Jacques Curtis’s Tenure At Shaw University Ends

In a brief press launch saying Jacques Curtis’ sudden retirement and Lou Hamilton’s appointment as interim head coach of the Shaw College girls’s basketball program, the college didn’t handle the alleged causes behind Curtis’ resignation or the current allegations surrounding this system. As an alternative, it highlighted his profession achievements, together with 400 wins, 9 CIAA titles, 11 NCAA match appearances, and a Division II Nationwide Championship.

As HBCU Gameday studies, in April 2025, Kiara Shepherd, a senior guard, posted a video to her TikTok account that contained allegations that Curtis’ program was rife with inappropriate conduct directed towards the student-athletes he was speculated to be educating and training.

Shepherd additionally indicated in her video that she had filed a criticism with the Raleigh, North Carolina college earlier within the 12 months. As is usually the case when a whistleblower comes ahead, her allegations impressed different athletes to return ahead about what they skilled beneath Curtis’ tenure.

“I simply need to let y’all know I’m not attempting to bash anyone,” Shepherd mentioned in her video. “I’m not attempting to wreck no person’s profession. I’m simply saying precisely what occurred.”

She continued, “All I’m simply attempting to do is convey consciousness. I’ve already went to the college, I’ve already went to HR. I’ve already tried to pinpoint and get in touch with who I must contact. Faculty’s not doing nothing about it. I’ve no selection however to convey it on social media, which I didn’t need to do.”

“It’s been actually onerous to only form of focus and simply do my schoolwork, nevertheless it’s similar to this has been pounding behind my thoughts. And everyone is rather like, properly, simply let it go … I simply want that …I can’t. I can’t,” Shepherd defined.

Alliyah Chaplin, a guard who performed for the college in the course of the 2023-2024 season, is without doubt one of the former gamers who got here ahead with related accounts of abuse and inappropriate conduct whereas this system was beneath the path of Curtis.

As well as, the 2 gamers informed numerous media retailers that they’ve been in touch with gamers who’ve performed for the staff way back to 2013 who’ve described related conditions.

“I skilled a person who takes benefit of his place and he has folks behind him,” Chaplin informed CBS 17. “I would like [the school] to look into it. I would like them to do one thing about it as a result of we are able to’t preserve going by means of that.”

She continued,”There is no such thing as a purpose why the identical factor is being mentioned over and over, 12 months after 12 months, with the identical, with completely different groups. The roster is sort of clear each single 12 months. All people is leaving. All people is transferring.”

Though the college has acknowledged an impending assembly with Shepherd, which is simply formally to deal with her considerations, it additionally famous in a press release on its web site that “Shaw College is conscious of current allegations which have surfaced on-line. The college takes any allegations of misconduct severely. The college has no additional remark right now.”

Frantaisa Springs, who was an gear supervisor with the staff in the course of the 2018-2019 season, indicated to ABC 11that abuse thrives in silence.

“I simply witnessed like, emotional abuse, yelling for no purpose, and similar to mistreatment.” Springs, who had not beforehand come ahead, was motivated by others sharing their experiences, recalled. “I’m glad everyone’s talking up about it as a result of when you’re not going to talk out about it, it’s simply going to maintain happening and on and on.”

One more former participant, who requested ABC 11 to stay nameless, remarked to the outlet off-camera that the abuse in this system goes again to at the very least 2005.

“I used to be shocked completely different gamers are actually popping out from earlier years all the best way from 2005 to (2007),” per the alum’s feedback to the outlet, they know of at the very least 11 former gamers who’ve described conduct much like Shepherd and the others. That alum is now aiding with the authorized course of. The alum is “shocked” and “surprised” by the best way it has performed out to this point.

Again in 2006, Dolmesha Stallings, a former assistant coach beneath Curtis, filed a criticism with Shaw College and the Equal Employment Alternative Fee (EEOC), stating to WBAL Information that he sexually harassed her from the time she began working in that place in June 2003.

“There was some bodily, nevertheless it was extra so simply verbal, a lot of inappropriate language, a lot of inappropriate telling of jokes — sexual nature…I’d give again the championship ring simply to take this 12 months again,” Stallings mentioned.

“He’s a married man. I’ve a fiancé. I informed him, ‘You’re my supervisor. Don’t combine enterprise with pleasure, and you recognize you’re making me uncomfortable,” she recalled.

She continued, “There are quite a few girls who’ve come to me and counseled me for stepping up and having the braveness to say one thing the place they weren’t capable of, so I do know there are others.”

RELATED CONTENT: Former College Of Wisconsin Ladies’s Basketball Gamers Sue Ex Coach, Alleging Psychological Abuse