A UPenn Student Accused Her Coach of Sexual Harassment. Harvard Hired Him 3 Months Later.

Harvard’s track and field team recruited an assistant coach in 2023 to lead its throwing squad while he had an ongoing Title IX investigation at the University of Pennsylvania, raising questions about whether Harvard Athletics knew about the complaint during the hiring process.

The assistant coach, Fletcher Brooks, was accused by a current University of Pennsylvania student of inappropriate touching and retaliation in a Title IX complaint filed in June 2023, according to the school’s student newspaper.

Three months later, in September 2023, Harvard’s Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Jason Saretsky announced Brooks would join the team.

Brooks did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

Under Pennsylvania’s employer immunity statute, employers can be permitted to disclose information about “a current or former employee’s job performance” upon request by prospective employers.

But it’s unclear whether Harvard requested such information during Brooks’ hiring process.

Harvard Athletics spokesperson Imry Halevi declined to comment on whether Harvard was aware of the complaint when hiring Brooks.

Penn Athletics did not respond to a request for comment on whether Penn had disclosed any information to Harvard related to the Title IX investigation.

Nancy Hogshead, a three-time Olympic gold medalist and civil rights lawyer, wrote in response to written questions that it was possible Harvard never knew about the investigation into Brooks.

“Disclosure is probably permissive, but not required when there are only allegations,” Hogshead wrote. “Generally speaking, schools and employers don’t share allegations, when there has been no investigation and no findings have been released.”

Harvard Law School lecturer Diane L. Rosenfeld, who teaches courses on Title IX, wrote in an email to The Crimson that she believes the track and field team would have conducted a thorough review before hiring Brooks.

“I would think that Harvard would have done its due diligence before bringing on this coach,” Rosenfeld wrote.

The University of Pennsylvania hired Brooks to serve as an assistant coach for the Quakers’ track and field team, where he was responsible for training the throwing squad. He was previously an assistant coach for Iowa State University’s throwers and jumpers team for eight seasons.

Kira Lindner, a current senior at Penn who was a freshman when Brooks joined the school, alleged that Brooks, in separate instances, inappropriately touched her hip without her permission after she complained of pain, yelled at her in front of teammates, and excluded her from the Ivy Heptagonal Championships, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian.

These incidents prompted Linder to file a complaint with Penn’s Title IX office. Two months after filing the complaint, Linder told Brooks and the program’s head coach that she was quitting the team.

The University of Pennsylvania’s investigation into Brooks remained open as of late November, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian.

In an interview, Hogshead said that sexual harassment from a coach or another member of “their entourage” is often a concern, especially in an elite athletic environment like Harvard.

Hogshead cited an athlete’s eagerness to succeed in their sport as a factor creating an uneven power dynamic between them and their coaches. This asymmetrical relationship renders elite athletes “vulnerable” to misconduct, she said.

“We know that athletes are much more likely to be abused from somebody within their entourage the more elite the athlete,” Hogshead added.

Correction: December 11, 2024

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Fletcher Brooks previously served as an assistant coach at the University of Iowa. In fact, Brooks was a coach at Iowa State University.

—Staff writer Jo B. Lemann can be reached at jo.lemann@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @Jo_Lemann.

—Staff writer Darcy G Lin can be reached at darcy.lin@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Tyler J.H. Ory can be reached at tyler.ory@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @tyler_ory.