Putnam: Community deserves more insight into what went wrong in Nassar case
Judy PutnamEAST LANSING – Even 13 months after the stunning news of the arrest of Larry Nassar, a former MSU and USA Gymnastics doctor, many questions remain as to how a sexual predator went undetected for two decades.
The community is begging for insight from an independent voice.
Officials at Michigan State University, which employed Nassar, have assigned little responsibility inside the university.
Instead, their focus has been on whether any crimes were committed by anyone at MSU beyond the internationally known sports medicine doctor.
Nassar has been sentenced to 60 years in federal prison on child pornography charges, which he plans to appeal. He also has pleaded guilty to 10 counts of sexual assault in Ingham and Eaton courts, and faces up to life in prison when sentenced for those crimes in January.
More:
MSU President Simon apologizes to victims of Larry Nassar
MSU lawyer tells Bill Schuette officials didn't know about Nassar until 2016
Earlier this month Attorney General Bill Schuette asked MSU to provide him findings from an internal review into how the university handled Nassar. Patrick Fitzgerald, a former federal prosecutor who was hired by MSU to examine Nassar-related issues, said there is no written report of his findings. But he told Schuette in a letter that he found no criminal wrongdoing inside MSU.
That high bar — criminal conduct — is too black and white.
The gray areas — policies, practices, judgment and culture — also need a spotlight.
For example, did hero worship of sports and those who support athletics blind those at the university? The former MSU gymnastics Coach Kathie Klages has been accused of defending Nassar to the very end, apparently unable to believe he was a predator hiding in plain sight. The university’s website still features a glowing report of her career. Klages retired after being suspended earlier this year in part over her handling of a meeting with the women's gymnastics team to discuss Nassar.
A clear view of what went wrong — beyond criminal activity — is needed. Why were there missed opportunities to catch Nassar before he added to his victim count? The State Journal has reported on seven instances since 1997 where a girl or woman tried to report Nassar and was silenced.
Tashmica Torok, a sexual assault survivor who founded the Firecracker Foundation in Lansing, said it’s important that sexual assault survivors are assured they’ll be taken seriously when they report assaults. Otherwise, crimes may go unreported and predators protected. Her foundation helps child victims of sexual assault.
She said those who were abused by Nassar should guide the university’s response.
The opposite has happened, according to former gymnast Rachael Denhollander, the first to speak publicly about Nassar’s abuse in an interview with the Indianapolis Star last summer.
Denhollander, of Louisvillle, Kentucky, is among those suing MSU. She said the former doctor abused her during treatments in 2000 when she was 15.
She said that to date she hasn’t been consulted about policies and practices inside MSU and what should happen to restore her faith.
“What I hoped was that I would get contacted by the university, and we would sit down and have a conversation,” Denhollander said in an interview. “If you can’t acknowledge what you didn’t do right then any change is just a charade. .... They’re going through the motions.”
In fact Denhollander said MSU’s response to date has been classic case of protecting the predator: Denial, closing ranks and throwing out red herrings. She points to Trustee Joel Ferguson’s comments to the media that victims’ attorneys are ambulance chasers out for a payday.
Instead of blaming victims, she said the university must make it clear that anyone who had a role in turning a blind eye to Nassar has no place at the university.
Denhollander said she waited five months for resolution from the university before joining a lawsuit. She said defining the university's role by whether a crime was committed isn’t enough.
Fitzgerald, MSU’s lawyer, said it's important to distinguish MSU's situation from the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky scandal. At Penn State, evidence showed that top university officials knew about criminal conduct and hid it. That is an important distinction, but it can't be the only lens we use to examine what's broken.
Jason Cody, MSU spokesman, directed me to MSU's "Our Committment" website, which the university put up last spring. It’s filled with an impressive number of links to articles, policies and statements. It’s an ocean of information, including clarifications and updates to its youth programs policy designed to protect youngsters who visit the campus.
Yet I couldn’t connect the dots that said: This went wrong. We fixed it. We’re sorry.
To date, Schuette, along with Pat Miles and Gretchen Whitmer, Democratic candidates for attorney general and governor, have called for more information. The State Journal Editorial Board said President Lou Anna Simon should step down for a lack of leadership on this issue. And the editorial board at the student newspaper, the State News, put it simply in an open letter to the MSU Board of Trustees earlier this month about sexual assault on campus: Do something.
On Friday, MSU President Lou Anna Simon apologized to Nassar victims, though she carefully phrased the apology to only implicate Nassar, as a Spartan, causing their pain. The Board of Trustees announced a $10 million effort for mental health counseling for the sexual assault survivors.
Those are welcome steps but still do not answer the questions of what went wrong. Perhaps MSU officials and trustees are so steeped in inside information about lawsuits, internal investigations and policy updates that they have lost sight of how little light has been shed for those of us on the outside.
Judy Putnam is a columnist with the Lansing State Journal. Contact her at (517) 267-1304 or at jputnam@lsj.com. Follow her on twitter @judyputnam.