Former Harvard Women’s Hockey Coach Sues University for Gender Discrimination

Katey Stone alleges she was pushed out amid false allegations of misconduct and hazing, and accuses Harvard of gender-based pay discrimination.
Published: July 25, 2024

BOSTON — Harvard University’s former women’s hockey coach Katey Stone filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against the Ivy League school Tuesday, claiming she was pushed out amid false allegations of misconduct and hazing.

Stone, who coached the team for 27 seasons, resigned in June 2023 following an investigation into accusations of a toxic culture within the program, NBC News reports. The allegations, first reported last year by The Boston Globe, include Stone making insensitive remarks about Native Americans, body shaming players, and overseeing a culture of hazing.

According to a report published last year in The Athletic, players were pressured by upperclassmen to participate in “mental health ‘Hunger Games'” that involved players having to participate in a “naked skate.” Some freshmen were reportedly told to “superman” slide on the ice, leaving them with ice burns and bleeding nipples. During “Initiation Week,” underclassmen were also reportedly pressured to mimic sex acts and overconsume alcohol.

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The Athletic’s report did not find evidence that Stone played a role in the alleged hazing incidents. Stone denies having any knowledge of them or of fostering an inappropriate culture. She alleges former players who accused her of misconduct were acting out of a “personal vendetta” and therefore shared false information with the Globe. Stone is seeking at least $5 million in damages from the university and the 50 Jane Doe defendants she claims defamed her.

“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 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 did not take questions during the conference but several former players spoke in her defense, according to the Daily Herald Tribute.

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Former Harvard Hockey Coach Accuses School of Gender Discrimination

In her suit, Stone also claimed she faced gender bias and unfair pay from the school, noting that despite Harvard’s public acknowledgment that the team has not fostered a culture of hazing, the school still endorsed the narrative by forcing her to retire.

Stone said her forced resignation was “part and parcel 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.”

“Harvard has long accepted, if not outright approved and encouraged, behavior akin to the allegations against Coach Stone from its male coaches and staff without incident,” says the complaint.

The complaint lists examples of misconduct by Harvard men’s teams under the leadership of male coaches who weren’t punished, including in 2017 when the Harvard men’s soccer team was investigated for ranking the female soccer team based on sex appeal.

Stone also accuses Harvard of gender-based pay discrimination, claiming she was paid “at an egregiously lesser scale” than the men’s hockey coach, and that the university refused to reveal the breakdown of compensation levels between male and female coaches.

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