25/03/2021
It is staggering to hear that hundreds of students at the University of Southern California had been preyed on sexually by a campus gynaecologist. That's an awful lot of young people who face emotional and psychological pain as a result of one man's disgraceful behaviour.
The fact that Dr George Tyndall had been abusing students, was first made public in 2018 in a Los Angeles Times report. However, the university were aware of abuse allegations decades earlier. Issues were brought to their attention in the 1990s and, inexplicably, they chose not to notify the state medical board.
The fact that they had been alerted to the threat that Tyndall posed, and failed to protect students that continued to attend the university, is something that must be addressed.
This means there was a significant failure in the management of the university. Those who made the decisions not to take action, those who chose not to protect the students in their care, must face consequences.
One issue that should also be investigated, is the terms of the secret deal that was done to allow Tyndall to leave the university with an unblemished record and a financial settlement. This was in 2017, when the management team at USC certainly knew about the ever increasing number of allegations against the camp's gynaecologist.
It seems that USC has many reasons to be ashamed. The situation with Tyndall may be the most extreme, but it sits in a pattern of shocking behaviour.
There is the issue of a medical school dean who was accused of smoking methamphetamine with a woman who overdosed, the men’s basketball coach who pleaded guilty to charges that arose from an FBI probe into corruption and significant issues regarding college admissions.
Surely, those responsible for allowing or enabling these many crimes and immoral acts must face consequences for their actions.
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