Ohio State University, Rep. Jim Jordan, focus of documentary on Strauss sexual abuse survivors

By George Shillcock
WOSU 89.7 NPR News
https://www.wosu.org/

The HBO documentary "Surviving Ohio State" aired this week, criticizing the university's response to Dr. Richard Strauss and the people he sexually abused while he worked at OSU.

The documentary accuses Ohio State officials, like then-assistant wrestling coach and current Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, of covering up Strauss' actions. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in early June. It was produced by George Clooney and includes interviews with people who were sexually abused by Strauss, who worked at the university from 1978 to 1998.

The film calls out Ohio State for shortchanging the survivors by offering $250,000 per person in a 2020 settlement, compared to other universities like Michigan State and Penn State, which offered more than $1 million to sexual abuse survivors. The film is highly critical of Ohio State, saying university officials were deceitful and fought tooth and nail to dismiss lawsuits brought by abuse victims.

Former Ohio State officials didn't participate in the documentary. Jordan and former wrestling head coach Russ Hellickson did not respond to the documentary crew's interview requests.

Steve Snyder-Hill, one of the first Strauss victims to come forward, told WOSU he hopes the documentary helps people to realize how horrible OSU's response was to the abuse.

"(Ohio State was) so wretched in the way that they handled this that they got a whole documentary created about it, about the way they've handled it. I think that that should be any student that is there now's takeaway," Snyder-Hill said.

Strauss died by suicide in 2005 at the age of 67, hanging himself at his California home.

For more, go to https://www.wosu.org/sports/2025-06-18/ohio-state-university-jim-jordan…