SAN BERNARDINO (CA)
San Bernardino Sun [San Bernardino CA]
April 5, 2026
By Joe Nelson
Allegations against the former Colton High athletic trainer and daughter of legendary coach stem from encounters in 2001 to 2007
Colton Joint Unified School District has paid $19.5 million to settle lawsuits by 12 former Colton High football players who alleged they were sexually abused by the school’s former athletic trainer, the daughter of the team’s renowned football coach.
The Southern California News Group learned just recently of the settlements even though the high-profile litigation was quietly resolved from June through August 2025. According to the settlement agreements obtained by SCNG, each plaintiff received $600,000 to $2.4 million.
Attorney Morgan Stewart, who represented nine of the 12 plaintiffs, did not explain why the settlements were not publicly disclosed earlier, except to say the final defendant in the litigation, Riverside-based Clover Enterprises Inc., did not settle until February. Clover is the sports medicine service that contracted with the district to provide athletic trainers at the time of the alleged sexual misconduct.
The scandal erupted in the fall of 2022, when the first six alleged victims came forward with the allegations against athletic trainer Tiffany Strauss Gordon, now 44, in a lawsuit and series of interviews with the Southern California News Group. They alleged Gordon routinely had sexual intercourse and performed oral sex on them over a six-year period, from 2001 to 2007, when they ranged in age from 14 to 17.
The number of Gordon’s accusers subsequently doubled, and more lawsuits were filed in San Bernardino Superior Court, also by former Colton High football players.
Gordon is the daughter of former Colton High School football coach Harold Strauss, who was considered the architect of what has been described as the school’s pipeline to the National Football League. Under his wing, many of his players went on to play college ball or be drafted into the National Football League, including former NFL player Shareece Wright, one of the original six plaintiffs who went public with the allegations on ESPN in February 2024.
Harold Strauss died in December 2019.
A skilled trainer
Jim Clover, owner and founder of Clover Enterprises, said he was stunned to learn of the allegations against Gordon, who worked for him as an independent contractor and had come highly recommended.
“I had no idea what was going on until I read about it in the paper,” said Clover, who founded Clover Enterprises in 1995, is the author of four books, and has been an adjunct professor of sports medicine and kinesiology at Cal State San Bernardino for more than 17 years. Clover said he knew Harold Strauss well.
Gordon had a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Cal State San Bernardino and a master’s in education and a teaching credential from the University of Phoenix, according to Colton Joint Unified.
From his observations, Clover said, Gordon was a skilled trainer whom everybody praised and seemed to love.
“Everybody thought she was wonderful,” he said in a telephone interview. “I thought she was really good at what she did.”
Groomed for abuse
In their lawsuits, the former players alleged Gordon preyed upon and groomed them for sexual abuse. The alleged encounters occurred in the school’s locker room, training room, bathrooms, weight room and football trailer, as well as the Bloomington home where Gordon lived with her parents and weekly “Captains Dinners” were held with the coaches and top players.
Gordon’s alleged sex acts with Colton High football players, according to the lawsuits and player interviews, were a frequent source of banter and gossip among students. They referred to it as “getting the Tiffany treatment” and “getting spatted.”
Spatting, the practice of taping a player’s ankle over their shoes for added support, took on a whole new meaning at Colton High, becoming a running joke among football players and assistant coaches, according to the lawsuits.
A former player recounted in an interview and a court filing how a Colton assistant coach walked into the school’s locker room while Gordon was performing oral sex on the player. Instead of stopping the alleged sexual act, the coach immediately left the room.
Another former player alleges Gordon performed oral sex on him while he slept in a van en route to a football camp in Oregon. He said his teammates appeared aware, but treated the incident as unremarkable.
Criminal investigation
Colton Joint Unified spokeswoman Katie Orloff said that from the moment the district was made aware of the “more than 20-year-old allegations” in the summer of 2022, it immediately placed Gordon on administrative leave and contacted police, triggering a criminal investigation.
Police learned that the district had investigated Gordon more than a decade earlier on similar allegations after a former teacher reported to then-Superintendent Jerry Armendarez and Colton High School Principal Robert Verdi that Gordon allegedly sexually abused Colton High football players in the training room from 2002 to 2008, according to a police report obtained by the Southern California News Group.
During the 2022 investigation, Colton police Detective Jaime Ramirez interviewed the former teacher, who said she had been informed by a student that Gordon was giving “oral sex to students in the training room, so she reported it to the district. She told Ramirez she later followed up with the district and was told “the allegations were unfounded and nothing further happened,” according to the report.
The 2022 investigation was short-lived due to a lack of cooperation from some of the former players as well as the district. Gordon denied having any kind of inappropriate sexual relationships with the former football players when interviewed by police. Asked by an investigator why she thought the former players would make up the allegations, Gordon stated, “Why else? For money,” according to the police report filed in the case.
Lack of cooperation
During a deposition in the civil litigation, Gordon repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment to most all questions regarding her employment as an athletic trainer and her involvement with football players.
On Aug. 8, 2022, attorneys for the law firm Greenberg Gross LLP, which was representing the six former players in the litigation at the time, informed police the alleged victims “did not want to be involved in a criminal investigation and will not cooperate with law enforcement,” according to the police report.
Attorneys for Greenberg Gross would not comment on why their clients refused to cooperate in the criminal investigation.
Having nothing more to go on, police closed the investigation.
“Colton PD did submit a case to us, however the victims refused to be identified. Due to this, our office was unable to proceed with prosecution,” said San Bernardino County district attorney spokesperson Jacquelyn Rodriguez in an email.
Stewart, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said his clients wanted to pursue criminal charges against Gordon, but they understood that the statute of limitations to prosecute her had long expired. “It’s not that they didn’t want prosecution, but understood that it couldn’t happen because of the statute of limitations,” he said.
Ramirez noted in an Oct. 10, 2022, police report that on Aug. 8 that year Colton police Sgt. Robert Vega told him that Colton Joint Unified Superintendent Frank Miranda informed him that district officials “would no longer speak to law enforcement regarding the case per the direction of the school board and would invoke their attorney-client privilege.”
The district disputes Ramirez’s account in his report, calling it a “false claim.”
“Dr. Miranda did not direct anyone on his leadership team to refrain from cooperating with the Colton Police Department’s investigation, nor was he directed to do so by the Board of Education,” Orloff said in a statement. “The District has made itself, and will continue to make itself, fully available to the Colton Police Department and is committed to ensuring law enforcement has access to all relevant facts and information for their investigation.”
But in a July 28, 2022, email from Colton Joint Unified attorney Margaret Chidester to Ramirez and copied to Miranda, Chidester informs Ramirez she will no longer be able to cooperate in the investigation. The email was sent to Ramirez less than two weeks before Miranda’s conversation with Sgt. Vega.
“Previously, the (Colton Joint Unified School District) had directed me to speak with your department concerning the matter of CJUSD employee (Tiffany Gordon),” Chidester said in the email obtained by the Southern California News Group. “I learned yesterday that the district has not waived the attorney client communication privilege, and thus I am not authorized at this time to discuss the matter with you or your department.”
Another allegation
Although the district maintains the alleged sexual abuse by Gordon occurred more than 20 years ago, a lawsuit filed by a former student against the district and Gordon in October 2024 alleges Gordon continued her alleged pattern of sexual abuse at Grand Terrace High School after the district promoted her to athletic director in 2011.
The former student, an athlete at Grand Terrace High School at the time, alleges Gordon groomed and sexually abused him on campus in the fall of 2020, when he was 17 years old. That case is still pending and scheduled for trial in March 2027, court records show.
Attorneys from the Los Angeles law firm Panish Shea Ravipuldi, who are representing the former student, did not respond to requests for comment.
Orloff also declined to comment.
Gordon’s employment with Colton Joint Unified ended as of June 30, 2024. She did not respond to telephone calls and emails seeking comment. Her attorney, Daniel Kolodziej, also declined to comment.
Commitment to ‘student safety’
Orloff said the litigation and settlements had no detrimental financial impact to the district, which has implemented significant changes since the alleged sexual abuse first surfaced. She said the football program is thriving and preparing student-athletes to pursue both academic and athletic opportunities at the collegiate level.
“It is now a fundamentally different program, grounded in a strong culture of mandated reporting and a clear commitment to student safety and well-being,” Orloff said.
Under the current administration, the district requires annual mandated reporter training for all employees, as well as training on appropriate adult/student boundaries, and additional mandated reporter training during management team meetings, Orloff said.
Additionally, the district has an ongoing “see something, say something” campaign to encourage students to report concerns and make sure they feel safe doing so, and students also are trained on sexual harassment prevention each year in grades 4-12.
Even Clover, the medical services company owner, has partially shifted gears professionally. He said his legal entanglements from Gordon’s alleged actions raised his awareness, and prompted him to start up a new business called Campus Shield 360, offering mandated reporter training to coaches.
Clover, who settled with the plaintiffs for $24,000, called the litigation an “awful experience.” He said he spent more money on his attorney fees than the settlement.
“It hurt, and it still hurts,” Clover said of his traumatic experience. “It affects you. Nothing is ever going to be the same.”