Former USC Tutor Sues for Wrongful Firing

Christopher Cairney, fired by USC as director of tutoring services last month, has sued the university, alleging wrongful termination, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The suit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday. In it, Cairney claims he was fired as punishment for making allegations of NCAA rules violations and other improprieties in the tutoring program and that USC staged a “public campaign of harassment and defamation” against him.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, also charges breach of contract, fraud, and violation of the California labor code.

USC dismissed Cairney after a lengthy internal investigation into his charges of improprieties in the athletic tutoring program, saying he was terminated for committing an NCAA violation himself by writing portions of a paper for football player Mike Bastianelli, as well as for allegedly using racial slurs, as a university affirmative action investigation concluded.

Cairney denies both accusations, and his attorney, Anthony B. Gordon, called the charges untrue.

“In fact, it is nothing more than a pretense for firing Dr. Cairney after he voiced his concerns that student athletes at USC continue to be exploited for the profit of the private corporation of USC,” Gordon said.

“After he published his concerns in various memos, [USC Athletic Director] Mike Garrett terminated him for speaking out, which is in violation of public policy and his First Amendment rights.”

Todd Dickey, interim university counsel, denied Cairney was fired because of the charges he made.

“That certainly was not why he was terminated,” Dickey said, citing the alleged NCAA violation and saying that “more than enough” co-workers and athletes made accusations of Cairney making racially offensive remarks “to lead us to conclude racial slurs occurred.”

Cairney complains he was never told who made the accusations, and Dickey said they were promised confidentiality.

USC announced when it fired Cairney that the school’s investigation found “no pattern of academic fraud” yet acknowledged two NCAA violations involving improper assistance by a tutor--one involving Cairney and another involving an unidentified tutor who also was dismissed.

The Pacific 10 Conference, as part of a review of the two reported violations, will hold a hearing before its compliance and enforcement committee Monday in Palo Alto at which Cairney said he plans to testify.

“I could either clear myself or be found guilty of academic fraud, and that would effectively end my career of 10 years,” Cairney said.

David Price, associate commissioner of the Pac-10, said the committee will make a recommendation regarding the reported violations to the conference council at its June 5-7 meeting, and that though it has the authority to call for an additional investigation, it rarely does.