Ex-Liberty Spokesman Says He Was Fired For Raising Concerns

RICHMOND, Va.: A former spokesman for Liberty University is suing the evangelical Virginia school after being fired, alleging in a lawsuit filed Monday that his termination came in retaliation for voicing concerns that sexual misconduct accusations were mishandled.

Scott Lamb, a vice president-level executive at the school where he was hired in 2018, said in an interview with The Associated Press that he pushed for answers about what was being done to investigate claims raised in a lawsuit filed over the summer by 12 women, and was continually dissatisfied.

The women’s lawsuit, which is still ongoing, alleged the school had a pattern of mishandling cases of sexual assault and harassment and had fostered an unsafe campus environment. A student-led movement has since been established to advocate for systemic reforms, and the nonprofit investigative journalism outlet ProPublica published a deeply reported investigation Sunday with findings similar to the allegations raised in the lawsuit.

Lamb said in the interview that the university, which has a gleaming campus in Lynchburg, has plenty of resources and should have used them to open a third-party investigation of the women’s claims.

We put $300 million in the bank last year, and some change. We have two-point-something-billion in the endowment, and we cant afford to just deal righteously with these people. Why? Lamb said.

Neither Liberty’s current spokesman nor the school’s general counsel immediately responded to an emailed request for comment about Lamb’s lawsuit and the ProPublica investigation. Nor did they answer questions about what the school has done to investigate the female litigants’ claims.

Lambs lawsuit alleges that he was terminated for engaging in activity protected under Title IX, the federal law that protects against sex discrimination in education, after challenging the universitys handling of the complaints.

Lamb’s complaint says things came to a head in a meeting early this month when he told top school officials that he would not be silenced or participate in a cover up of activities” at the university.

The following day, he was approached about negotiating a separation agreement and on Oct. 6, he was fired, according to the lawsuit.

Lamb also alleges that he was retaliated against for his participation in an outside investigation conducted into the tenure of Jerry Falwell Jr., the former president whose personal controversies and acrimonious departure from Liberty last year garnered national headlines.

His lawsuit says he sat for 20-25 hours of interviews as part of that probe, the findings of which the school has not discussed publicly.

Lamb’s lawsuit broadens the list of litigation the school has faced recently. In April, the school sued Falwell, seeking millions in damages. And in July, a former NFL player hired last year to help lead diversity initiatives sued, alleging racial discrimination in his demotion and subsequent firing.

Lamb said he was offered a severance package if he signed a nondisclosure agreement, which he declined. His firing has meant not only the loss of his income and benefits but scholarship funding for his four children who attend the school, he said. His lawsuit seeks to recoup past and future wage losses and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Ill forsake the scholarship and the salary and the benefits … to keep my tongue free to speak of which Ive seen,” he said.

Kendall Covington, a senior at Liberty and a student representative for Save71, an alumni-led organization advocating for reform at Liberty, said the group welcomes Lamb’s apparent willingness to push for change.

She said the student body had not received any kind of acknowledgment Monday about the ProPublica story, something she called par for the course.

Liberty University needs to actually address whats occurring,” she said.

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