Former Harvard’s women’s hockey coach, Katey Stone, filed a sex discrimination suit on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, claiming that the university forced her out last year over misconduct and hazing allegations — which she claims are false — while also alleging she faced gender bias and unfair pay from the school.
Stone stepped down from the program last summer amid multiple reports and an investigation into the culture of the women’s hockey team.
She was accused of overseeing a program where hazing allegedly occurred, including the “mental-health ‘Hunger Games’” that involved players having to participate in a “Naked Skate,” according to The Athletic.
But she’s now claiming that she was forced out, according to her lawsuit against Harvard.
“I will no longer stand idly by in the face of inequity and injustice and allow one of the world’s elite universities to continue to hide behind the fraudulent veil of fairness,” Stone said at a press conference on Tuesday, the Boston Globe reported. “The loss of my career, my reputation, my ability to earn a living doing a job I love, is gut-wrenching. The damage has been real and affects me every single day.”
Stone’s attorney, Andrew Miltenberg, claimed during the press conference that Harvard used the allegations to undermine and force Stone out of her position.
The Boston Globe and The Athletic published extensive reports that alleged hazing and abusive behavior during Stone’s tenure.
But Tuesday’s lawsuit claimed Harvard essentially pushed Stone out, which she claims is part of a “larger culture at the University wherein female coaches are undervalued, underpaid, heavily scrutinized, and held to a breathtakingly more stringent standard of behavior than their male counterparts.”
The 33-page suit detailed what the former women’s hockey coach claimed were double standards in how Harvard treated men’s teams differently for issues that were similar to one that were alleged to have happened with the women’s hockey team and contributed to her split from the program.
“Where female coaches, such as Coach Stone, are expected to be nurturing toward their female players and coach with compassion and sensitivity, male coaches are allowed to be ‘tough’ and hold their male players accountable for their actions,” the complaint stated.
Stone, who left the school as the fourth-winningest women’s hockey coach, said she also raised concerns about the pay disparity between her and her male counterpart, despite the success of women’s hockey program compared to the men.
“Katey Stone raised this with the administration and was told men have to make quicker in-game decisions,” Miltenberg said during Tuesday’s news conference, per WCVB.
Stone did not take questions from reporters during the press conference, The Athletic reported, but several former players of hers were on hand to speak in defense of their former coach.
Stone called the people who have spoken against her as a “small number” who “have not felt supported.”
The former hockey coach also named 50 Jane Doe defendants who are being sued for defamation over what she claimed were false statements to the Boston Globe and Harvard.
She is seeking $5 million or more from those 50 Jane Doe defendants.