Madison Lindamood, one of the few female college football coaches in the country, has alleged that one of her male players physically assaulted her.
Lindamood filed a Title IX sex-discrimination suit against Ohio Dominican University, where she serves as a graduate assistant coach, alleging that a male player “approached her aggressively, made physical contact with her body, and forcibly ripped her bag from her person, physically pulling her, and searched her belongings without her consent.” The incident allegedly occurred on March 6 of this year.
At least one eye-witness was submitted in the complaint along with “photos of bruises on her neck from the alleged assault,” per the New York Post.
The suit claims she told the school’s head coach, Kelly Cummings, and the school’s Title IX coordinator about the reported incident. However, she did not report to police because she was “afraid that pushing it further would cost her her job, and she feared for her safety,” her attorney, Sean Sobel, said, per USA Today.
School officials directed her to deal with the issues internally, and the investigation would be led by Cummings, who said his “personal definition of assault required blood or severe bruising,” the lawsuit claims.
The report also claimed Cummings suggested the player may have just been treating Lindamood as a sister, and he asked the graduate assistant what she could have done differently.
Following the exchange with Cummings, Lindamood said that she faced retaliation from Ohio Dominican despite promises from the school’s president that she would not be subjected to such treatment. In the filed complaint, Lindamood said that she faced isolation from the team and public berating from the coaching staff.
“I wanted that job,” Lindamood said in a statement. “What I did not expect was to be told that what happened to me did not count unless it drew blood. No woman should have to choose between staying silent and losing the career she’s worked so hard to build.”