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INTERMEDIATE: A mother of three Yale swimmers has come forward with alleged information about her children at the school to Fox News Digital, after the Ivy League's athletic department saw a leak of unsavory documents in recent days.
Kim Jones, the mother of two female Yale swimmers and one former male swimmer, said she had to witness her daughter and son being forced to compete against transgender athletes while at Yale.
Fox News Digital is not naming his children at his request, but has confirmed that they competed at Yale during his tenure.
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Her oldest daughter, who attended Yale from 2018-23, competed against legendary UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas during Thomas' tenure in 2021-22, both in the regular season and at the Ivy League tournament. Then she had to watch her son, who attended Yale from 2020-25, share a team and locker room with a female swimmer, Iszac Henig, who moved from the university's women's team to the men's team in the 2022-23 season.
“I would say it felt like North Korea,” Jones said of her children's experience at the time.
“I would say the athletic department as a whole was a terrible place.”
The experience of watching her oldest daughter play against Thomas, and Yale's hosting of those matches against Thomas, caused internal tension and trauma in her family.
“They were threatening the girls … dragging them into forced meetings. They were intimidating, coercing, threatening and emotionally abusing them,” Jones said.
“They were told that they would be there, they would be held accountable for any harm that came to people in their communities who identified as transgender.”
Jones said he did not believe the women involved “realized” what they had been through.
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“I think it will take more time than what has already passed for most of those young women to look back and see how much they were forced and abused during this time,” he said.
Jones said her daughter has never had to share a bedroom with Thomas. But his son had to share one with Henig.
“It hurts friendships. Yeah, you're going to change the way you talk, you're going to change the way you act when you're in a different place with people of the opposite sex. Guys didn't feel like they could go to the athletic department and say 'this is not comfortable, we don't want a woman in our locker room,'” Jones said.
Still, Jones said her son has kept all the same friendships with the other men in his group.
But the mother said that the worst thing about her son's treatment at Yale is that it is suspected that she prevented him from representing women who have to compete with Thomas.
“It is sad, it takes away their beliefs to stand up for what is right in front of their eyes, to speak when they are not comfortable,”
“You can't stand up for women. You can't stand up for what's right, right in front of your eyes. Then the athletic director comes down and crushes everyone, and any disagreements he wants to put under the blanket.”
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas (C) smiles with Yale University swimmer Iszac Henig (R) after winning the 100 yard freestyles during the 2022 Ivy League Womens Swimming and Diving Championships at Blodgett Pool on Feb. 19, 2022 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)
The Jones family still sent their youngest daughter to start college at Yale in 2024, but changed it one year later in 2025.
Jones is currently the founder of the Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS), known for funding Riley Gaines' lawsuit against the NCAA over the inclusion of Thomas and other trans athletes in women's sports.
The incident of his son's detention that allegedly turned him into a “skeleton”
Jones' son began his college career during school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And as a mother, Jones still has a picture in her head when she comes home after her first semester.
“He looked like a skeleton, he had lost a lot of weight,” said Jones.
He called the university's accusations of handing down COVID “disastrous.”
“He was a freshman and at school, he was locked in his dorm,” Jones said. “They were delivering their food. No, the athletics department was not looking after their student athletes saying 'oh my god, you are a big person, you need food.' Like, my son is 6'4.”
Jones also lamented the needs of the university's mission and the need for consistency [nasal] swab COVID test.
“It was incredibly stressful,” she said. “The oversight of the vaccines to wear the mask and the responsibility and the regular testing, it was worse than anything that was happening without a name.”
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During the fall 2020 semester, Yale University implemented strict COVID-19 protocols to allow a partial return to campus, which involved a phased, three-step, month-long process of quarantine for students upon arrival, according to the Yale Daily News.
Undergraduate students living in residence halls and graduate/professional students in overcrowded housing were required to be screened twice a week for symptoms. Strict social distancing measures were implemented, including limiting gatherings to 10 people and mandating face coverings.
“A place, like I said, like North Korea”
Jones alleges that one day during Thomas' tenure at UPenn, his oldest daughter came to him to warn him about social media comments.
“I wrote, 'women deserve to be able to celebrate their incredible physical boundaries' or something like that,” Jones said.
“My daughter said, 'take it down. People are noticing, we shouldn't say anything.' And I said 'I thought that was a good comment,' you know? And he said to me, 'We were told that the most important thing for us is first above ourselves, above anything else, to support…the position taken by the school and the faculty.'”
Jones is not the first person previously associated with Yale to speak out about the athletic department's alleged “silencing of dissenters.”
A letter signed by former Yale hockey coach Keith Allain to Yale President Maurine McInnis, alleges that current Yale Athletic Director Victoria Chun has created a “toxic environment” for the university's sports teams. Fox News Digital published the letter Monday after confirming with Allain that he emailed the letter to McInnis in October, shortly after he retired.
“My name is Keith Allain, I just retired after 19 years as a Men's Hockey coach and I am writing to you at the request of several coaches in our Athletic Department. They told me that you have been asking for feedback from several coaches about extending our athletic director's contract, and they are concerned, that with a culture of fear that can't get an answer from the department, you will be able to get an answer from the department.”
The letter later wrote, “Vicky's only talent is to promote herself and create a toxic environment in the department where she is stymied by a management team whose job it seems to shut down any dissent,” the letter continued.
On Tuesday, Fox News Digital reported on emails showing the former Yale University coach telling a lawyer for former Yale strength and conditioning coach Thomas Newman that he was being taped in a meeting.
“A former employee recorded part of a meeting with your client, without the knowledge of the university,” reads part of an email sent by Newman's attorney, Alan Granovsky, from Yale deputy general counsel, who no longer works at the university.
Counsel's email was sent in response to a letter dated August 13, 2025, with the subject line “Sustained Defamation and Misrepresentations Regarding Thomas Newman.”
Counsel's email also contained the lines, “The University has not made any defamatory statements to anyone about your client,” and “The University has not improperly disclosed any medical information, the university has not stated that your client has left the university involuntarily or is under investigation.”
Newman's attorneys at Granovsky & Sundaresh Employment Law have sent multiple emails to Yale regarding the matter and Newman's departure from the university in 2021, a source told Fox News Digital.
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Newman confirmed to Fox News Digital that the emails were exchanged by the university and his lawyers, but declined to comment further.
An October 10 email from Granovsky to the attorney includes the following allegations:
“He now admits that a former employee recorded part of a meeting with Mr. Newman,” the email in part wrote, later saying, “Despite knowing the recording was unauthorized, the parties— specifically. [Executive Deputy Director/Chief Operating Officer of Athletics] Ann-Marie Guglieri and [Athletic Director] Vicky Chun—tried to use the recording for disciplinary purposes.
Under Connecticut General Statutes § 52-570d, it is unlawful for any person to record a private conversation without informing and obtaining the consent of all parties involved.
No current or former Yale employee has been charged with any illegal activity.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Yale president's office and the athletic department for comment, but did not receive a response.
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