University to pay $1.6M to students assaulted by employee

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — San Jose State University has agreed to pay $1.6 million to female student athletes whose complaints about being sexually assaulted by an athletic trainer were mishandled by the university, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. The payment is part of a settlement between the university, the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. It follows a Title IX investigation that found the university failed to adequately respond to reports of sexual harassment and assault by 23 students that started in 2009, exposing additional student-athletes to harm for over a decade.