Lloyd Yates, a former Northwestern quarterback, has captured the complexity of the hazing scandal that has rocked the university and its football program.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, Yates, 26, said he was subjected to sexual abuse by some of his teammates, and he provided graphic details of incidents. Yet last week, he said of the former players, “We were all victims, no matter what our role was at the time.’’
That sentiment has fueled discussion among hazing experts about whether perpetrators can be considered victims and how it might impact consequences. In short, will Northwestern football players accused of the sexual abuse be investigated and prosecuted?
Will Northwestern football coaches accused of involvement face criminal charges?
How serious might be the repercussions from a scandal that has led to the firing of Pat Fitzgerald as Northwestern’s football coach?
“If the allegations are true, then some of the individuals who perpetrated this on others are likely guilty of crimes,’’ said Douglas Fierberg, an attorney who has handled hazing cases involving athletic teams, fraternities and sororities for more than 25 years. “Given the allegations, there is a role for law enforcement to investigate to determine who, if anyone, committed some wrongdoing and should they be held criminally responsible.’’
But Fierberg acknowledged a complication. Yates, who is represented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump and was on Northwestern’s football team from 2015-2017, is not the only one who views the perpetrators as victims.
Are hazing perpetrators victims?
Susan Lipkins, a psychologist who is recognized for her research on hazing, stressed her belief that Northwestern’s coaches played a significant role.
“So there was sort of a directive of the power from the coach to the (team) captains and to the members of the team to act out this hazing,” Lipkins told USA TODAY Sports. “And that does change the nature of this kind of hazing versus something that’s just repeated, like in fraternities. It does implicate the authority figures much more clearly.”
That leads to the issue of choice, according to Lipkins.
“We adults would like to think we have choice and free will to not do something, like to not maintain the cycle of hazing or abuse,” she said. “But in a situation like this … I don’t know how much choice you actually have.
“I know as a victim you don’t have choice. You’ll just get beaten up by the whole group. And if you break the code of silence, you’ll just be isolated and run off campus.”
Yates elaborated on some of these ideas last week when, during a news conference led by Crump, the former Northwestern quarterback said, “Upon arrival to campus, we were thrown into a culture where physical, emotional and sexual abuse was normalized. No teammate I knew liked hazing. We were all victims, no matter what our role was at the time. But the culture was so strong that we felt we had to go with it, to survive, to be respected and to earn the trust within the football program.’’
Elizabeth Allan, a professor at the University of Maine, said the Northwestern hazing scandal helps spotlight the culture, environmental factors and other variables that can increase the likelihood of hazing.
“However,’’ she said, “that in my view doesn’t absolve responsibility for the perpetration of hazing.”
The issue of identity
The office of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has said it’s monitoring the situation – but not investigating – with more lawsuits and allegations expected in the coming weeks.
The police department in Evanston, home to Northwestern’s campus, has said it has not received any complaints about the matter and is not investigating. Bruce Lewis, the chief of police at Northwestern, has not returned messages from USA TODAY Sports asking for information about campus police’s role in the matter.
But there is a challenge for any law enforcement agency as evidenced in Yates’ lawsuit: None of his teammates are identified.
Asking about an alleged perpetrator drew a firm response from Anne Kavanaugh, who is president of MediaPros 24/7 and working with Crump’s legal team. By email, she said they did not want to “demonize a specific player who was just a kid and who was a victim of that culture.”
Northwestern said the law firm of ArentFox Schiff, which the university paid to conduct a six-month investigation into the hazing allegations, did not identify by name any player who allegedly hazed teammates.
Jon Yates, vice president for global marketing and communications at Northwestern and no relation to Lloyd, declined to say whether the school has disciplined any football players or other athletes for hazing.
In 2006, after Northwestern uncovered evidence of hazing within the women’s soccer team, the men’s swimming team and its costumed school mascots, the school issued a public statement outlining discipline. Penalties ranged from suspending athletes from regular-season games, placing athletes on disciplinary probation to requiring the teams to perform community service and attending education seminars on hazing. The students who had performed as mascots were fired.
On July 7, Northwestern issued a statement announcing actions it would take to prevent hazing. It included a two-week suspension of Fitzgerald, who was fired July 10 after two former players provided the Daily Northwestern details of the sexualized hazing.
Northwestern president Michael Schill said in a statement July 10 when he announced the firing of Fitzgerald that the hazing was “systemic dating back many years” and “included forced participation, nudity and sexualized acts of a degrading nature, in clear violation of Northwestern policies and values.”
But Jon Yates, the spokesman for Northwestern, told USA TODAY Sports, “If the University receives an allegation naming any individual who has participated in hazing, we will investigate. If the allegations are confirmed, the individual would face appropriate discipline.”
When might identities of alleged perpetrators come out?
If the lawsuits move forward, it’s likely the plaintiffs will have to provide Northwestern names of the alleged perpetrators so the school can investigate the claims of abuse, said Fierberg, the attorney.
“I would presume that Northwestern would at the outset begin to ask for the identities of individuals who allegedly engaged in the improper activities, as well as those who allegedly witnessed it, so that the events could be confirmed,” he said. “And that’s not to suggest they won’t be confirmed, but having the identity of the perpetrators. And in this case, I’ll use the phrase perpetrators because they did perpetrate significant wrongdoing, at least by the allegations.”
