No authority is ever going to provide something like that.

I don't know, part of the reason they want the employee to issue the apology this is the employee helps immunize the institution from liability by stating that they acted outside of policy and custom.

There's definitely some negotiating room there e.g. "I'll agree to take the fall and say this is entirely my own misbehavior and in no way reflects company policy, then you can send me to some sensitivity training and I go back to work."

The alternative being: "I'm not apologizing and when you fire me I will agree to testify on behalf of the plaintiff and tell everyone that I felt empowered by the toxic culture that you foster here. In fact my management routinely said racist and made anti-lgbtxyzabc comments to me behind closed doors. Imagine the faces of the jury when I tell them that the principal said he wishes all these faggot kids would just die."

I've worked at jobs where we kept people around simply because it was hard to fire them. We had a girl fucking one of management in the office after hours with sex toys and kept her on in exchange for her rolling over on the manager and providing the statements needed to fire him. Not this exact circumstance, but if you can make the organization feel that they are putting themselves at risk for firing you, they'll take the path of least resistance.