The fallout from Larry Nassar’s sexual misconduct sentencing is affecting the institutions he previously worked at, including USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic committee and his alma mater, Michigan State University.
All three organizations are being investigated and questioned about their complicity in the abuse.
This has led to the resignation of Lou Anna K. Simon, president of MSU, as well as the retirement of Mark Hollis, athletic director for the college.
“As tragedies are politicized, blame is inevitable,” Simon said. “As president, it is only natural that I am the focus of this anger … throughout my career, I have worked very hard to put Team MSU first … I have tried to make it not about me. I urge those who have supported my work to understand that I cannot make it about me now. Therefore, I am tendering my resignation as president according to the terms of my employment agreement.”
Simon will receive many special benefits following her resignation, including but not limited to free lifetime tickets to MSU football games and a 12-month paid research leave if she returns to the faculty.
Nassar had become an athletics trainer for USA Gymnastics in 1986, and was accused of assaulting Olympic medalist Jamie Dantzscher during a six year period starting in 1994. He was named medical coordinator of the company two years later.
The history of Nassar’s abuse at MSU began in 1992 when he was still a student there. He allegedly assaulted a 12 year old girl under the guise of medical research, according to a 2017 lawsuit issued by her.
In 1997, he became gymnastics team physician and an assistant professor at MSU. That year, Larissa Boyce was assaulted and attempted to tell gymnastics coach Kathie Klages about the incident.
“She said I must be misunderstanding what was going on,” Boyce said in a 2018 interview with Detroit News.
An anonymous Michigan State athlete detailed her assault in a 2017 lawsuit. It occured in 1999 and her concerns were dismissed by a coach who said Nassar was “an Olympic doctor” and “knew what he was doing.”
In following years more athletes were assaulted by Nassar and their complaints were ignored. They included Kyle Stephens, Tiffany Thomas Lopez and Rachael Denhollander.
On Sept. 12, 2016, the Indianapolis Star published a story detailing Nassar’s history of abuse, with comments from two assaulted athletes.
MSU fired Nassar eight days later. They explained their reasoning in a statement:
“Over the past week, the university received additional information that raised serious concerns about Nassar’s compliance with certain employment requirements.”
Many victims accuse MSU of allowing Nassar and others to continue abusing young women and not taking complaints seriously, and fostering a dangerous environment.
On separate occasions in 2010 and 2014, other allegations of sexual assault against members of MSU sports teams were reported to the the school. Victims state these allegations were handled with similar disregard by the school.
Many federal lawsuits have since been filed against MSU for their handling of these situations. The Michigan State University board of trustees is also requesting an investigation into the school’s original responses to complaints against Nassar.
While Nassar had been cleared of two previous investigation in 2014, conducted by MSU campus police and Title IX, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) later conducted an investigation with a different outcome.
During a period of 16 months, while Nassar was under these investigations, he was allowed to continue seeing patients at Michigan State. At least a dozen assault allegations were reported to have taken place during this time.
The OCR investigation found that MSU had been fostering a “sexually hostile” environment for many years. As a result of this investigation, MSU officials had to completely restructure their policy and approach to sexual assault allegations.
This restructure was due to an agreement with the OCR that the investigation lead to. Which also resulted in a three year monitoring period of MSU and their policy. The monitoring period was due to end this year.
MSU requested an early end to the monitoring in fall of 2017, stating they had been acting on “good faith” and went “above and beyond” in meeting standards set by federal officials. Their request was denied.
MSU has publicly acknowledged their “unfortunate oversight.” However, as of Jan. 17, the university has yet to release full paperwork on Nassar or their files on the assault reports.
MSU spokesman Jason Cody, Stated “MSU is committed to taking the right actions to create a culture that provides a safe environment for all students.”
However, Cody would not answer any direct questions regarding the missing documents or MSU’s response to assault allegations over the years.
In response to the allegations against Nassar and MSU, Department of Education director Betsy DeVos stated “The department is investigating this matter and will hold MSU accountable for any violations of federal law.”
While Nassar will face up to 235 years of jail time for his crimes, the investigation into the conduct of MSU and USA Gymnastics is ongoing. As additional information is revealed, the reputations and public trust in these institutions could continue to decline.
Henry Wolski
Executive Editor
Cerridwyn Kuykendall
Associate Editor