College student Shalom Ifeanyi, 19, has filed a lawsuit accusing her coach and the University of Cincinnati of having unfairly dismissed her from her team.
College student Shalom Ifeanyi, 19, has filed a lawsuit accusing her coach and the University of Cincinnati of having unfairly dismissed her from her team.
A college volleyball player has accused her coach of unfairly kicking her off the team due to her "seductive" social media posts, even as thinner and lighter-skinned athletes were allowed to share bikini snaps.
Shalom Ifeanyi, 19, has filed a lawsuit against the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, coach Molly Alvey, and executive senior associate athletic director Maggie McKinley.
She says Alvey began "harassing and shaming" her about her personal social media accounts "almost immediately" after recruiting her "heavily" and prompting her to transfer from her original chosen college, Oregon State University, to attend the University of Cincinnati instead as a student-athlete, according to the Daily Mail.
"Almost immediately upon her arrival on campus, Alvey began harassing and shaming [Ifeanyi] about pictures she was posting on her personal social media accounts,' the filing, published by Courthouse News, states.
"The photographs Alvey took issue with all pictured [Ifeanyi] fully clothed."
According to the suit, Alvey specifically told the student that many of her images were "too sexy".
Meanwhile, the coach didn't make similar remarks to other members of the women's volleyball team who were "of slighter build and lighter complexion", the filing states, even though some had photos of themselves in "two-piece swimsuits".
Ifeanyi says she removed her photos because she was afraid of "retaliation" on the coach's part, and stuck to sharing headshots on social media for "some time".
The student underwent knee surgery and in June last year had a meeting with Alvey to discuss her rehab progress, as well as her prospects for the upcoming season, the suit states.
Making a point: Ifeanyi told her coach she felt she was being body-shamed and 'sexualized' because she is not flat-chested, and said her teammates weren't treated the same way. Photo / Facebook
At one point towards the end of the meeting, Ifeanyi says Alvey got up, closed the door to her office, and asked her to pull up her Instagram profile before requesting she remove a specific photo.
"When the football players see this, what do you think they see? They see your breasts. It's seductive," Alvey said according to the suit.
The student says she deleted the image because she was "fearful of retaliation and continued shaming" from her coach, then left Alvey's office.
Two days after the meeting and one day after Ifeanyi's birthday, the student received text messages from her coach asking her to delete specific photos from her Instagram account, the filing states.
Screenshots attached to the suit as exhibits indicate that Ifeanyi tried to plead her case, telling Alvey she felt that she was being treated unfairly.
"OK Coach, however I feel like I'm being body-shamed because I'm not flat-chested," the student wrote in response to Alvey's request. "I'm not trying to show my boobs Coach, I can't make them go away.
"In these pictures I just got my hair done and really liked my makeup and thought the pictures were pretty. My teammates have swimsuit photos that are more revealing than me in a tank top.
"I will delete them if you really want me to but I feel like because people say I'm pretty I'm being sexualised. There's a history of black women because of their bodies being sexualised and that's what appears to be happening to me.
"I can't help the way I'm built. I am not trying to argue, I just feel like I have to be flat-chested or real skinny in order to post."
The student-athlete says her coach asked her to remove certain photos from her social media accounts because they were "too sexy", and provided screenshot of text conversations with coach Molly Alvey as part of the filing/
Discussion: Screenshots attached to the suit as exhibits indicate that Ifeanyi tried to plead her case, telling Alvey she felt that she was being treated unfairly.
According to the lawsuit, the coach 'never responded' to the athlete's message, but later acknowledged that she had received it.
A few days later Alvey called Ifeanyi into her office and told her she was dismissed from the team, only saying that she and the student had 'different philosophies', the document states.
"When [Ifeanyi] asked if her dismissal had anything to do with her text response the prior week, Alvey indicated that she read it, but would not discuss it further and offered no other reason for this devastating action," the suit reads.
As for McKinley, she was present during the meeting and agreed with the dismissal, according to the complaint.
Ifeanyi was told she should return her apparel the following day, and that she had to empty her athletic dorm room since it would be reassigned to another student-athlete, the filing states.
After being removed from the team, Ifeanyi says she filed a Title IX complaint, but that the University of Cincinnaty failed to complete its investigation in the nine months that followed, or to give her a "meaningful opportunity" to appeal.
Part of the team: The student-athlete says Alvey began "harassing and shaming" her about her personal social media accounts "almost immediately" after recruiting her "heavily". Photo / Facebook
While the student has been able to retain her scholarship for the 2017-2018 academic year, she has been told that the funding will not be renewed due to her dismissal from the team.
NCAA rules also dictate that she will not be able to play volleyball competitively for the 2018-2019 season, "effectively ending any potential ability for [Ifeanyi] to rely on an athletic scholarship for payment of tuition and related costs", the lawsuit states.
According to the complaint, Ifeanyi "has therefore been forced, without the benefit of an athletic scholarship, to enrol in another university to complete her undergraduate studies and has lost earning capacity due to the delay and disruption in her education".
"As a direct and proximate result of [Alvey and McKinley's] unlawful conduct, [Ifeanyi] has lost her athletic scholarship, will be forced to pay for the remainder of her college education on her own, and has lost earning capacity due to the delay and disruption in her education," the document reads.
Funding: While the student has been able to retain her scholarship for the 2017-2018 academic year, she has been told that the funding will not be renewed. Photo / Facebook
Ifeanyi also says she has suffered "pain and suffering", which manifested as "humiliation, frustration, aggravation, anger and depression", as a result of her dismissal.
She is now seeking 'compensatory damages, punitive damages, reasonable attorney fees, costs and all other relief to which she may be entitled'.
A spokesman for the University of Cincinnati's athletic department told Yahoo he was "unable to comment on the allegations", while Ifeanyi's lawyer Ryan McGraw told the website: "We feel that the lawsuit speaks for itself and do not have any additional comments at this time."
