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Mother of former Canisius College athlete files lawsuit against school

Claims mistreatment by coaches and fellow players drove her daughter to suicide.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The mother of a former Canisius College student athlete has filed a lawsuit against the college in connection with her daughter’s suicide.

Tiffany McGhie was a member of the Canisius women’s basketball team, attending the school on a full scholarship.

According to the lawsuit filed by her mother, Felice McGhie of Brooklyn, her 21-year-old daughter took her own life on June 2, 2021.

Prior to attending Canisius College, McGhie was a high school and prep basketball star at Kents Hill School and Mercersburg Academy. According to court papers, she was recruited by Canisius to play beginning in 2019, where she was part of the women’s basketball team until December 2020.

However, the suit alleges that during that time McGhie and at least one other player (unnamed) were subject to “harassment, abuse, bullying, hazing and unfair treatment”.

Canisius College is named as the sole defendant in the lawsuit, which claims that after administrators were informed, they did nothing to stop the alleged mistreatment.

Though they are not named as defendants in the suit, court papers claim former women’s head coach Scott Hemer, and assistant coach Jazz Weaver, as well as other unidentified members of the women’s varsity basketball, subjected McGhie and the other unidentified player to “relentless verbal abuse, bullying, hazing, unfair and disparate treatment, threats, and retaliation.”

Canisius College issued an updated statement on Wednesday, telling 2 On Your Side, "Canisius places the safety and wellbeing of our students as a priority and refutes all the allegations in the complaint.  We will have no further comment while the matter is in active litigation."

The lawsuit claims that one witness, a student athlete member of the women's varsity basketball team, then in her senior year in 2019 – 2020, reported that McGhie was “regularly singled out by the coaching staff and upper-class teammates for verbal abuse during practice. The abuse included but was not limited to team members and coaches screaming at her and ganging up on her to shut her down when she attempted to defend herself.”

The suit further claims, “The harassment, abuse, hazing, and bullying directed toward Tiffany Shania McGhie by the coaches and team members was so brutal and relentless that this senior member of the team quit and resigned from the team in protest.”

According to court papers, McGhie returned to the school for her sophomore season, but that in October of 2020 was told by Coach Hemer that she was “off the team until she met with a psychiatrist.”

Without stating specifically why, the lawsuit states that shortly thereafter, McGhie “was caused to be involuntarily admitted to the Erie County Medical Center hospital against her will and over the protest of her family members, where she remained for some 2 1/2 months. She suffered the trauma of being forcibly restrained by Canisius College campus security officers based on reports from a member of the Canisius College women's varsity basketball team coaching staff and a teammate.

According to court papers, on or about December 2020, with her family's assistance, McGhie was transferred to another mental health facility closer to home and shortly thereafter released to outpatient treatment. Thereafter, struggled to regain her mental well-being and physical health, "pursuing outpatient mental health treatment and working with a trainer to try to get her career as a student-athlete back on track. On June 2, 2021, however, she took her own life.”

Hemer suddenly stepped down as coach after three seasons due to what the college described as “personal health reasons” in a press release issued on June 22, 2021, which was three weeks after his former player took her own life.

Weaver is currently an assistant coach at Appalachian State University in North Carolina.

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