A local high school athletic director is under investigation, accused of having sex with student athletes.
The athletic director, 40-year-old Tiffany Strauss Gordon has now been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of a police investigation.
The accusers claim the misconduct happened nearly two decades ago.
Gordon is the current athletic director at Grand Terrace High School. Now six male former student athletes are accusing Tiffany Strauss Gordon of sexually abusing them while they attended Colton High School where Gordon was once an athletic trainer.
“Each one of my clients has struggled with what occurred early on in their childhood until today,” said Brian Williams, the former students attorney. “Each has their own stories about how this has affected them over the years.”
Williams is representing the six accusers who say the sexual misconduct happened during the early 2000’s when they played for the Colton High School Varsity Football Team.
The alleged victims are now in their 30’s.
“They’ve reached an age in their life where they have children of their own or in some instances nieces and nephews and them coming forward now is not just an effort to seek their own justice but they are trying to protect other kids,” Williams said.
According to the complaint, the accusers say Gordon had sex with them on multiple occasions at school and outside of school.
“We have instances where the abuse occurred in weight rooms, the varsity football locker room, bathrooms, classrooms, and in a van used to drive football players to football events,” Williams said.
Williams says his clients also claim football staff members knew about the abuse but kept quiet about it.
At the time, Gordon’s father Harold Strauss was a legendary football coach at Colton High School.
He passed away in 2019.
“They are members of an acclaimed high school football team and ultra competitive athletes wanting to win on the field and then you have this woman who is performing sexual events with them and she’s the daughter of the head coach,” Williams said.
Gordon’s attorney Paul Wallin calls the accusations outlandish and points out that during her decades in the Colton Joint Unified School District she has never had any previous allegations against her.
“My client is a mother, she has been involved in the school system for over two decades,” Wallin said. “I just urge the public like they would want to do for someone they love was accused of a crime like this, that they keep an open mind and not make a judgment from what the media says and wait for the evidence to come in.”
The Colton Joint Unified School District released a statement to NBC4 saying in part that Gordon has been placed on administrative leave.
It also says they are fully cooperating with the Colton Police Department’s criminal investigation into the matter.
Source: NBC Los Angeles
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