NC college golf coach stalked gay athlete online then outed her to team, lawsuit says
A former student-athlete at Queens University of Charlotte has sued for sexual harassment, accusing the school for failing to act after she was outed by her coach for being gay.
Cameryn Smith, a Queens student and varsity women’s golfer for the Royals from 2015 to 2019, says the actions of coach Meggan Bunker and the failure of the coach’s superiors to step in subjected her to harassment, humiliation and estrangement from her teammates. Smith says she suffered depression and insomnia while her athletic and academic performances plummeted.
Smith identifies as gay. Her lawsuit, which surfaced Thursday in federal court, accuses the school of deliberate indifference to Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, which bans sexual discrimination at schools that receive federal money. The complaint also says Queens is guilty of negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Smith’s lawyer, Geraldine Sumter of Charlotte, has requested a jury trial and is calling for damages of more than $10,000. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn.
Smith, according to her complaint, was the victim of sexual harassment “so severe, pervasive, and/or objectively offensive that it deprived her of access to educational opportunities.”
School officials, including Athletic Director Cheri Swarthout, knew about Bunker’s behavior but did “little or nothing” to address it for at least a year, the lawsuit claims.
Smith, who graduated in 2019 and currently lives in Brunswick County, could not be reached on Thursday. Sumter did not respond to an Observer email seeking comment. A phone call to her office was not answered.
Swarthout also did not reply to an Observer email, which included specific questions about her handling of the case. The Charlotte Observer emailed Queens’ attorneys Kathleen Lucchesi and Kelly Walker, both of Charlotte, but did not immediately hear back.
In a statement to the Observer by Queens spokesman Keith Pierce, the school said it “takes all sexual harassment-related allegations very seriously.”
“While federal student privacy laws and other factors prohibit the University from discussing the details of this matter, it’s important for all to know that as a community Queens cares deeply about the safety and well being of students, faculty, staff, and visitors; and we are committed to maintaining a respectful academic and working environment free from harassment of any kind.”
Bunker’s resigned after five years on the job, the school said in late April. Her announced departure came little more than a month after Smith’s complaint was first filed in the Mecklenburg County courts. Asked by the Observer in an email if the two events were related, Queens’ officials did not respond.
As of May, according to her LinkedIn page, Bunker was listed as an assistant golf professional at the Grande Dunes Club in Myrtle Beach, but she does not appear among the golf shop staff on the club’s website. An Observer phone call to Grande Dunes on Thursday morning was not returned. Nor did Bunker respond to an interview request on Facebook.
Lawsuit: Student feared retaliation
Bunker came to Queens in the fall of 2017 from a men’s head coaching position at California State University-Bakersfield.
Smith was already a member of the Queens team. At the time, only Smith’s two roommates and her romantic partner knew she was gay, her lawsuit says.
In the spring of 2018, according to the complaint, Bunker began asking team members and the school’s athletic staff about Smith’s sexuality, spreading the word that Smith was gay.
The coach “stalked” Smith online by following her on social media. She also sifted through the online pages of Smith’s partner, including when she posted her “coming out” announcement, the lawsuit claims.
That March, Smith’s mother learned for the first time that her daughter was gay when one of Smith’s former coaches “informed (the mother) that people on campus were discussing (Smith’s) sexuality,” the lawsuit claims.
Smith learned of Bunker’s actions that February but did not report her coach because she feared retaliation, according to the complaint.
She broke her silence in January 2019, the complaint says, when she and two teammates met with Swarthout, who admitted knowing about Bunker’s behavior since the previous March.
That same month, Smith filed a Title IX complaint against Swarthout and Bunker, accusing them of discrimination and sexual harassment and creating a hostile environment in violation of the university’s Sexual Misconduct and Intimate Partner Violence policy.
After the filing, Bunker took a leave of absence for the spring 2019 semester, the lawsuit claims.
Two months later, after the school’s Title IX office investigated the complaint, Queens announced in a letter to Smith that Swarthout had been cleared of any violation.
By then, according to the lawsuit, multiple school employees — including Swarthout and Deputy Title IX Coordinator Teri Orsini — had violated the school policy that requires employees to report claims or instances of sexual harassment, the lawsuit claims.
In April 2019, Queens notified Smith that it had found that Bunker violated the school’s sexual harassment policy and had placed her on administrative leave “to ensure a cessation of potentially discriminatory behavior during the course of the investigation.”
During her last semester on the Queens campus, according to the lawsuit, Smith’s golf game and academic standing cratered. She lost $4,000 in academic scholarships. She sought therapy.
“There were many days that she did not want to get out of bed or be on campus because she was so humiliated,” her lawsuit claims.
According to the complaint, Queens’ sexual harassment policy has been updated. Its list of violations now includes a coach “intentionally or unintentionally” outing a student.
This story was originally published June 17, 2022 at 6:10 AM.
