The University of Southern California agreed to pay $1.1 billion dollars to patients of a campus gynecologist were sexually abused by him. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/25/us/usc-settlement-george-tyndall.html.

The university ignored the complaints and warning signs concerning this doctor and allowed him to “quietly resign” in 2017 with a payout and without immediately notifying the medical board of its findings. Three L.A. Times reporters won Pulitzer Prizes in 2019 for breaking the story of this doctor’s decades of abuse based on an anonymous tip. https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/pulitzer-prize-winners-in-journalism-arts-to-be-announced/.

One of the doctor’s victims said she hopes the eye-popping size of this week’s payout will cause “their risk managers and their attorneys” to look back at older complaints “about the weird men — and they are all men — they have on staff and get serious.”

The size of the settlement is the only way to get through to these enablers. The plaintiffs did not sign confidentiality agreements. More progress.

It took the press and a powerful legal team to bring this university to its knees for protecting a monster. Apparently, it’s the only way these institutions listen. If only Oakland County could get a similar message.