Ohio State to Pay ~$100M to Settle Remaining Strauss Abuse Claims, Bringing Total Past $160M

Ohio State University agreed Wednesday to pay approximately $100 million to settle legal claims from hundreds of former student athletes who said they were sexually abused by Dr. Richard Strauss. The school's Board of Trustees approved a preliminary agreement with all but one of the 280 survivors with claims still involved in pending litigation.

The university has fought lawsuits in federal court since 2018 brought by former student athletes over its failure to stop the abuse. Strauss worked at Ohio State from 1978 to 1998 and also ran an off-campus clinic. He died in 2005.

Ohio State already had settled with 317 survivors for more than $61 million. Many former student athletes signed sealed agreements that kept their names a secret. Some former NFL players were among the victims, according to a lawyer in one of the lawsuits.

Two of Strauss's accusers, former student athletes Steve Snyder-Hill and Ron McDaniel, spoke to CBS Mornings in 2018 about their experiences. Snyder-Hill said in a July 2018 interview: "He was a doctor. I was a student.

I went in there vulnerable. I was even more vulnerable because he had me de-clothed. And I'm sitting there in front of him. " He also reported that after he filed a complaint, the director of student health services wrote a letter stating the office "had never received a complaint about Dr.

McDaniel said in a 2018 CBS Mornings interview: "We thought we were doing the right thing in telling our coach. They were the athletic department. " An independent report concluded that scores of Ohio State personnel knew of complaints about Strauss's conduct as early as 1979 but failed for years to investigate or take meaningful action.

University president Ravi Bellamkonda spoke during the Board of Trustees meeting, stating: "The survivors of the Strauss abuse are all Buckeyes, will always be a part of our family and our community, and I firmly believe that. " The university and plaintiffs issued a joint statement on Wednesday thanking mediators and saying they were working to finalize the details of the settlements.

Once finalized, the agreement could mark the end of a lengthy legal battle.