Maryland university failed to address allegations of sexual abuse of student swimmers and divers: DOJ

An investigation into the University of Maryland in Baltimore County conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) found school officials did not address sexual abuse allegations made by members of the swimming and diving team against their coach.

The DOJ announced the results of its investigation into allegations that a former head coach of the Swimming and Diving Team at the school, Chad Cradock, not only sexually harassed male student athletes, but also discriminated against the female student athletes.

The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division told university officials in a letter dated March 18, 2024, that failing to respond to the sexual discrimination allegations violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Failing to respond also allowed the former head coach to show his power and prey on the vulnerabilities of student athletes while engaging in abuse over the course of several years.

"We will not tolerate sexual harassment and abuse of student-athletes on college campuses in our country. Too many school officials and administrators knew something for UMBC to have done nothing," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said. "The Justice Department will continue to hold our nation’s colleges and universities to their promise to educate students free from sexual harassment and discrimination — our young people deserve nothing less. We will continue to stand with the survivors of sexual harassment and ensure that schools take actions necessary to protect students from this kind of degrading and painful discrimination and abuse."

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Chad Cradock served as the swim and dive coach for the University of Maryland Baltimore County and is at the center of allegations of sexual misconduct. (University of Maryland Website)

The DOJ said in its letter to the university that it opened its investigation in November 2020 in response to allegations that the school failed to comply with Title IX by failing to respond to reports from students.

"During the course of that review, the Department received allegations that a former head coach of the University’s men’s and women’s Swimming and Diving Team, Chad Craddock (the Head Coach), had sexually abused and discriminated against those student-athletes, and that the University knew of this sex discrimination but did not respond adequately," the DOJ wrote. "The Department expanded its investigation to include these allegations."

Investigators found the head coach served in his role for about 20 years and coached over 400 student athletes. He also oversaw a youth swim club, various swim camps and more, ultimately building and maintaining relationships with high-ranking university officials and earning the nickname, "Mr. UMBC."

The coach allegedly held sleepovers at his home with students, paid for private meals and haircuts, and developed a close personal relationship with a male student-athlete he later employed and moved into his home.

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The Department of Justice found the University of Maryland Baltimore County failed to handle allegations of sexual assault and misconduct by staff correctly. (Google Maps)

The DOJ broke the findings down by the men’s team and the women’s team.

For the men’s team, the DOJ learned several male student-athletes were sexually abused and assaulted by the head coach between 2015 and 2020.

"Students’ accounts of their experiences on the Swimming and Diving Team described a hypersexualized environment where their coach—on a daily basis, in plain sight, and typically when they wore only speedos—subjected male student-athletes to unwanted sexual touching, inappropriate sexual comments, and other sexual misconduct," the DOJ wrote. "The Head Coach kissed male student-athletes’ necks, hugged them from behind, traced his fingers down their bare stomachs from their belly buttons toward their genitals, and massaged their bare skin."

A staff member received a letter from unidentified students on June 29, 2015, regarding a coach or staff member using a locker with a line of sight into the men’s showers, adding he "has been seen removing an electronic device (camera) from his locker."

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Image of a swimming pool setup for competition (iStock)

According to university records, a member of the athletic department shared the letter with five other staff members, and before alerting university police, two of the staff members removed the head coach’s backpack from the locker and placed it on his desk. Three days later, university police inspected the locker, which was then empty.

An administrator at the university told the DOJ that he and a senior administrator learned of the allegations and went to the head coach to warn him about the planned locker search.

When the officers returned on July 6, 2015, they did not find a camera in the locker and closed the investigation.

"Despite these allegations of voyeurism, the University took no further steps to investigate, prevent the Head Coach from using the locker room with students, or otherwise ensure student safety," the DOJ wrote, adding that no one alerted the Title IX coordinator of the allegations.

The investigation into the women’s team discovered that from 2016 to 2020, female student athletes also experienced a hostile environment based on their sex.

The report said male students sexually harassed the female students about their bodies and sometimes exposed their genitals to them during practice.

One student told investigators that the coaches knew everything, including who they were sleeping with and what they were eating.

The environment allegedly led to mental health issues such as eating disorders and anxiety, and when the head coach was approached by female student athletes about these issues, he "did little, if anything, to respond to their mental health needs."

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The DOJ also uncovered patterns of dating violence and multiple sexual assaults by male student-athletes against female student-athletes, the DOJ said, and when one staff member admitted to knowing about these encounters, the staff member did not act and instead said, "I didn’t know I was a mandated reporter."

There was an instance in the winter of 2019, where the head coach and athletics department staff were told of an instance of dating violence by a male student athlete against a female athlete, and they failed to report it to the Title IX office.

"The Head Coach did not report to the Title IX Office. Instead, he required the female student-athlete to return to practice alongside her abuser, with bruises and other physical evidence of the violent assault," the DOJ wrote. "This sent a terrifying but galvanizing message to the other female student-athletes on the team. As one student stated, ‘it became clear he would rather let a woman die than report up one of his favorites.’"

The head coach was placed on leave by the university and banned from campus pending the Title IX investigation, though he was ultimately allowed to retire in December 2020.

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But in March 2021, just five days after receiving a notice of the allegations against him, the head coach died by suicide, according to the DOJ.

The University of Maryland Baltimore did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the report from the DOJ.

"Our investigation revealed an enduring hostile environment based on sex in the Athletics Department that affected many student-athletes, both male and female," the DOJ wrote. "But we are aware only of the students who spoke to us, whose experiences were detailed in University documents, or who brought their cases to the Title IX Office, despite being discouraged by their coaches or disparaged by their teammates. These students’ experiences revealed profound system-wide problems in the University’s response to allegations of sex discrimination that persisted for years."