders don’t do anything in Ohio,” Courtney Smith texted back. “I tried to get protection order which is what started this whole investigation. And that should go through soon finally. It’s hard [because] you have to prove immediate danger. Legal system is tough. Basically, you have to prove he will kill u to get protective order.”

“Geesh! Even [with] the pics?” Shelley Meyer texted. “Didn’t law enforcement come to your place ever??”

It went on from there. Courtney Smith said numerous wives on the Ohio State staff knew of the 2015 incident where Courtney claimed Zach shoved her against a wall and strangled her all while their then 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter were in the room. Police were called but the incident did not progress to any arrests.

Courtney Smith, in an interview with Stadium, said she also spoke to Shelley Meyer about it.

“I told Shelley,” Courtney said. “I sent her some pictures. I spoke to her on the phone. She said she was going to have to tell Urban. I said, ‘That’s fine. You should tell Urban. You can’t have someone like this coaching young men.’

Smith was finally fired last month, after he violated a restraining order, and reports of his long history of “alleged” domestic violence — which goes back to at least 2009, when he was an intern on the football staff at the University of Florida, where Meyer was the head coach at the time — began to become public.

As a matter of Title IX compliance, OSU requires anybody who supervises faculty, staff, or students to convey a report of sexual misconduct, including domestic violence, involving anyone subject to the policy, to the relevant university office.  Urban Meyer is obviously a supervisor — Shelley Meyer may well be one as well — and Zach Smith was subject to the policy, so if Urban Meyer knew of the allegations in 2015, he was required to report them by his employment contract, which, interestingly, states explicitly that he can be fired for cause if he doesn’t report such allegations.  (This clause could well end up costing Meyer $40 million, which is what OSU would owe him if they fired him now for losing too many games, as opposed to covering up domestic violence by one of his coaches).

A few notes:

(1) It’s of course highly improbable that Shelley Meyer didn’t tell her husband about her interactions with Courtney Smith in 2015, since not saying anything at that time would have been a flat-out sociopathic thing to do.   Ultimately I think Urban Meyer will resign, because the only way he could survive this would be to lie about (ex hypothesi) his wife’s conduct in a way that would make her look like a moral monster to the world at large, and I doubt he’s willing to do that.

(2) I also think it’s highly improbable that Zach Smith’s status as an Ohio State football coach had nothing to do with the remarkable fact that he has never been arrested for beating up his now ex-wife.  A perennial problem in places like Columbus, Ohio, is that local cops, DAs, and not least university administrators are constantly cutting breaks to people involved in the high profile college sports programs at Dear Old State U.  (See the nightmarish situations at Penn State and Michigan State for further examples from the Big 10’s eastern division).

(3) This case illustrates why mandatory reporting requirements, which are inevitably problematic in their execution (for example, if a student comes to my office hours and tells me that her boyfriend has been abusing her, I have to report this to Title IX compliance even if the student begs me not to because she says her boyfriend will kill her if I do), nevertheless are an important part of trying to ameliorate a culture of sexual violence and abuse.

(4) Donald Trump is giving a campaign speech in Cincinnati on Saturday.  I would put the odds on him making some off the cuff remarks about Urban Meyer and due process and maybe even #metoo at about even money.