Over 50 USC Students Sue Gynecologist For Sexual Assault

CNN reported Tuesday night that over 50 former and current University of Southern California students have filed lawsuits against former campus gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall for sexual assault and harassment.

Former USC student Dana Loewy claims that 20 years ago, Dr. Tyndall asked such vigorous questions about her sex life that she and another student nicknamed him “The Butcher.” Loewy told reporters Monday that she has since avoided seeing male gynecologists due to this experience.

Aside from Loewy, 50 other past and current students have accused Dr. Tyndall of sexual harassment and assault, officially filing lawsuits on Monday. The lawsuits also claim that USC chose to ignore numerous complaints about Tyndall over the course of decades. The civil lawsuits claim that “USC was complicit in these unconscionable acts because it suppressed and concealed years of complaints about Tyndall’s sexually charged and deviant comments and behavior.”

Dr. Tyndall was fired from USC last year for “inappropriate” behavior, according to university officials. USC apparently agreed not to report or file charges against Tyndall if he agreed to quietly resign. USC officials insist that they were not legally obligated to report Tyndall at any time.

When Tyndall asked for his job back in March, however, the university reported him to the California Medical Board. USC now admits that they should have reported him when they first fired him.

A lawyer of one of the students, Andy Rubenstein, claims that “the scope of the abuse goes across generations,” adding that when Loewy was a graduate student, another victim and plaintiff had not yet been born.

Rubenstein also insisted that the university helped Dr. Tyndall get away with his alleged behavior, claiming that, “There was a conspiracy of silence at the university. There were no institutional controls so that the reports of this abuse could ever be addressed and addressed effectively. There was never a mechanism in place where the students could report Dr. Tyndall and have some kind of satisfaction from that.”

Tyndall’s attorney, Leonard Levine, insists that his client never committed any crimes and always remained professional during his time at USC.

Facing an investigation from the Department of Education, the university is also conducting an investigation of its own, pledging to respectfully resolve the matter and provide female students with safe and secure medical resources.

According to the decades of allegations, students claim that Tyndall made both sexually and racially charged comments, touched them inappropriately during pelvic exams, and even saved pictures of students’ genitals. The university, however, did not acknowledge any of this information or own up to the decades’ worth of reports and complaints until the Los Angeles Times contacted their health center in May.