Former Ohio State doctor Richard Strauss may have abused Columbus Catholic high school students
Hints of sexual impropriety at two of Columbus' most high-profile institutions — Ohio State University and the Columbus Roman Catholic Diocese — intersected this month when it was revealed in an investigative report that Dr. Richard Strauss may have abused students at a local Catholic high school.
In the early 1980s, the Ohio State athletics and student health doctor conducted a body-fat study on young male athletes at an area Catholic high school, according to an independent investigative report conducted by Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie and released by Ohio State on May 17.
The report also found that Strauss sexually abused at least 177 students throughout his 20 years at Ohio State. Strauss killed himself in 2005.
The Columbus Diocese on March 1 released a list of priests who have been "credibly accused" of sexually abusing minors and is being sued for alleged child sexual abuse by a late teacher at St. Charles Preparatory School in Bexley. When Perkins Coie representatives contacted the Catholic Diocese, officials there responded six months after the initial inquiry. They said they had already conducted their own investigation and that no former high school students had reported sexual misconduct by Strauss.
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The diocese also declined to reach out to former wrestling students and coaches they had spoken with at local Catholic high schools and ask if they would talk to Perkins Coie investigators. They cited requests by the former students and coaching staff to have their identities remain confidential as to why they didn't.
The Perkins Coie report includes details about a former student telling investigators that Strauss sexually abused him and other male students at a Columbus Catholic high school. Neither the student nor the school is named in the report. Instead, the student is simply referred to as "Student N."
At a November press conference, Mike DiSabato, a former Ohio State wrestler, said he was first abused by Strauss at age 14 at Bishop Ready High School on the West Side.
DiSabato, the first former student to come forward with abuse allegations against the former Ohio State doctor, declined to comment for this story. But his recounting of his abuse closely matches that of the unidentified student in the report.
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According to the report, "Student N" told investigators that he was 14 when a wrestling coach told him that Strauss, then described as a medical researcher from Ohio State who was "focused on wrestling," wanted to do body-fat exams on high-school wrestlers.
The exams were allegedly done to see how wrestlers' weight changed during the season, according to the Perkins Coie report.
The student told investigators that he was examined several different times by Strauss in 1982 or 1983 and was inappropriately touched in his genitals by Strauss during the exams. The doctor also reportedly did nude body testing in a machine, which investigators hypothesized might be a hydrostatic underwater weighing machine, used to measure body composition.
The student also said Strauss spent two to three hours watching male students in the Bishop Ready school locker room.
Perkins Coie investigators reached out to the diocese in June 2018 after hearing from the student. Six months after being contacted, diocesan representatives told investigators that a former student said the doctor showered with the students and "stared at" them while showering at the high school and Ohio State, according to the report. Diocesan representatives also said that some students reported being weighed nude for the body fat testing. But coaches were present during all exams, testing and weigh-ins, they said.
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The diocese said it didn't get any reports of misconduct by Strauss.
When asked by The Dispatch about the report, Diocesan spokesman George Jones said the Columbus diocese couldn't find any documents on Strauss' testing or work with wrestling teams in school records. He attributed the lack of documentation to how much time had passed and the "documentation practices" in the 1980s.
It's possible a second student was a victim of Strauss' abuse or witnessed it in the Catholic high school, as "Student N" was not contacted by the diocese like the student who reported seeing Strauss shower with students.
Investigators said that because of the lack of additional information from the Columbus Diocese, they were unable to reach any final conclusions about the reports from the unidentified student.
dking@dispatch.com
@DanaeKing
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