Harvard athletic director Erin McDermott mentioned hazing isn’t part of the ladies’s ice hockey staff’s tradition, however acknowledged enchancment nonetheless must be made throughout the program and the athletic division.
“Our present ladies’s ice hockey staff has not fostered a tradition of hazing,” McDermott mentioned in an announcement earlier this week. “Nevertheless, it’s clear that some traditions lately had been skilled in another way by completely different individuals and never all had been comfy with these actions or with expressing considerations referring to this system. We now have a possibility to finish staff traditions which can be dangerous to staff tradition and inconsistent with our neighborhood norms.”
McDermott’s remarks come after a Harvard-commissioned investigation that was sparked by a January report by the Boston Globe.
The Globe, and later The Athletic, reported complaints in opposition to now former coach Katey Stone that date again over 20 years and included allegations of abusive teaching practices, no less than one incident of racist language, and hazing habits throughout the program. Even after the Boston Globe’s preliminary report, the hockey staff carried out its custom of a “Bare Skate” and likewise held its annual “Initiation Week,” in accordance with the Athletic, although Stone was not current for these occasions.
The findings of the investigation, which was performed by an outdoor legislation agency, haven’t been made public. Stone introduced her retirement June 6 after 27 years teaching the Crimson.
McDermott mentioned in her assertion this week that the investigation’s findings supply “a possibility for the athletics division to guide and foster a tradition that displays our values of mutual respect, assist of each other, transparency in our processes and procedures, and a give attention to the security and dignity of our student-athletes.”
In an effort to attain these objectives, McDermott mentioned that each one student-athletes, coaches and directors will obtain instruction on how you can report points “with out worry of retribution or reprisal.”
