April 16, 2021 – Ted W. Grace, MD, a doctor implicated in the Ohio State University’s decade-long sex abuse scandal, has given up his license to practice medicine and surgery in the state of Ohio, according to the State Medical Board.
The handover is permanent, says Joel Whetstone, a spokesman for the medical panel. The administrative hearing for Grace scheduled for April 20-23 has been canceled.
Grace, who served as the director of student health services at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, has resigned from that position. A replacement was named earlier this week, the southern Illinois native reported Thursday. Grace resigned on March 12, a university spokesman says.
“This is the first person to be held accountable in this mess,” says Stephen Snyder-Hill, one of many students who complained that Dr. Richard Strauss, a former team doctor and medical center doctor at the university, was inappropriately examined and touched him. Grace was overseeing Strauss. Snyder-Hill complained in 1995; When he requested a meeting and got one, his complaints were pushed aside, he says.
Ted Grace, a former Ohio State doctor who had not reported abuse by former university doctor Richard Strauss, relinquished his Ohio medical license to the Ohio State Medical Board on Wednesday.
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– The Lantern (@TheLantern) April 14, 2021
In mid-March, a task force appointed by Governor Mike DeWine to review the State Medical Board’s handling of the investigation by the State Medical Board released its final report. As a result, the board opened 91 sexual inappropriateness cases that had been closed. It was also recommended to reopen an additional 42 non-reporting cases, including an investigation against Grace.
The Medical Board noted that during Grace’s tenure as director of the student health service at OSU, Grace was aware of widespread rumors that Strauss had inappropriately touched students. The board also said Grace was aware of at least three different complaints against Strauss, including Snyder-Hill’s. While the board says Grace verbally warned Strauss, it notes that he did not report the events to the state medical board. Grace also sent a letter to the second student complaining, falsely saying that no complaints had been previously reported about Strauss. After a third complaint, Grace suspended Strauss from visiting students at the health center, but did not report to the Medical Association, the correspondence said. Strauss died of suicide in 2005.
OSU opened an independent investigation in 2018 and reported in May 2019 that at least 177 former students were abused by Strauss while he was working on campus from 1978 to 1998 and that university staff did not investigate or took appropriate action.
Snyder-Hill, an outspoken LGBTQ rights advocate, writer, retired Army major, and nutritionist in Columbus, was monitoring the COVID-19 vaccinations as a public health worker when his attorney called to share the news. While licensing is good news and a monumental step in the process, Snyder-Hill says more needs to be done. I will not stop. I will escalate this further. My focus is exactly on what the Ohio state governor said about any medical professional who didn’t come forward [impropriety] to be held accountable. “
Snyder-Hill says his focus is now shifting to a psychologist who attended the meeting held long ago when he was told he was “confused and wrong” because he was molested.
While the Ohio State Medical Board makes decisions regarding a physician’s Ohio license, it has no authority over his or her license in any other state. On Friday, the Illinois state licensing website found Grace’s license active with no disciplinary action taken.
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Stephen Snyder-Hill, author, activist, retired Army major, nutritionist, Columbus, OH.
The Southern Illinoisan: “Replacement named after the disgraced former Student Health Services director who was linked to the Ohio state sex scandal.”
Joel P. Whetstone, assistant manager, State Medical Board of Ohio, Columbus.
Medical Board of Ohio: Orders received, April 14, 2021.
Kim Rendfeld, spokesman for Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
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