US university agrees to pay $490 million to victims of abuse

Washington, Jan. 19 (EFE). – The University of Michigan (USA) agreed to pay $ 490 million to about a thousand victims of sexual abuse by a sports doctor hired by this center, who died in 2008, as part of the court. The settlement was announced Wednesday.

Local media quoted the victims’ lawyer, Jimmy White, as saying that the agreement was reached on Tuesday evening, after fifteen months of mediation between the two parties.

The agreement must now be approved by the judge, the complainants themselves, and the university’s board of directors.

Through this arrangement, complaints and lawsuits filed by about 1,050 people, who accused the late doctor Robert Anderson of abusing them during a physical examination, are resolved.

Anderson worked at the university between 1966 and 2003, but revelations about his behavior were not made public until 2020.

For years, victims have complained about the doctor’s behavior to their coaches and university officials without taking any action.

Another attorney for the plaintiffs, Parker Steinar, said in a statement that “this historic settlement was reached because survivors of sexual assault refused to remain silent and demanded accountability for their abuser, Robert Anderson, and the University of Michigan.”

For his part, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of that educational center, Jordan Aker, expressed, in another statement, his hope that the process of healing the wounds of the victims will begin in this order.

This is one of the biggest sexual assault scandals in a US university, after those in the past decade at Penn State University, University of Southern California or Ohio State University. EFE

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