Ex-Harvard women's hockey coach Stone sues school

Former Harvard women’s ice hockey coach Katey Stone sued the university for sex discrimination on Tuesday, alleging Harvard forced her to resign after reports of misconduct she said were false and that the university undervalues and underpays female coaches.

Stone, who retired in June 2023, announced the lawsuit in a news conference Tuesday afternoon alongside her legal team and former Harvard hockey players.

Stone coached at Harvard for 27 seasons but left her post amid an investigation into allegations of mistreatment of players, including insensitivity to mental health issues, downplaying injuries, leading derogatory chants directed at players and creating a climate where players were pitted against each other to curry favor with her. Multiple articles, including a March 2023 report in The Athletic, also reported hazing within her program. The Athletic detailed hazing and initiation rituals that involved forced alcohol consumption and sexualized skits and traditions, including an annual event that dates back decades called “naked skate.”

The lawsuit alleges that Harvard forced Stone out because of these misconduct allegations, which she called false, and described the school’s actions as “part and parcel of a larger culture at the University wherein female coaches are undervalued, underpaid, heavily scrutinized, and held to a breathtakingly more stringent standard of behavior than their male counterparts.”

“These days, when coaches, more specifically female coaches, challenge athletes to bring out their best, they are taking a significant risk,” Stone said in prepared remarks on Tuesday. “The mental health crisis for young adults is real. Coaches are always searching to find the balance between pushing too hard versus affirming mediocrity, while cultural norms make it more difficult to set a high bar.”

Stone said that “female coaches are viewed by too many athletes, parents and administrators as being harmful, even emotionally abusive. The coaching profession is losing excellent coaches at an alarming rate as the scrutiny grows more intense and biased compared to our male counterparts.”

When reached for comment, a Harvard spokesperson said the school does not comment on active litigation.

Neither Stone nor her attorney, Andrew T. Miltenberg of Nesenoff & Miltenberg LLP, directly addressed specific allegations against Stone included in The Athletic’s story, save for a racially insensitive phrase she used in the locker room in March 2022, when she said “there are too many chiefs … not enough indians.” Miltenberg characterized it as a “common phrase” that “many of us have used.”

Miltenberg said the incident “became the catalyst, the pretext, for Harvard to start its campaign to undermine and ultimately force the resignation of Katey Stone.” He said it was a campaign “that started when Coach Stone raised the fact that she was undervalued and underpaid.”

The lawsuit states that in or around 2017, Stone and other female coaches at Harvard “began to fiercely advocate for pay transparency and parity between male and female coaches at Harvard.”

Harvard hired a law firm to conduct an external review of Stone’s program following The Athletic’s March 2023 report, which detailed allegations of hazing, initiation rituals, body shaming and an environment described by one person connected to the program as “a mental health hunger games.”

The Athletic reported that in some years of the “naked skate,” freshmen were told to do a “Superman” slide on the ice that left some with ice burns and bleeding nipples. The “naked skate” occurred as recently as January 2023, the day following the publication of a story in The Boston Globe, which first reported allegations of Stone’s misconduct toward players. After one player became upset about the event, Stone and her staff met with the team and told them it was an unsanctioned activity.

According to an internal email from athletic director Erin McDermott obtained by The Athletic, the findings of the external review by law firm Jenner & Block made clear “that some traditions in recent years were experienced differently by different people and not all were comfortable with those activities or with expressing concerns relating to the program.”

At the time of her resignation, Stone said that “a coach knows in their heart when it is time for change” and said she looked forward to “supporting the next chapter in Harvard women’s hockey.” The news release announcing her departure did not mention the allegations against Stone or the external review. Following the review, the school announced that Harvard athletics would end team traditions “that are harmful to team culture” and undertake initiatives to address player safety and well-being.

Stone, in her lawsuit, said that she was not aware about inappropriate behavior such as the “naked skates” and that she stressed to players that any sort of hazing activity was prohibited. She also said that she “fostered an environment of respect and dignity” and that while Harvard “permits, if not openly encourages, male coaches to use their discretion in how to best coach and motivate the players on their respective teams, Coach Stone was harshly punished and excoriated for engaging in the same coaching strategies and behaviors.”

On Tuesday, Stone said that her priority has always been the well-being of her players and that she was instructed by Harvard to remain silent as she was embroiled in investigations and facing allegations from former players.

“As a result, incredible damage was done to my career, to my team, to my personal and professional reputation and to my life. Today with the filing of this lawsuit, my voice will at last be heard,” she said.

She did not take questions from reporters in attendance, citing the ongoing litigation.

Three former Harvard players — Kalley Armstrong, Nicole Corriero and Jamie Hagerman Phinney — spoke in defense of Stone, saying that she played a pivotal role in their personal and professional development and created a culture of high achievement and excellence within her program.

In the lawsuit, Stone also named 50 Jane Doe defendants, who she is suing for defamation. Stone alleged those parties made false statements to The Boston Globe and Harvard that resulted in reputational damage. She is also suing those unnamed defendants for conspiracy, saying that they falsely stated that she “engaged in hazing or fostered a culture of hazing.”

Stone characterized those who have spoken out against her as a “small number” of people who “have not felt supported.”

Miltenberg suggested that her rigorous coaching standard was the basis of players’ discontent:

“Some people who have been coddled all their life don’t like that.”

(Photo: Barry Chin / The Boston Globe via Getty Images)