Report: Horry councilman lost CCU job due to physical ‘misconduct’ allegations
Horry County Council member Cam Crawford lost his job at Coastal Carolina University in 2019 after a student worker under his supervision filed a complaint alleging he touched and kissed her inappropriately, according to a report Tuesday.
Crawford, who has represented the Socastee area of the county since 2015, denied the allegations and told The Sun News Tuesday afternoon that he believes the accusations have come to light due to a years-old political disagreement.
He framed the allegations as unexpected, and said he didn’t know he had behaved inappropriately toward anyone. He told The Sun News he didn’t think the actions described by the student worker rose to the level of violating university rules.
Coastal Carolina University received a complaint in 2019 from a woman who worked from August 2017 through November 2019 as a student-employee under Crawford’s supervision; MyHorryNews first reported the allegations based on documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act.
In November 2019, the woman filed a complaint against Crawford under the Title IX law, which governs sexual misconduct and other sex-based discrimination issues in schools and on college campuses. The university conducted an investigation into “the allegations of discriminatory behaviors relating to physical contact with student employees, kissing of a student employee’s head, and additional behaviors of a sexual nature,” MyHorryNews reported, and determined by December 2019 that “evidence does support a finding that Mr. Crawford violated University policies UNIV-466 Title IX Statement of Non-Discrimination and UNIV-468 Sexual Misconduct Policy.”
“The school said it found evidence supporting ‘continuous physical contact with student employee supervisees, which included hugging and touching of hand and/or arm,’ evidence supporting ‘kissing of a student employee’s head’ and a ‘Failure to cease behavior after counseling with direct supervisor,’” MyHorryNews reported.
The Sun News has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with CCU to obtain records documenting the alleged abuse and the university’s investigation in Crawford.
Crawford, in an interview Tuesday, said the woman misinterpreted his “Southern mannerisms” as sexual, when that was not his intent. He acknowledged that he occasionally greets or says goodbye to people by kissing them on the head, and also occasionally hugs people or blows non-romantic kisses
“I guess because of my upbringing, coming from where I come from, I commonly greet people with a kiss on the head, I may say goodbye with a kiss on the head,” Crawford told The Sun News following the article’s publication. “I wave goodbye to people. I might comment, ‘I like your shoes or whatever, I like your necklace.’ It’s nothing sexual, it’s just me being a polite social person.”
ALLEGATIONS REVEALED IN COMPLAINT
The woman was a CCU student and worked under Crawford in the university office overseeing the CINO card, which gives students access to dorms, dining facilities and more. According to the complaint, the woman said the unwanted kissing and touching from Crawford occurred between her hiring in August 2017 and the time she reported Crawford to the university in November 2019.
According to records obtained by MyHorryNews, the woman’s allegations include the following:
Crawford gave her unwanted hugs and kisses that the woman said were in an “affectionate manner;” Crawford whispered in her ear about another student employee; and Crawford touched her “leg or arm when speaking to me on a weekly basis.”
Crawford would “routinely place himself within a one-foot radius of her person;” had “touched her on her torso, hair, both arms, both hands including hand-holding, grabbed her right leg above her ankle and slung his arm around her.”
Crawford would “openly (express) verbal affection in a paternal sense often quoting, ‘I think of you as my own daughter,’ or ‘If I ever had/have a daughter I would want her to be exactly like you.”
The woman wrote in her complaint to CCU that she would try to step away from Crawford and would turn her back to him and move away when he tried to touch her. She said she asked Crawford to stay out of her personal space because his behavior made her “feel extremely uncomfortable.”
Crawford was accused of touching the woman’s arm and hair, once in a petting manner, and that he made a comment to someone to not get a belly button piercing “because it’s not attractive,” MyHorryNews reported.
The newspaper did not name the woman in their report, and noted they could not reach her for comment. Crawford declined to name the woman to The Sun News.
In a statement that Crawford shared with both MyHorryNews and The Sun News, he was more blunt:
“None of the allegations made against me were sexual in nature. Neither my conduct nor mannerisms were ever sexual in nature towards her during the nearly three years we worked together,” Crawford wrote. “Any suggestion that my mannerisms, greetings, or how close I stand to someone when speaking is sexual in nature is patently, substantively, and completely wrong. As she described in her statement to the CCU Title IX interim official, my behavior was parental in nature. I am a married man, and I am in love with my wife.”
Crawford also said he took issue with the assertion that he was warned that his behavior was inappropriate. He said he was only informed that anyone took issue with his behavior after the woman filed a complaint with the university. He said if the woman, or his supervisor, had told him sooner that his behavior made students in the office uncomfortable, he would have stopped.
“Nobody ever said, ‘Hey Cam, you’re doing something wrong, Cam you’re making me uncomfortable.’ Nobody ever warned me,” Crawford said. “If I was doing something wrong, all you had to do was come and tell me. But my contention is, I wasn’t doing anything, my mannerisms, my basic mannerisms, gestures and greetings were used against me in this instance.”
In his statement, Crawford added that until he was informed of the Title IX investigation, he had not heard any complaints about his behavior from supervisors.
“In my annual review just one month before the allegations surfaced, there was absolutely no mention of anything inappropriate in my conduct,” he wrote. “The university has released my personnel file to the media, which is more than 150 pages, which confirms this.”
In December 2019, CCU informed Crawford about the results of the investigation and sought to terminate him. He appealed his termination, MyHorryNews reported. The university agreed to allow Crawford to resign as of November 2019, and paid him a $3,825 settlement, which Crawford said was backpay. The agreement included a stipulation that neither party sue each other.
Crawford told The Sun News that he had wanted to sue CCU, but that he couldn’t afford an attorney to do so.
“I would have moved forward with a lawsuit had I had the money,” he said. “I feel like I was railroaded. I feel like I was treated poorly during the process and that I was forced out.”
Crawford’s explanation
Crawford said he tried to “create an environment...that was somewhat relaxed,” explaining that he wanted student employees to be allowed to study and work on homework while on the clock.
“I tried not to be overly demanding, I tried to be a good boss, a good supervisor, someone who took into consideration all the different things they were going through in and out of school,” he said. “If I’m at fault for anything it’s that instead of being a friend-boss I should have just been a manager.”
In his statement, he added that he “respected” the woman who made the allegations “as a person.”
“I believe anyone who thinks they’ve been mistreated deserves to be heard,” he wrote. “Likewise, no one should be declared guilty and lose their job without due process.”
Crawford said in the interview that his termination from CCU two years ago surfaced now because of false rumors that circulated on Facebook. Those rumors, which alleged different sexual misconduct by Crawford toward a CCU student, caused colleagues and family members to question if he had left his wife, state Rep. Heather Ammons Crawford.
Crawford said the rumors aren’t true, but that he believes they made their way to local journalists, who filed records requests with CCU to determine if they were true or not. Rather than finding records that support the rumors, Crawford said CCU provided records about his termination two years ago. He said a “political adversary” started the rumor on Facebook, which stemmed from Crawford not hiring the person for a political job several years ago.
The Sun News filed a records request with CCU related to Crawford in October seeking records related to “any disciplinary action taken by Coastal...including notices of termination or suspension, reprimands , etc.” as well as “any complaints or other documents submitted to Coastal by students, staff, professors, administration or the public regarding Mr. Crawford, his employment, his job performance and his conduct/behavior.”
In response to that request in early November, a university FOIA said “the FOIA Office has conducted the search pursuant to your request. The search did not yield any documents containing the information you requested.” It’s not clear why the request did not yield any records. A CCU spokesperson declined to comment for this story on Tuesday.
Crawford told The Sun News he felt a more appropriate punishment from CCU would have been to give him a written warning following the Title IX investigation that went into his personnel file, rather than termination. He said the incident has taken a toll on him and his family.
“It’s been this thing that’s lingered over my head, it’s put considerable strain on me and my family,” Crawford said. “It’s difficult explaining. There’s an emotional and mental aspect to it.”
The Sun News reporter Mary Norkol contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: The headline of this story has been updated to more closely reflect information available to The Sun News at this time.
This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 8:16 PM.
