The University of Southern California has retained an errant gynaecologist, who has repeatedly been accused of misbehaving with female students for almost 30 years. Dr. George Tyndall has had complaints levelled against him since the 1990s where he was accused of creepy behaviour, including photographing students’ genitals. More allegations followed in the years to come when nurses and patients alike accused him of touching them inappropriately during pelvic exams and making sexually-coloured remarks about them.
In the recent years, the population of Chinese students had gone up significantly. And his colleagues who were privy to his perverted behaviour were worried he was exploiting them since they had a limited understanding of the language and American medical norms. In 2016, a frustrated nurse took up the matter with the campus rape crisis centre, following which Dr. Tyndall was fired.
It may have been easy for Dr. Tyndall to have brushed off some of his inappropriate behaviours as standard gynaecological practice. But an internal investigating committee called his bluff and concluded that his conduct during pelvic examination was not normal.
The university administration on its part has been bending over backwards to protect his interests. Instead of firing him, they gave him the easy way out giving him the option to resign with a financial payout. Neither did they inform his patients nor did they report him to the Medical Board of California for his misgivings.
Shockingly, despite all the allegation, USC said to The Times that it was under no legal obligation to report Tyndall. The university said that they filed the complaint with the medical board on March 9th after Tyndall requested to be reinstated. Calling Dr. Tyndall’s behaviour “a profound breach of trust,” the president of the university C.L Max Nikias sent the letter to the campus community and expressed his concerns about sending his two daughters to the university where the errant gynaecologist practices.
Tyndall, on his part, has refused to accept any of the complaint made against him. The 71-year old said that he was just being thorough with his examination, which was misconstrued as harassment.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 16, 2018 07:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).