A former volleyball coach is suing Southeastern University, claiming she faced discrimination after reporting alleged sexual abuse by a former athletic trainer at the Lakeland school.
The woman, whose identity is concealed in the lawsuit, alleges that she endured sexual harassment and retaliation from Southeastern’s leaders as a result of her complaints about the former trainer, Jem Sirrine. The suit also claims that Southeastern failed to protect her after previous allegations of sexual misconduct by Sirrine.
Southeastern fired Sirrine in 2020 after the plaintiff reported his alleged molestation of her, and Sirrine relinquished his license to practice as an athletic trainer in Florida two years ago, according to news reports.
Horowitz Law, a firm based in Fort Lauderdale, filed a lawsuit last week in Circuit Court for the 10th Judicial Circuit, based in Bartow. The suit demands a jury trial and seeks damages of $50,000 or more.
The lawsuit accuses Southeastern of “adverse employment actions” in violation of the Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992.
The suit is based on an incident from November 2020, when the plaintiff was a graduate student and assistant volleyball coach at Southeastern and sought treatment from Sirrine for a tight muscle in her leg.
The suit makes these claims: While attending to the woman, Sirrine ran his hand up to her groin under her athletic shorts, and on three occasions he pushed the woman’s shorts aside to expose her vagina. The suit says that the plaintiff was “shocked and frozen” as Sirrine did that.
At one point, Southeastern’s head trainer walked into the room as Sirrine was attending to the woman, the suit alleges. The head trainer, Sirrine’s manager, took no action and left the room, the suit claims.
In the filing, lawyers wrote that the plaintiff used a pseudonym “because she fears further psychological injury if her name were publicly disclosed.”
The suit says that the woman reported Sirrine’s actions the next morning to the head volleyball coach, who informed Athletic Director Drew Watson. The head coach, Audrey Goldsberry, told the plaintiff that Southeastern had received a previous complaint that Sirrine made unwanted sexual contact with a volleyball player’s genitals in the training room over a period of weeks, the suit claims.
After the previous accusation, Southeastern’s leadership determined that Sirrine should be suspended, but he wasn’t, the suit alleges. When the plaintiff reported Sirrine’s alleged abuse, the athletic director “became angry and questioned Plaintiff’s motives to the Head Coach,” the complaint says.
The plaintiff reported her claims to Southeastern’s Human Resources office, which oversees compliance with federal Title IX guidelines, and was told nothing could be done, the suit claims.
Dana Davis, a spokesperson for Southeastern, told reporters in 2021 that the school suspended Sirrine soon after learning of the plaintiff’s complaint, conducted an investigation, and then fired the trainer. The Florida Department of Health has suspended Sirrine’s license, the suit says.
After the plaintiff reported Sirrine’s behavior, Southeastern “constructively terminated” her employment, the suit says. The assistant coach was not allowed to participate in any team activities or join the team for its playoff matches, the suit claims, and Southeastern refused to let the plaintiff return as an assistant coach the following season.
The lawyers wrote that the plaintiff “has suffered humiliation embarrassment, severe emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life.” Southeastern “to date refuses to accept any responsibility for the harms suffered by Plaintiff,” the suit claims.
The complaint accuses Southeastern of fostering a hostile work environment, with sexual harassment that was “severe and pervasive.” The suit seeks back pay, either reinstatement of the plaintiff’s job or “front pay” and compensatory and punitive damages.
The plaintiff filed complaints in May 2021 with both the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Florida Commission on Human Relations, the suit says. The EEOC issued a dismissal last November, the complaint says.
Davis said that Southeastern does not comment on pending litigation. She did not answer emailed questions asking if SEU investigated the behavior of the head trainer or if the school has taken actions since the complaint arose to further protect athletes from potential misbehavior by trainers.
Horowitz Law did not respond to a request for comment.
Southeastern is a private, Christian university affiliated with the Assemblies of God denomination. It has about 2,300 students at its main campus in Lakeland and reports more than 10,000 in online studies and satellite campuses.