"I only hope when you get a chance to speak, you tell us who knew what and when they knew it. If you truly want us to heal, you will do this for us." - Kaylee Lorincz, one of Larry Nassar's victims
Larry Nassar will spend the rest of his life in prison. While Nassar’s conviction was all but imminent after a lengthy sentence for child pornography crimes, the focus from the fallout has shifted to answering this case’s most important question: what does this mean for Michigan State and USA Gymnastics and those who helped enable Nassar’s reprehensible actions?
Since the hammer came down on Nassar, multiple high-ranking school officials at MSU have resigned, including the school’s president Lou Anna K. Simon, who had support from the MSU Board of Trustees to stay despite the sex abuse scandal that happened under her watch.
Joel Ferguson, the vice chairman of the board, said it was a quick decision from the group to put their support behind Simon, saying, “We unanimously decided in that meeting right away […] we were going to support her staying as president.”
Despite the support from the board, there were many student and faculty groups who wanted Simon out. MSU’s Faculty Senate held an emergency meeting for a vote of no confidence. Anna Pegler-Gordon, who raised the topic in a University Council meeting, said, "I don't think we can move on as an institution from this without President Simon's resignation and having a more transparent investigation."
Lorenzo Santavicca, MSU’s Student Body President, also called for a change in “institutional leadership” in the wake of the scandal.
Resignations were bound to come as more details about the case continued to surface, not only form the myriad testimonies from the over 160 accusers, but from a laundry list of missteps from the university in working with authorities investigating the case. In 2014, Federal investigators were not told about MSU campus police and Title IX investigations into a report that Nassar assaulted a recent graduate despite those very investigators being on campus during that time. Since then, Michigan State still has not provided all the documents related to the Nassar allegations.
Among the documents not shared with federal investigators was the conclusion MSU’s Title IX office came to in the investigation. In the conclusion sent to Nassar, there was a passage that read, “We find that whether medically sound or not, the failure to adequately explain procedures such as these invasive, sensitive procedures, is opening the practice up to liability and is exposing patients to unnecessary trauma based on the possibility of perceived inappropriate sexual misconduct.”
Amanda Thomashow, who accused Nassar of sexual abuse the time that led to this investigation, only received a fraction of the conclusion that led with, “We cannot find that the conduct was of a sexual nature.”
Furthermore, there were at least 14 MSU staff members and high-ranking officials who knew about Nassar’s wrong doings, including that very Title IX investigation, which reached President Simon.
Mark Hollis announced his resignation in a press conference on Friday morning. On Thursday, MSU’s faculty athletic rep Sue Carter resigned from her position. In a letter to both Hollis and Simon, Carter said, “I no longer have the desire or the heart to support this administration going forward. As both professor and priest, I am profoundly saddened by Michigan State University’s public posture and seemingly callous regard for these girls and women.”
As of Friday afternoon, reports have surfaced that Michigan State’s issues are, shockingly, much larger than the Larry Nassar case. An in-depth Outside The Lines report shows that sexual abuse and rape culture is all but institutionalized, with alleged suppression of information and allegations by campus police to the MSU athletic department with incidents stemming from both of their high-profile football and men’s basketball programs.
Sanctions and more resignations are likely to come from MSU will come as the NCAA begins its investigation into the Nassar case and how the university handled it.
For many of the victims, the case goes beyond Michigan State University as both the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics have proven to be as complicit in their oversight as MSU.
“I just signed your death warrant,” Judge Aquilina said in the final moments of what had been a heart wrenching week where more than 160 victims and their families provided statements about the abuse they endured. Aquilina has become somewhat of a national hero for her advocacy of the victims, many of which included Olympic athletes like Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, and Jordyn Wieber – all three profusely thanked her in statements they released after Nassar's sentencing.
Moments after Nassar's sentencing, U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun, issued a statement that doubled as an apology for failing the victims, as well as a promise to undertake radical change that would ostensibly prevent something like this from ever happening again. That effort appears to be sincere; USOC has demanded that the entire USA Gymnastics board resign, taking it a step further on Thursday by threatening to decertify USAG in six days if they didn't do so.
As per USAG, the Nassar case has resulted in the loss of sponsors, and at least one gym affiliated with them has ended their relationship with the organization because of it. Texas officials have also stated that they are conducting an investigation of Karolyi Ranch, the longtime USAG training facility where a lot of Nassar's abuse took place. USAG also suspended John Geddert, coach of the gold medal-winning "Fierce Five" at the 2012 Olympics, after former gymnast Lindsey Lemke personally mentioned him in her testimony.
"He was abusive," Lemke said. "He deserves to be in jail with Larry."
It's unclear what, if any, consequences there'll be for Geddert; he announced his retirement shortly after he was suspended, claiming it was already in the works.
At the legislative level, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) has introduced a bill that would federally require sports organizations to report abuse. The legislation appears to have overwhelming bipartisan support. Michigan politicians have also said that they would launch a congressional investigation on why Michigan State University failed to react to complaints about Nassar from athletes across multiple sports.
Many questions remain, and as the days and probes go on, some of those answers will certainly emerge. What's 100 percent clear, however, is the bravery displayed by the more than 160 victims who stepped forward and publicly relived their trauma – their accounts were brutal but necessary – in order to bring their abuser to justice. This is especially true of Rachael Denhollander, the first women to come forward publicly in what was soon revealed to be an endemic level of sexual abuse. Fitting then, that the first victim to step forward was the last to give her testimony.
As of today, we know of at least eight different times Nassar could have been stopped over the past twenty years as the adults and institutions entrusted with protecting young, amateur athletes failed.
- Phillip Barnett, Fidel Martinez
Update: After publication of this piece new allegations have surfaced alleging NCAA president Mark Emmert was alerted to systemic problems within the Michigan State athletic department in 2010.
Of Note:
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