Former Northwestern University cheerleader Hayden Richardson says the recent lawsuits from athletes alleging sexual abuse and harassment reminded her of what she experienced.
“I’m incredibly saddened because that means other people went through the same experience that I did,” Hayden said adding, “Us going into tailgating lots or donor events, where people would sexually harass us or sexually assault us. And these were all condoned and sanctioned by Northwestern athletics.”
“Hayden who really rang the alarm and no one listened, and now everyone’s going to have to listen,” said attorney Andrew Miltenberg.
Hayden’s attorney filed a lawsuit in 2021 alleging Northwestern violated Title IX regulations by “refusing” to do a formal investigation into Hayden’s complaints for almost a year and a half after she first spoke out.
“When I raised it to our coaches and to administrators within athletics, they giggled and laughed and minimized it because it wasn’t the first time that they were hearing these things,” Hayden recalled.
Under Title IX law, colleges and universities receiving federal funding must investigate any complaint of sexual harassment or assault. Schools must also publish all crime statistic reports, called Clery reports, online for parents, students and employees to review.
Nearly two years after Hayden says she first notified the university; Northwestern conducted an internal investigation and fired its cheer coach and the athletic director resigned.
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It is unclear why they resigned. NBC5 Investigates reached out to Northwestern but have not received a response.
“It’s the system. Yes, there are people that we can scapegoat and fire and say, ‘well it was them.’ But you can only say that so many times,” Hayden said.
NBC 5 Investigates reviewed annual reports of sex crimes submitted to the Illinois Attorney General’s office for the 2018-2020 academic years.
Our investigative team found Illinois colleges and universities rarely discipline the accused.
Over a three-year period, we found colleges statewide held 472 people responsible for the sexual violence they were accused of. That’s 6.3 percent of all reported incidents.
It’s even lower at Northwestern, just 1 percent. We found Northwestern held nine out of 882 people responsible for the sexual violence they were accused of over the same three-year period.
For additional information see our previous stories here and at this link.
“There’s clearly a culture at Northwestern that perpetuates this type of behavior,” Miltenberg said.
“That percentage is not shocking to me. It’s devastating, but I’m glad that those statistics are coming to light because most people don’t know that,” Hayden added.
After the recent hazing lawsuits, Northwestern’s President Michael Schill told the student newspaper that the University’s “office of Title IX and Civil Rights Compliance... will do the investigations.”
“Title IX at Northwestern, based on my experience, is a fact-finding organization on behalf of the university. It is not a victim’s advocacy agency,” Hayden said.
Hayden’s lawsuit still pending waiting for a judge to rule on Northwestern's request to dismiss the case.
NBC5 investigates reached out to Northwestern for their response but haven’t heard back.
