Former Harvard’s women’s hockey coach Katey Stone is firing back at the school, filing a lawsuit against the Ivy League school after she was forced to step down from her post last year amidst controversy.
Stone filed a sex discrimination suit on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts in which she claims that she was made to step down after false allegations of misconduct and hazing.
Stone also alleges that she faced gender bias and unfair pay from the school.
She left the program last summer after multiple reports and an investigation into the culture surrounding the team.
In a report by the Athletic, Stone was accused of being involved a program where hazing had occurred, including a so-called “mental-health ‘Hunger Games’” that involved players having to participate in a “Naked Skate.”
Now, according to her lawsuit, she is claiming that she was forced out.
“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 news 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 that Harvard used the allegations to undermine the coach and force her out of her position.
While Stone did not take questions during the news conference, several former players were on hand and spoke in defence of their former coach.
The lawsuit claims Stone’s situation 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.”
Stone also named 50 Jane Doe defendants — from whom she is seeking more than $5 million — who are being sued for defamation over alleged false statements made to the Boston Globe and Harvard.