Report: More Than A Dozen Michigan State Staffers Were Told Of Larry Nassar's Sexual Abuse And Nothing Happened

Other Sports
1

Pretty brutal. From what I understand, the NCAA is basically hands-off as has been their MO after the backlash from the Penn State fiasco.

Interviewing a number of former MSU athletes, the Detroit News found that at least 14 MSU staffers and representatives were made aware of Nassar’s abuse over more than two decades and beginning as early as 1992, and nothing was ever done about him. Among those officials notified of a Title IX complaint and police report against Nassar was MSU President Lou Anna Simon.

2

This is unconscionable but there is a common denominator with penn state, michigan state and baylor.
It is called bureaucratic behavior. In all three cases this atrocious behavior went on for years while it was known. It is obvious that people were either afraid to report it or thought that someone else would.
Our company was bought by a new equity firm a few months ago and we had an HR training the other day. What was taught in this class was very specific. Most major companies now have an anonymous toll free number. All three institutions have specific departments when it comes to these abject behaviors. All three failed. That is not acceptable.
The ncaa has now three criminal investigations on their conscious with any repercussion whatsoever. Someone could argue that this is not about sports. Yes it is. sandusky, nassar and the baylor rapists all were in sports ncaa sanctioned programs. I am not a lawyer or pretend to be one but this unbelievable that this keeps going on in an University settings. We brought it up many times. The ncaa has ethical guidelines. There are clearly not enforced.

2 Likes
3
4

The five miles long lawyer reply tells everyone everything they need to know. She and many others deserves to go to jail. This is right there with penn state. To even think that they permitted this even after penn state was convicted is extremely troubling.

1 Like
5

Now, Michigan State will be forced to prove they were unaware of Nassar’s predatory behavior when he was employed at the university. Employees at the school have denied knowing about Nassar’s abuse, but reports have emerged of at least 14 former athletes alerting the school about Nassar. The school responded by doing nothing.

6

https://twitter.com/freep/status/955872815802134532

7

Over 150 women testified. How did he get away with it for so long? Shocked the parents didn’t notice. Not at all surprised by MSU trying to cover up the stinch.

1 Like
8

MSU President resigned:

https://twitter.com/JeffEisenberg/status/956345686278094848

9

The Oct. 10 request was rejected outright by federal officials for several reasons, but in large part because of how the university has handled sexual assault allegations against former MSU athletics physician Larry Nassar. The documents obtained by Outside the Lines show:

Michigan State administrators in 2014 did not notify federal officials that the university had dual Title IX and campus police investigations of Nassar underway even though federal investigators were on campus that year scrutinizing how MSU dealt with sexual assault allegations.

MSU administrators still have not provided to federal officials all documents related to the Nassar allegations.

10

Strap in…

https://twitter.com/Casey_Harrison1/status/956953323525099522

1 Like
11

Uh oh!!!

That 2010 report, which Deadspin covered at the time, involved then-freshman Spartans players Keith Appling and Adreian Payne. Redmond implied to The Athletic that Emmert did not follow up with an inquiry because Michigan State president Lou Anna Simon sat on the NCAA board of governors at the time. (In Emmert’s defense, he was busy punishing Ohio State athletes and coaches for getting tattoos at the time.)

12

But an Outside the Lines investigation has found a pattern of widespread denial, inaction and information suppression of such allegations by officials ranging from campus police to the Spartan athletic department, whose top leader, Mark Hollis, announced his retirement on Friday. The actions go well beyond the highly publicized case of former MSU athletic physician Larry Nassar.

Over the past three years, MSU has three times fought in court – unsuccessfully – to withhold names of athletes in campus police records. The school also has deleted so much information from some incident reports that they were nearly unreadable. In circumstances in which administrators have commissioned internal examinations to review how they have handled certain sexual violence complaints, officials have been selective in releasing information publicly. In one case, a university-hired outside investigator claimed to have not even generated a written report at the conclusion of his work. And attorneys who have represented accusers and the accused agree on this: University officials have not always been transparent, and often put the school’s reputation above the need to give fair treatment to those reporting sexual violence and to the alleged perpetrators.

Even MSU’s most-recognizable figures, football coach Mark Dantonio and basketball coach Tom Izzo, have had incidents involving their programs, Outside the Lines has found.

13

It’s becoming clear: Michigan State prized image protection far more than the truth

But the story that appeared in the Lansing State Journal later Friday was bigger. It lacked the more sensational quality of a potential football/basketball scandal, but it strikes more profoundly at the heart of what the Nassar tragedy is all about:

• Disregard for victims.

• An organized institutional effort to deceive, deny and hide the truth, enabling Nassar in the process.

In that story, the State Journal reports that Michigan State’s utterly botched 2014 Title IX investigation of a complaint against Nassar led to two sets of conclusions: a shortened version presented to the victim, Amanda Thomashow, and a more damaging conclusion that was kept from her. The latter version was sent to the university’s Office of General Counsel, Nassar and his boss at the College of Osteopathic Medicine, William Strampel.

14

https://twitter.com/DanMurphyESPN/status/956920002782859267

15

You may have seen a report in The Athletic and subsequently repeated in other news outlets yesterday evening that infers in the headline I was informed of widespread sexual assault at Michigan State University in 2010. The implication of the headline, which has also been widely repeated, is that I was informed of sexual assaults at MSU by a whistleblower and did nothing in response. Nothing could be further from the truth.

To be clear, Katherine Redmond, a sexual assault awareness advocate, sent a letter in November 2010 to a number of people including the Board of Governors (then called the Executive Committee). It is important to note that the letter was not addressed to me or any individual. Indeed, it refers to me in the third person. In it she expresses great concern over sexual assaults on campuses, particularly those involving athletes (see letter attached - NCAVA Original Letter). She referenced cases of alleged sexual assault at MSU as examples of the broader problem on many campuses. The MSU cases were widely reported in the press and already being investigated by law enforcement and university officials. Kathy did not imply that these were unreported cases or that she was acting as a whistleblower to report unknown information to the letter’s recipients. Quite the contrary, she accurately pointed to the public outcry surrounding these cases. Moreover, never in writing or in discussions did she or anyone else mention the heinous actions of Larry Nassar. As I often have said, even one act of sexual violence is too many. Yet, it is extremely important to know that in no way was I ever notified of Larry Nassar’s abhorrent acts. I only learned of his crimes when they were reported by the media in August 2016.

Far from ignoring Kathy’s letter, within one month of first hearing her concerns, I held a meeting with her and a legal expert she wanted to include, Wendy Murphy. I asked our General Counsel, Scott Bearby, to join me in what was a constructive conversation at the national office for an hour and a half. I took her concerns very seriously, found her thoughts and advice constructive, and subsequently asked her to join an upcoming event we were planning, the NCAA’s first Violence Prevention Summit in April 2011. I communicated in writing to Kathy in early December (see letter attached – NCAA Letter). National office staff responsible for the NCAA’s educational programming also continued interacting with Kathy and invited her to participate in the Career in Sports Forum and student-athlete leadership development workshops.

Following the Violence Prevention Summit, I encouraged and financially supported the research and development of best practices that the Summit called for. This work led to our first Think Tank in 2012 and the 2014 publication of the Handbook on Addressing Sexual Assault and Interpersonal Violence. Additionally, with my encouragement, in 2014 the Board of Governors issued a Statement on Sexual Violence Prevention and Complaint Resolution based on a unanimous vote. This is the first time the NCAA member schools have stated unambiguously their expectations around the handling of sexual violence on campuses. In 2016, we released the Sexual Violence Prevention Tool Kit which has now been widely praised in the higher education and assault prevention community. During this time, we also engaged with our national SAACs to begin work with the Obama Administration on the It’s On Us campaign, providing guidance and financial support for the creation of student-based efforts at assault prevention. This included recognizing the student projects by running their videos at our national championship events, a program we continue today. The NCAA was praised by the White House for this work.

Most recently, the Board of Governors created the Commission to Combat Campus Sexual Violence that now routinely reports to and brings recommendations to the Board for action. The Commission has developed the recently passed policy requiring annual sexual violence education for athletes, coaches and administrators with annual written verification from the president, athletic director and Title IX coordinator on every campus. Further, the Commission led the first ever Higher Education Think Tank on Sexual Violence involving 20 higher education organizations just last week. In short, a great deal has been done since 2010. I have attached a graphic that more fully addresses the comprehensive efforts by the NCAA in the area of sexual assault prevention.

Our work to prevent sexual assault on campuses has much further to go. There can be no room for this scourge anywhere in higher education. The assertion that I and the NCAA are not reporting crimes, however, is blatantly false. We cannot let stories of this kind deter us from our important work.

Mark

16

The ncaa were enablers with MSU just like they were with penn state. They choose to ignore the youngs while $Millions get into their bank accounts. He can’t talk as much as he can and deny everything but the facts are the facts. Multiple athletes reported abuses over the years. Does anyone of you think the ncaa did not know? At the same time Coaches are losing their jobs for shoe deals.
I am asking you. What is more important? A life, many lives changed forever or sneakers? The ncaa should be shut down at once. They are the despicables.

1 Like
17

And the beat goes on…

18

This ain’t getting better

Former Michigan State dean charged in Larry Nassar scandal
http://en.brinkwire.com/231492/former-michigan-state-dean-charged-in-larry-nassar-scandal/

Nassar was not supposed to treat patients near any “sensitive areas” on the body without a chaperone present. Because Strampel did not follow up to make sure Nassar was complying, he was able to commit a host of additional sexual assaults until he was fired two years later, prosecutors said.

The criminal complaint also accused Strampel of soliciting nude photos from at least one female medical student and using his office to “harass, discriminate, demean, sexually proposition, and sexually assault female students in violation of his statutory duty as a public officer.”

19

Now, Michigan State fans seem to have taken the wrong lesson from Penn State’s shortcomings. As the spotlight shifted from Larry Nassar—a serial abuser who will spend the rest of his life in jail—to other reports of sexual assaults in the MSU community, some of the most beloved figures on campus came under scrutiny, including the two men most responsible for the school’s glory. No one is going to excuse a monster like Nassar—no one possibly could—but die-hard fans are far less willing to acknowledge the question marks surrounding Tom Izzo and Mark Dantonio’s handling of their respective programs. Their unprecedented success works to insulate the coaches from criticism, and it makes the Spartan fanbase vulnerable to manipulation in their school’s time of crisis.

20

Education, sports and protecting individuals. So this is the second clear cover up of a major program without so far any sanctions/punishments from the ncaa. Some will say that the ncaa can’t do anything.
Since both of these abject scandals had to do with sports and sports sanctioned by the ncaa how can the ncaa not punish them? This is completely absurd.
So the FBI intervened on the basket ball scandal. The reason was unpaid taxes or money laundering.
What about the FBI going after the ncaa? Is money more important than the welfare of a defenseless child, young student, young woman?
What happened at penn state was more than revolting but to find out that msu basically did the same thing after is beyond comprehension.