Type of Aggie currently: Staff
Classification/age at time: Staff
Location of crime: On-campus
Was the crime reported: Yes
Reasoning for decision to report or not report: "I reported because someone assaulted me and I wasn't okay. Title IX did contact me and put in a protective measure where this Dr. could not come on to the HSC campus, I really appreciated that. It made me feel more safe."
I worked in central administration at the Texas A&M Health Science Center and two-time Aggie graduate. The department I worked in is the Clinical Learning Resource Center (CLRC). We are a simulated hospital and service the College of Nursing, Medicine, Pharmacy, Rural Public Health, and much more. We provide opportunities for students to learn and practice medical skills and communication skills in a safe and controlled environment where it is okay to make mistakes prior to entering the actual clinical setting. I also had a faculty appointment with the College of Medicine at the time. The perpetrator was a general surgeon at Scott & White Hospital. He was previously faculty and the surgery clerkship director for the College of Medicine. His contract was not renewed very recently within the last few months prior to this event and is no longer working for the college. I have worked with this Dr. in the simulated hospital to ensure audiovisual equipment was working correctly and also recorded a lecture for the College of Medicine with him.
"This Dr. is known as a “handsy” person and has always given me hugs when I would see him in the CLRC while he was faculty. He has also kissed me on the cheek after several of these hugs. One of these times, I turned the wrong way and he kissed me on the mouth. Every time this happened, I would go to my colleagues in the CLRC and complain that he was really creepy and made me feel gross. The day the mouth kiss happened, I talked to a nurse that was working in the CLRC. She has worked with him in the hospital. I asked her what her opinion of him was and she said, “He’s creepy. He grabbed my butt once. Now when he is around I sit on my butt and I avoid him.” Everyone I spoke to about my interactions with this Dr. seemed to just know that it is “just how he is”; I felt it was best to just let these small encounters go and be nice about it as we are providing a service to him in the CLRC and he is essentially our customer. He also is an expert in his field and has been willing to teach students/help out with events often, which we appreciate.
"I was speaking with our Simulation Coordinator on Thursday, July 12, 2018 in my office. She was planning our first STEM camp for high school students at the CLRC. She was pretty stressed about getting all of the experts she needed for all of the events for the camp. She asked me to text Dr. and ask him if he would please come help with the STEM camp suture workshop. I said I would. The Dr. in his text said that he could not help with the workshop because he had surgery, but he would like to see my new office and get a hug. Those texts are below.
"During these texts, he called me on the phone because he was “tired of typing”. We discussed the changes in leadership that were occurring at the HSC due to the merger with CHI. During that phone conversation he asked if I was still using the lecture that we recorded together. In this lecture, I was the simulated patient. The lecture was over implications of abdominal assessment findings. He performed the exam on me during this filming. I felt weird after the filming because of how he touched my abdomen during filming and inbetween takes. It just seemed excessive, but nothing explicitly happened. When we re-recorded the lecture for this year, I actually had the department pay for another person to stand in as the patient for the lecture so that I wouldn’t have to do it again. I oversaw the filming of the new lecture but was not in the actual video. He said something to the effect of why didn’t I let him do the abdominal exam on me instead of some other person. I said that the person I chose was great and I thought they would work well together. He then said that he wished he could have pressed on my belly again. I just kind of laughed it off and changed the subject back to the changes in leadership that were happening. Before we got off the phone, I told him to let me know when he was coming to see my office. I did not want to be surprised by his arrival and be alone. He told me he could come by after 5 PM on Tuesday July 24, 2018. I said that was fine and I would see him then. I immediately went next door to my supervisor’s office (the Assistant Director of the CLRC and my direct supervisor). I told her about the weird belly comment and I made sure she would also be at the CLRC late that day so that I would not be alone when the Dr. dropped by. "Dr. texted me when he arrived. My supervisor and I made sure the window curtain to my office was open as far as possible and we opened my door and her door all the way. She is in the office that shares a wall with mine. We also told our administrative assistant, to keep an eye on this Dr. as she could see directly into my office through the window and open door from her desk.
"The Dr. came into the front offices and entered my office around 5:35PM-5:45PM. He was sitting in a chair and I was sitting behind my desk. My supervisor got up from her office and came in to see Dr. and say hello and make her presence known; I got up and Dr. greeted me with a normal hug and I sat back down behind my desk. She then went back into her office to work. Dr. asked how I was doing and told me that I looked nice. I said thank you. He asked about how I liked my new office and other benign things. I asked him if he had any surgeries today, and he said he had an appendectomy that started at 6:00 PM. He asked me what I was up to tonight or this week. I said that my husband is in Tyler for a training and I would be staying with him Wednesday and Thursday night. I told him that we would be seeing Singing in the Rain at the Tyler Civic Theatre on Wednesday. He then said something like, “oh, so that means you’re alone tonight?” I said “Uh, yeah I guess.” He then said that his wife would be out of town too tonight on a work trip or something. I tried to change the subject and drop a hint and talk about his wife. I asked him what she does for work. He said she is a nurse but she is retired now. I asked him how they met, and he said they met in the operating room. I enthusiastically said how cool that was and that he should tell me that story of how they met. He didn’t, and changed the subject to the new class of students. During this time, our administrative assistant left to go home. At some point in the conversation after our administrative assistant left (that consisted of a lot of awkward pauses and weird eye contact) he got up and came behind my desk. I stood, not wanting my face at the level of his groin. He asked me what the framed scroll was that I have hanging on my wall. I explained that it was the Nursing Code of Ethics, something I had received as a gift for doing the key note speech for the TAMU College of Nursing scroll ceremony one year. During that explanation, Dr. put his arm around my waist and dropped his hand to the right side of my butt. I shifted to the right so his hand would move up, but he shifted his hand back to my butt. He then hugged me with both of his arms around me. He began to make moaning sounds while rubbing my back and said “this is what I came here for.” I said nothing and became very stiff. He started to kiss me repeatedly on my face, trying to kiss my mouth. I pulled away and he was only able to kiss my right cheek/jaw. I looked at the clock as I was pulling my head away from him and said, Hey, you said your surgery starts at 6:00 PM, that is in 8 minutes, you better get going. He said “the surgery doesn’t start until I get there.” I laughed, and said again that he should get going. He said something like well, maybe I will see you after. I said “Oh, no, you’re super busy with your surgery and all” and he said that the surgery wouldn’t take very long. I then walked out of my office over to my supervisor’s office and stood in the doorway. I told her “Hey, Dr. has to get going! His surgery starts at 6:00 PM.” My supervisor told him goodbye, showed him her new office and new plants and said thank you for stopping by. I was trying to make eye contact at my supervisor to communicate something had happened during that time. She said she noticed Dr. staring at my cleavage since the top button of my shirt had come undone. I went to show Dr. out the door and he hugged me again. When he pulled away, he stroked by breast with his index finger, bringing my attention to my blouse. I said “Oh, I am so sorry” and I buttoned the button. He whispered to me that it was okay and then he left.
"I immediately called law enforcement for fear he would come back. They took my report and I told them I did want to press charges. The officer told me I should really take a self-defense class. The lawyer I was working with asked me if I would be willing to testify, which I told him absolutely yes. I found out last week that this Dr. somehow had the entire incident expunged from his record and I feel sick."