The conclusion of the Vallante Report from firm McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton places blame on KSC faculty for failing to follow up on numerous complaints regarding Eugene “Gino” Vallante. “Poor decisions by administrators and coaches are apparent,” page 58 of the report reads.
The report refers to the failure to follow up on multiple complaints about Vallente as “a series of missed opportunities,” allowed Vallante to continue his work with college students.
The first missed opportunity that the report refers to deals with poor communication with NEC students who were sexually harassed by Vallante in 2001-2002. Former NEC basketball players contacted members of the KSC community regarding their former coach but their opinions were ignored.
“…They perceived their outreach efforts as unwelcomed by KSC, based primarily on [John] Ratliff and [Robert] Colbert’s failure to make substantive inquiry regarding their collective experiences with Vallante, and the failure to respond to the former NEC student athletes’ concerns in a meaningful way,” the report reads.
The school also had numerous complaints regarding Vallante’s conduct between 2003 and 2005.
Tim Smith / Senior Photographer
“Harkness made an initial finding that a NEC source told [Charlie] Beach in approximately 2003-2004 that Vallante should not be working with college students.
Beach denies receiving this warning, and does not recall hearing any rumors about Vallante. Colbert confirms Beach hinted to him that Vallante departed NEC because Vallante had acted inappropriately with a student,” the report reads.
Though Beach said he never received a complaint from a source at NEC, Director of Human Resources Kim Harkness and KSC’s Men’s Basketball Coach Robert Colbert both said they remembered Beach mentioning something. Colbert did initially follow up with what he heard from Beach and talked to NEC Student 6 and NEC Student 4 who he knew through basketball summer camps.
Both were former players of Vallante’s at NEC and said Vallante never did anything inappropriate. The two former players said it was probably “a small group of disgruntled NEC players” making such claims. After talking to these students, Colbert stopped looking into the matter. “Colbert did not speak to Vallante, he did not contact NEC, nor did he report the conversation to Ratliff or anyone else at KSC,” the report reads.
The report adds that “… Colbert lacked a basic understanding of what conduct constitutes potential sexual harassment or harassing behavior.”
NEC Student 4 doesn’t recall this discussion with Colbert and doesn’t believe it occurred. In fact, NEC Student 4 did receive sexually explicit phone calls from Vallante, leading him to end his friendship with Vallante.
Philip Bergeron / Graphic Design Editor
Another complaint identified is the email sent in 2005 by NEC Student 3. The email was sent to Ratliff and Colbert and expressed concern that Vallante is again working with college students. The complaint was not investigated by either Ratliff or Colbert.
Colbert violated the obligation in KSC’s sexual harassment policy that states, “Any employee who receives information that discrimination or harassing behaviors may have occurred must report the information to an appropriate administrative contact,” at least three times in 2011-2012. Similarly, it is likely Ratliff failed to comply with KSC’s reporting requirements regarding sexual harassment. The report said it is likely Ratliff was aware of complaints made about Vallante in 2011.
The report also identified several “institutional weaknesses and gaps in KSC’s procedures and structures for handling complaints of suspected sexual harassment…” that contributed to the poor handling of this situation for a decade. Faculty and staff were not adequately trained to deal with sexual harassment complaints and overall communication between administrators was poor. “The human resources department and Title IX coordinator were not uniformly informed and involved in reviewing complaints of sexual harassment,” the report reads.
KSC wasn’t the only college that blame was place on, though. The official report said, “If NEC had been more forthcoming with KSC about Vallante’s history of sexual harassment, KSC would have been in a better position to evaluate complaints and eliminate the risks posed by Vallante at KSC.” As said in Part 1 of the Vallante story, NEC administrators refused to cooperate in the investigation for these reports and “denied access to any current or former NEC administrators or employees.”
The report gave a list of recommended steps KSC focus on to strengthen its procedures regarding instances like this. President Anne Huot referred to some of the changes suggested in the report in her open forum last Friday, March 27. Huot said the school had already implemented “sixty to sixty-five percent,” of these suggested changes.
John Ratliff and Robert Cobert did not respond to multiple requests for comment but the KSC spokesperson Kelly Ricaurte indicated she would act as their spokesperson.
All reports on Peter Thomas, Charlie Beach and Eugene “Gino” Vallante are available at keene.edu/president.
Skyler Frazer can be contacted at sfrazer@kscequinox.com
