The University of Michigan has been facing lawsuits amidst hundreds of allegations that the sports doctor employed in the mid 1960’s -2003, Dr. Robert Anderson, sexually abused student athletes while working there dating back to the 1970’s.
The investigations began when campus police started looking into allegations against Dr Anderson that were brought to attention after a former student athlete wrote to the athletic director in 2018 about being molested by Anderson during medical exams in the early 1970’s.
Dr Anderson was the University Doctor from the mid-1960s through 2003. He died in 2008.
The sexual abuse allegations against Anderson are said to be “disturbing and very serious,” according to a press release issued by the University, and include claims of unnecessary and intimate exams by a doctor with unrestricted access to male college athletes over a period of over three decades.
Robert Stone, one of the former U of M students who came forward with allegations, said that a U of M detective had told him Anderson had been removed from his post as head of the Student Health Services due to repeated sex abuse complaints. After this, the school made Anderson the official sports team physician, putting hundreds of more students at risk.
Additionally, a woman filed suit against Anderson in 1995 alleging sexual misconduct during a medical exam. While the case was dismissed, it’s being rumored that it was highly unlikely that U of M did not at least hear about the case.
The allegations claim that U of M knew about Anderson’s alleged abuse before July of 2018, and only launched an investigation once the matter became public knowledge.
