UNCC settles lawsuit over teacher’s alleged sexual misconduct. Here’s what it will pay
.JPG "A lawsuit accusing a UNC Charlotte faculty member of sexual misconduct with at least four female students has been settled for $40,000.")
A lawsuit accusing a UNC Charlotte faculty member of sexual misconduct involving multiple female students on overseas trips has been settled for $40,000, according to documents obtained by the Observer.
As first reported by the newspaper, at least four students were sexually assaulted or harassed by history lecturer Robert McEachnie before he was banned from school-sponsored, overseas travel with students in 2019, the federal complaint alleges.
The Observer generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual misconduct or assault.
UNCC spokeswoman Buffie Stephens did not comment on the settlement Wednesday.
The lawsuit was filed by a former student of McEachnie’s. The student, identified by the initials L.S., claimed the teacher groomed her for a sexual relationship that began during a 2017 summer excursion to the Holy Land.
L.S. said in her complaint that McEachnie initiated the sex after she had gone off medication to control significant emotional problems.
Unknown to L.S., according to her lawsuit, McEachnie sexually groped another female student on the same 2017 trip who was suffering physical health issues. McEachnie then threatened to block the second student’s admission to graduate school if she reported him, the lawsuit claims.
The second student, identified in documents as A.W., filed a formal complaint with UNCC against the teacher when she returned to campus that summer.
L.S. filed her own campus complaint against the teacher in 2019, two years before her federal lawsuit.
The lawsuit named McEachnie, UNCC and the UNC System’s Board of Governors as defendants.
Under the May settlement, the defendants will pay L.S. $40,000. But they deny any wrongdoing in the matter, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by the Observer through a Freedom of Information request.
In return, L.S. must drop her complaint and turn over all information related to her allegations against McEachnie to the university, the settlement says.
McEachnie, who was demoted by the school in 2019, did not respond to an Observer email Wednesday seeking comment.
According to the complaint, one or more of McEachnie’s superiors were aware in 2017 of his possible sexual misbehavior with multiple students on the summer trip to the Mount Zion archaeological site in Jerusalem but did not act.
That failure, according to the complaint, allowed McEachnie to keep leading the Holy Land trips — putting future students in jeopardy.
University leaders said in a past statement that they fully investigated L.S.’s 2019 allegations against McEachnie. They also said they protect student privacy as part of a safe and supportive campus atmosphere for all students, including victims of sexual misconduct.
However, the lawsuit claims that History Department chairman Jurgen Buchenau failed to adequately investigate or report A.W.’s 2017 allegations against McEachnie, which resurfaced two years later after L.S. filed her formal complaint with the school.
McEachnie, who has worked at the school for about a decade, was demoted from senior lecturer to lecturer and banned from taking students on university-sponsored overseas travel, among other punishments.
The school’s handling of the case drew criticism from a UNCC faculty group, which also called for a toughening of UNCC’s policy governing teacher-student relationships.
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 11:51 AM.
