REALLY - Cover-up at PSU? Sadly the narrative is alive and well in our own house.
Daily Collegian - January 25, 2018 - 4h ago
EDITORIAL: Larry Nassar scandal, alleged Michigan State cover-up reflect repeated societal flaw
Dr. Larry Nassar was sentenced Wednesday to 40-175 years in Michigan State prison for sexually assaulting over 150 women under the guise as the team doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University.
“I’ve just signed your death warrant,” Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said at Nassar’s sentencing. The 54-year-old also faces a 60-year sentence for federal child pornography crimes.
His crimes date back as early as 1997, and he was cleared by Michigan State’s Title IX office in 2014 after a woman alleged he assaulted her. And over the last week, as 156 of his accusers testified against him, Nassar’s case has shed new light on the way our society has handled such accusations.
Over the 20-year period of Nassar’s crimes, we’ve watched sexual assault scandals and their ensuing cover-ups unfold at some of our most established institutions, including the Catholic church, Baylor University and, of course, Penn State.
In each situation, some of the most powerful members of these institutions knew about the sex crimes committed and did whatever they could to make them go away as quickly and as quietly as possible. In doing so, they did almost nothing to prevent such destructive abuses from happening again.
And the assaults did happen again. And again.
We all know the stories. We’ve read about them in the papers and heard about them on TV years later. After the predators claimed more victims. After those who had the power to stop them enabled them to strike again.
Nassar will rot in jail for the rest of his life. So will Sandusky. So will all the other convicted monsters who commit such crimes.
Meanwhile, many of the powerful figures who covered for the brutes in a twisted attempt to uphold the integrity of their institutions face minimal consequences.
The pain and damage the victims face, though, remains with them forever.
These punishments, or lack thereof, for those who engage in the cover-up show the deeply flawed nature of our culture.
Michigan State’s Board of Trustees made public their support for University President Lou Anna Simon to keep her job. And even though Simon announced her resignation Wednesday night, which the board accepted, it’s still disgraceful that the board remained loyal to her throughout her downfall.
The board’s vice chairman, for example, said about the Nassar scandal, “This is not Penn State,” in an attempt to justify supporting Simon in the days leading up to her resignation.
Members of our Penn State community have taken to social media to argue the opposite point, claiming what happened at Michigan State is worse than what happened on our campus with the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case and its aftermath.
Yes, we understand the two sex abuse scandals will forever be linked because of the cover-ups that allowed them to continue in the name of sports, but each argument is unnecessary and counterproductive.
Arguing that one horrific situation wasn’t as terrible as the other is like saying one mass-murdering dictator was less evil than the other.
Instead, we should look at all of these scandals and evaluate what went wrong from an institutional perspective, because each of them is far bigger than the individual abusers involved. So far, each situation has proved these universities are “too big to fail.”
Each time, the university presidents completely distorted the purpose of their position.
Above all, a university president’s sole responsibility is to ensure the well-being of every single student that attends their school, and no university can ever be deemed more important than the students that attend it.
We hope this pattern of abuse, cover-up and more abuse stops in response to the Nassar scandal. Only time will tell.
Opinions Editor Matt Martell can be reached by email at mtm5481@psu.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @mmartell728.
Daily Collegian - January 25, 2018 - 4h ago
EDITORIAL: Larry Nassar scandal, alleged Michigan State cover-up reflect repeated societal flaw
- The Daily Collegian’s editorial opinion is determined by its Board of Opinion, which is made up of members of its Board of Editors, and written by its opinions editor, with the editor in chief holding final responsibility for content.
Dr. Larry Nassar was sentenced Wednesday to 40-175 years in Michigan State prison for sexually assaulting over 150 women under the guise as the team doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University.
“I’ve just signed your death warrant,” Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said at Nassar’s sentencing. The 54-year-old also faces a 60-year sentence for federal child pornography crimes.
His crimes date back as early as 1997, and he was cleared by Michigan State’s Title IX office in 2014 after a woman alleged he assaulted her. And over the last week, as 156 of his accusers testified against him, Nassar’s case has shed new light on the way our society has handled such accusations.
Over the 20-year period of Nassar’s crimes, we’ve watched sexual assault scandals and their ensuing cover-ups unfold at some of our most established institutions, including the Catholic church, Baylor University and, of course, Penn State.
In each situation, some of the most powerful members of these institutions knew about the sex crimes committed and did whatever they could to make them go away as quickly and as quietly as possible. In doing so, they did almost nothing to prevent such destructive abuses from happening again.
And the assaults did happen again. And again.
We all know the stories. We’ve read about them in the papers and heard about them on TV years later. After the predators claimed more victims. After those who had the power to stop them enabled them to strike again.
Nassar will rot in jail for the rest of his life. So will Sandusky. So will all the other convicted monsters who commit such crimes.
Meanwhile, many of the powerful figures who covered for the brutes in a twisted attempt to uphold the integrity of their institutions face minimal consequences.
The pain and damage the victims face, though, remains with them forever.
These punishments, or lack thereof, for those who engage in the cover-up show the deeply flawed nature of our culture.
Michigan State’s Board of Trustees made public their support for University President Lou Anna Simon to keep her job. And even though Simon announced her resignation Wednesday night, which the board accepted, it’s still disgraceful that the board remained loyal to her throughout her downfall.
The board’s vice chairman, for example, said about the Nassar scandal, “This is not Penn State,” in an attempt to justify supporting Simon in the days leading up to her resignation.
Members of our Penn State community have taken to social media to argue the opposite point, claiming what happened at Michigan State is worse than what happened on our campus with the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case and its aftermath.
Yes, we understand the two sex abuse scandals will forever be linked because of the cover-ups that allowed them to continue in the name of sports, but each argument is unnecessary and counterproductive.
Arguing that one horrific situation wasn’t as terrible as the other is like saying one mass-murdering dictator was less evil than the other.
Instead, we should look at all of these scandals and evaluate what went wrong from an institutional perspective, because each of them is far bigger than the individual abusers involved. So far, each situation has proved these universities are “too big to fail.”
Each time, the university presidents completely distorted the purpose of their position.
Above all, a university president’s sole responsibility is to ensure the well-being of every single student that attends their school, and no university can ever be deemed more important than the students that attend it.
We hope this pattern of abuse, cover-up and more abuse stops in response to the Nassar scandal. Only time will tell.
Opinions Editor Matt Martell can be reached by email at mtm5481@psu.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @mmartell728.
