Tennessee head football coach Butch Jones, second from left, speaks during a news conference Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, in Knoxville, Tenn. The school’s coaches held the news conference two weeks after a group of unidentified women sued the school over its handling of sexual assault complaints made against student-athletes. From left are women’s basketball coach Holly Warlick, Jones, track & field/cross country coach Beth Alford-Sullivan, swimming and diving coach Matt Kredich, and diving coach Dave Parrington. (AP Photo/Patrick Murphy-Racey)
FILE – In this Oct. 14, 2015, file photo, University of Tennessee Chancellor Jimmy Cheek attends a legislative hearing in Nashville, Tenn. Tennessee Chancellor Jimmy Cheek says any assertions that his university doesn’t take sexual assault seriously enough “is simply not true.” A federal lawsuit has been filed against the university stating that Tennessee violates Title IX regulations and creates a “hostile sexual environment” through a policy of indifference toward assaults by athletes. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig, File) KNOXVILLE – A judge has ruled that a reference to Peyton Manning can remain in a Title IX lawsuit filed against the University of Tennessee and that the case shouldn’t be moved from Nashville to Knoxville.
U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger issued the ruling Tuesday.
The lawsuit filed in Nashville by eight unidentified women says Tennessee has violated Title IX regulations and created a “hostile sexual environment” through a policy of indifference toward assaults by athletes.
One paragraph mentions a sexual harassment complaint made by a Tennessee trainer in 1996 that included Manning, then the Volunteers quarterback.
Lawyers for the school said the Manning reference should be struck because of its “utter lack of relevance” to the lawsuit. They also had filed a separate motion to dismiss the case in its entirety due to it being in an improper venue or to move it from Nashville to Knoxville, where the university is located.