NCAABUSE
This was not the blog I was going to write. I had half of a post titled “Fixing Berea Baseball Game Day” written and was about to finish writing it when I encountered an article titled “Larry Nassar Victim Says MSU Is Billing Her For Her Sexual Assault” on the sports and culture website Deadspin. Suddenly a puff piece about my school’s transition seemed meaningless. That blog will be posted at a later date but there are more important things to talk about today.
Larry Nassar is the former USA Gymnastic’s national medical coordinator and a former doctor for Michigan State University Athletics where he also ran a gymnastics club. Nassar worked for USA Gymnastics from 1986-2015 and MSU from 1985-2016. In his time at both jobs he molested over 150 girls, all of them underage. That’s a large chunk of time. One would think that means Nassar’s acts were in private. You would think that to assault and molest 150 people without being stopped you would have to be discreet. You would be wrong.
In the article “What MSU Knew” by Kim Kozlowski in the Detroit News it is revealed that 14 Michigan State University representatives knew of reports filed against Nassar. Over two decades 8 women reported abuse. The reports reached MSU President Lou Anna Simon, who did nothing. The reports reached coaches, who did nothing. The reports reached athletic trainers, who did nothing.
The abuse of gymnasts at Michigan State is not an isolated incident. Between 2012- 2016 multiple football players at Baylor University committed both sexual and non-sexual assault. University officials knew about the assaults and did not do anything about it. The people who committed the acts of assault were arrested and the head coach was fired but no everyone paid the price. Athletic Director Ian McCaw resigned but was hired to the same position at Liberty University. He is helping lead them into the FBS division in football and cashing in a substantial paycheck yet again.
In today’s culture people are fighting sexual abuse and harassment like never before. Several prominent figures in media and entertainment have been outed as serial harassers. In those situations the people have been swiftly removed from their positions of power. This has led to the #MeToo movement which is helping make this world a better place to live and work by helping people feel more comfortable reporting harassment. The NCAA needs a #MeToo movement of its own.
The NCAA and its schools need to get tougher when it comes to both sexual harassment prevention and punishment. If given the keys to the NCAA I would require sexual harassment training for all NCAA athletes, coaches, and administrators in all three divisions. Athletes accused of sexual assault would be indefinitely suspended until trial or the issue was settled in proper channels. School’s need to make reporting assault an easier process and show victims that they will be heard instead of their stories being swept under the rug.
These issues cannot be fixed overnight but if the NCAA, the schools, fans, and athletes work together we can create a safe culture for not just sports but for campuses as a whole.
