Editorial in Washington Post on MSU's "willful blindness to a sexual assault scandal".
The Washington Post has an editorial on the MSU sexual assault scandal that hammers the school, particularly its president, when she said: "I have been told it is virtually impossible to stop a determined sexual predator and pedophile, that they will go to incomprehensible lengths to keep what they do in the shadows." The Post responded by saying, "But Dr. Nassar was not in the shadows. He and his behavior were on full display, for years, waiting for administrators to take action. They chose not to listen, and they chose not to see." Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-colleges-willful-blindness-to…
A rival school in our conference has a scandal unfolding that is potentially very similar to the Sandusky - Joe Paterno scandal at Penn State.
The fact that one of the three leading papers in the U.S. is spilling ink to decry MSU's actions in the face of persistent evidence of sexual assault of minors is noteworthy. It may have ramifications in their athletic department, since Coach Kathy Klages was allegedly involved in the cover-up. Being in the Washington Post makes this big news. It makes it national.
All of those factors make this a very big story.
That's why.
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...that Simon's statement yesterday was lawyered up bullshit. They legal ramifications are so severe she can not come close to any discussion that resembles taking responsibility.
That's a pretty prominent pulpit from which to pillory MSU's tepid "Straight Outta Legal" statement. While I hate the underlying story, I love to see an administration get blasted for sweeping things under the carpet!
A competent legal department would not have gone down the "determined pedophile can't be stopped" route. A good lawyer would say:
Wait, that invites an immediate response of 'Well, one way they can be stopped is by taking reports of assault seriously, investigating them, and reporting people to the authorities - it's really hard to be an active pedophile when you're doing consecutive terms for raping kids at Cooper Street U.' Why not just say that we take this very seriously, are completing our investigation, and deeply regret any sexual assault that took place?
Bad lawyers start making excuses in their apologies, and get the school into the WaPo Editorial Page.
and they probably did, they are guilty of over-lawyering and over-intellectualizing, which is something lawyers will do from time to time. It is not any kind of credible defense or even deflection to say, well darn.... this goes on and there's nothing you can do that will entirely stop it from happening... when the facts are that people came forward and reported what happened. It is known that victims complained and the administration did a JoePa. This is when you drop all pretense of defensiveness, because when someone comes forward with allegations, you don't know if there is anything to defend until you investigate. They chose not to.
The legal team doesn't want to admit any liability; however they'd have been better off to leave the stupid remarks out entirely. They could have crafted a better statement, restating a commitment to zero tolerance for the behavior, without it being taken as admission of guilt. Attempting to muddy the waters by saying you can't eradicate the behavior serves no purpose.
April 28th, 2017 at 11:47 PM ^
Except they did investigate him during a Title IX investigation in 2014 and cleared him. Shame on MSU.
On MGoBlog...
This isn't about MSU. It's about institutional enabling of a serial pedophile for several years.
so try msu on rcmb, at least 3 - 9 times more stories.
Up voted you Michifornia so It could be 3 and 9
"sand in the head" response....
Clearly they read the MGoCommunity's damning appraisal of the MSU remarks!
Can't say this is being ignored by media anymore if there's a Wapo editorial about it. There is no way that this does not end with ugly for MSU one way or another. How and where? Open to question, but it's not pleasant at all.
these scandals very well. One of the big problems for them (obviously in addition to the risk of their women students and employees) is the combination of the Nassar allegations and the football cases making the school look like an unsafe place for potential students. In addition to seeing recruiting taking a nosedive, they could see a significant drop in general student applications. The leadership at MSU needs to wake up and start handling this in a transparent and proactive manner instead of whitewashing it with legalese.
It's crazy the secrecy of the school with Bullough, Payne/Appling, and the Nassar/3 player sexual assualt thing. What's the Lansing version of Washtenaw Watchdog? How does Lou Anna Simon and Hollis keep their job with the Nassar coverup being as big as Sandusky?
April 29th, 2017 at 12:44 AM ^
April 28th, 2017 at 10:17 PM ^
April 29th, 2017 at 12:43 PM ^
said to this father. Because this father may have totally destroyed any credibility, relationship, love his daughter ever had for him. It will take a long, long time for her to believe her Dad was just in total disbelief that this guy with access to hundreds of girls decided to pick her and therefore could not believe her. The one person she knew and counted on for protection her entire life, who would have her back and never let anything bad happen to her, OMG in heaven.
To make her apologize to this sickening individual when she knows personally what he did to her, and her having to wonder what this ped. was thinking while she said she was sorry has to be the second worse thing she has ever had happen to her.
I couldn't get the link from the OP to open so I'm not sure it it's the same story, but the WaPo ran a story about Nassar a few days ago too:
April 28th, 2017 at 10:27 PM ^
has decided to sweep this under the rug. Whether it's the football assaults or Nassar, they want to minimize the implications.
If the Pres and Dantanio were serious about this topic, the big 3 would be expelled from MSU regarding this issue. They would institute a no-questions-barred approach.
They won't. The focus will be reinstoring the big 3 and all others because the 2017 season hinges on these micreants. MSU will stink without the big 3 and likely threaten 2-10. This team lacks talent and the only way to preserve it is the "protection" of a few key players.
April 28th, 2017 at 11:37 PM ^
This guy needs to learn about sexual assault in prison. I'm thinking old broom sticks and maybe some other stuff.
If you mess with kids, you should expect to get messed up yourself.