| Blog and Media Roundup - Friday, January 26, 2018; News Roundup | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 26 2018, 05:43 AM (94 Views) | |
| abb | Jan 26 2018, 05:43 AM Post #1 |
|
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2018/01/26/civil-rights-groups-sue-devos-over-title-ix-policies Civil Rights Groups Sue DeVos Over Title IX Policies By Andrew Kreighbaum January 26, 2018 0 Comments A lawsuit filed Thursday in federal district court seeks to reverse new campus sexual assault policies issued by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos last year. The lawsuit argues that new federal guidance on Title IX law issued by DeVos in September discriminates against survivors of sexual violence on campus. And it says the guidance is based on stereotypes involving the credibility of women who report sexual violence, citing statements made by Candice Jackson, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights. DeVos in September rescinded two guidance documents issued by the Obama administration in 2011 and 2014 that survivor advocates say were critical for getting new protections on campus. The Department of Education at the same time issued a set of interim guidelines for colleges and universities on the handling of sexual harassment and assault. It said it would eventually issue a new federal regulation on Title IX gender discrimination, although few details have emerged since. Three public interest law groups brought the lawsuit on behalf of SurvJustice, Equal Rights Advocates and the Victim Rights Law Center. “We will not accept Secretary DeVos making it harder for survivors to have equal access to education,” says Laura L. Dunn, executive director of SurvJustice, a nonprofit that works with survivors of sexual assault on campus. “We’ve heard directly from student survivors who are questioning whether it's even worth reporting sexual violence and abuse because of the new Title IX policy. We should be making it easier, not harder, for survivors to speak out, and we’re committed to fighting this unconstitutional action by the Trump administration.” A Department of Education spokeswoman said the department does not comment on pending litigation. |
![]() |
|
| abb | Jan 26 2018, 05:44 AM Post #2 |
|
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/us/larry-nassar-michigan-state-investigation.html With Larry Nassar Sentenced, Focus Is on What Michigan State Knew By MITCH SMITH and ANEMONA HARTOCOLLISJAN. 25, 2018 Michigan State University was propelled on Thursday to the center of the sexual abuse scandal involving Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar, as state and federal agencies mounted investigations demanding to know what the college knew of his behavior and when. Neither the sentencing of Dr. Nassar on Wednesday to 40 to 175 years in prison, nor the resignation of the university president a few hours later, quelled the furor. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said on Thursday that her department would investigate Michigan State’s role, while state legislators asked that the university provide unredacted records of its investigations of Dr. Nassar and threatened to issue subpoenas if the school did not swiftly comply. At the same time, the state attorney general was preparing his own review of the university, a United States senator asked for congressional hearings, and the speaker of the Michigan House called for the resignations of the university’s trustees, who are elected by voters. “This is one of the biggest scandals in the history of our state,” said the speaker, Tom Leonard, a Republican, who has asked House lawyers to review options for removing trustees if they did not quit. “We are dealing with a Big Ten university. We are dealing with a monster who was a serial child molester and rapist who may have violated more victims than any other rapist in the history of our state.” The repercussions were not limited to Michigan State. The head of the United States Olympic Committee, Scott Blackmun, wrote an email to U.S.A. Gymnastics, threatening to decertify the federation if its entire board did not resign by next Wednesday. Several board members, including the chairman, Paul Parilla, have already resigned. Responding to Mr. Blackmun late Thursday, U.S.A. Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body, said it “completely embraces the requirements” outlined in the letter. The organization’s unsigned reply said U.S.A. Gymnastics would “work with the U.S.O.C. to accomplish change for the betterment of our organization, our athletes and our clubs.” At Michigan State, university officials are already facing the prospect of legal judgments and fees from lawsuits filed by dozens of victims. At Penn State, where a former football coach was found to be a serial child molester, those costs have reached nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. The lawsuits and the legislative inquiries center on what Michigan State knew about Dr. Nassar’s behavior during the two decades he worked there. Several victims have alleged that they had told Michigan State employees, as far back as the late 1990s, about being molested under the guise of treatment. In 2014, after a complaint from a patient, the university conducted an internal investigation that cleared him, after which he continued to prey on more patients. On Thursday, ESPN reported that Michigan State had neglected to tell federal authorities, who were investigating the college’s handling of other sexual misconduct complaints, about the 2014 case until the accusations against Dr. Nassar became widely known in 2016. “I feel like every day we are peeling back another layer of a very deep mystery,” said State Representative Adam Zemke, a Democrat who introduced a resolution that passed by a wide margin on Wednesday and called for the resignation of the university president, Lou Anna K. Simon. Hours later, she resigned. Mr. Zemke said he saw parallels between what happened at Michigan State and the “willful negligence” during the water crisis in Flint, for which government officials have been charged with felonies and accused of covering up evidence. In her resignation message, Ms. Simon wrote, “To the survivors, I can never say enough that I am so sorry that a trusted, renowned physician was really such an evil, evil person.” She added: “As tragedies are politicized, blame is inevitable. As president, it is only natural that I am the focus of this anger.” The Legislature’s deepening interest reflects the importance of Michigan State to the state and the realization that the scandal can easily become a political liability if not handled correctly. It has also become a subplot in this year’s race for governor. Among those who have had a role in the investigations are two candidates — the Republican attorney general, Bill Schuette, whose office prosecuted the state criminal cases, and a Democrat, Gretchen Whitmer, who was the county prosecutor in Lansing during part of the time that Dr. Nassar was being investigated. Both Mr. Schuette and Ms. Whitmer have faced criticism by some for their work on the case, and both have strongly defended their record. When The Detroit News wrote in an editorial this month that Mr. Schuette’s “indifference borders on dereliction of duty,” he called for a retraction and said “nothing could be further from the truth.” And after a foe in the Democratic primary race suggested Ms. Whitmer did not act aggressively enough on the case, she said that she was “proud of my record” and that “this is an issue that is incredibly close to my heart.” “I think the system worked the way that it’s supposed to,” Ms. Whitmer said of the prosecution in an interview on Thursday. She also called for “a housecleaning” in Michigan State’s administration. The news and stories that matter to Californians (and anyone else interested in the state), delivered weekday mornings. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. See Sample Privacy Policy Opt out or contact us anytime Jason Cody, a spokesman for the university, noted that its trustees had asked the state attorney general to investigate, and Mr. Cody said that the school would fully cooperate. The university has created a fund to help survivors get counseling and mental health services, he said. “Many at M.S.U. viewed the brave women who came forward to tell their stories at Nassar’s sentencing hearing,” Mr. Cody said. “Words cannot express the sorrow we feel for Nassar’s victims; the thoughts and prayers of the entire M.S.U. community are with these women as we listen to their heartbreaking testimony.” Dr. Nassar, 54, was sentenced on Wednesday for sexually abusing seven girls, though he had been accused by many more. His seven-day sentencing hearing drew more than 150 women, including Olympic gymnasts who are household names, to give wrenching testimony about what he had done to them. Dozens of women, including gymnasts, swimmers, figure skaters, runners and basketball players, are now suing Dr. Nassar, Michigan State and U.S.A. Gymnastics, alleging abuse going back two decades. In court papers, they have said that they trusted Dr. Nassar because he was a renowned sports doctor, and the team physician for the United States gymnastics team. Some of his patients said they complained to Michigan State employees, including the women’s gymnastics coach at the time, Kathie Klages, in the late 1990s, according to court papers, but were met with disbelief. A lawyer for Ms. Klages has not commented on the allegations. In 2014, a recent graduate filed a complaint against Dr. Nassar under Title IX, the federal law governing sexual harassment and assault on campus. She said that she had sought out Dr. Nassar for hip pain, and that he molested her and became sexually aroused until she removed his hands from her body, according to court papers in the civil cases filed against him. But after consulting with other medical professionals, including Dr. Nassar’s colleagues, the university’s investigation concluded that his treatment had been “medically appropriate,” the court papers said. The abuse continued until 2016, when Rachael Denhollander, a former gymnast, told her story to The Indianapolis Star, and a police investigation soon began. On Thursday, ESPN reported that Michigan State had failed to turn over its file on Dr. Nassar in 2014, when the Education Department was investigating unrelated complaints about the way the university had handled sexual assault and harassment cases. The university began turning over records in late 2016, ESPN reported, saying that the failure had been an oversight. On Thursday, the education secretary said her agency would review Michigan State’s handling of the complaints against Dr. Nassar. “What happened at Michigan State is abhorrent,” Ms. DeVos said. “Students must be safe and protected on our nation’s campuses. The department is investigating this matter and will hold M.S.U. accountable for any violations of federal law.” But in a December letter to Mr. Schuette, the Michigan attorney general, the university’s lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said he believed that evidence would show that no Michigan State official believed that Dr. Nassar committed sexual abuse before the newspaper reports in 2016. The university is also arguing that it cannot be held liable because of Michigan’s sovereign immunity law, which protects state agencies from lawsuits in most circumstances and “protects the state’s citizens by safeguarding its fiscal stability,” the school said in a court filing. John Manly, a lawyer for some of the women in the civil cases, said the university’s response to the lawsuits reminded him of the way the Roman Catholic Church had responded to allegations of child sex abuse by priests. “It’s a page right out of the bishops’ playbooks,” he said. If Michigan State is ruled to be not immune, the cost could be significant. One state representative, Klint Kesto, a Republican, said he has drafted legislation that would prevent state funds from being used for payouts. If that bill is passed, it would force Michigan State to use tuition or endowment money. “The school should use all its assets, all its income from other sources first before they go into the pockets of taxpayers,” Mr. Kesto said. On Thursday, Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat, called for congressional oversight and investigations of the scandal and said in a statement that it was “time for us to find out who is responsible at Michigan State University and U.S.A. Gymnastics for enabling and failing to stop this criminal.” State legislators requested that university trustees provide investigative documents about Dr. Nassar dating back to 2014. “It is our sincere hope that the university will cooperate with our request and inquiries without the need to employ means of compulsion,” the lawmakers wrote, adding that they may issue subpoenas if the records were not received by 5 p.m. on Feb. 9. |
![]() |
|
| abb | Jan 26 2018, 05:45 AM Post #3 |
|
http://www.therepublic.com/2018/01/26/gym-doctor-sexual-assault-10/ Some liken Michigan State to Penn State amid abuse scandal By ED WHITE and DAVID EGGERT - 1/26/18 12:41 AM LANSING, Mich. — Sports doctor Larry Nassar is on his way to prison for the rest of his life for molesting scores of young female athletes, but the scandal is far from over at Michigan State University as victims, lawmakers and a judge demand to know why he wasn’t stopped years ago. Some are likening Michigan State to Penn State University, where three senior officials, including the school’s president, were sentenced to jail last year for failing to tell authorities about a sexual abuse allegation involving coach Jerry Sandusky. Nassar, a 54-year-old former member of Michigan State’s sports medicine staff, has admitted penetrating elite gymnasts and other athletes with his fingers while he was supposedly treating them for injuries. Some of the more than 150 women and girls who have accused him said they complained to the sports medicine staff, a campus counselor and the women’s gymnastics coach as far back as the late 1990s. In Michigan, it is a misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in jail and a $500 fine for certain professionals to fail to report a suspected case of child abuse. Lou Anna Simon, who resigned under pressure Wednesday as Michigan State’s president, insisted, “There is no cover-up.” But the university last week asked Michigan’s attorney general to conduct a review. And in sentencing Nassar to 40 to 175 years in prison Wednesday, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina called for “a massive investigation as to why there was inaction, why there was silence.” Jennifer Paine, a Michigan lawyer who specializes in child protection law and is not involved in the Nassar case, said there are probably grounds for charging some Michigan State staff members for failing to report what victims were saying. “The obligation to report doesn’t mean anything unless people enforce. That’s why it’s there,” she said. No one has been charged in the scandal besides Nassar. John Manly, an attorney who represents more than 100 victims in lawsuits, said Michigan State, USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee “miserably failed children.” Nassar was a team doctor at USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians. “They had an opportunity, instead of being Penn State, to make them a beacon of how to handle this,” Manly said. “It’s too late. You can’t fix it now.” Penn State’s former president, Graham Spanier, and two other ex-administrators, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, were prosecuted for child endangerment for not reporting a 2001 complaint about Sandusky showering with a boy. Sandusky’s arrest a decade later blew up into a scandal that brought down legendary football coach Joe Paterno. Sandusky is serving 30 to 60 years in prison for sexually abusing 10 boys. As of last year, Penn State had paid nearly $250 million in fines, settlements and other costs associated with the scandal. Nassar has also been sentenced to 60 years in federal prison for child pornography. Federal prosecutors have declined to say if they are looking at any other aspects of the case. Elsewhere, in Texas, the Walker County sheriff’s office said it is investigating the Karolyi Ranch, which was a training site for Olympic gymnasts. Some gymnasts said Nassar assaulted them there. In Washington, U.S. senators from both parties are calling for creation of a select committee to investigate the U.S. Olympic Committee. The NCAA said it has sent Michigan State a letter of inquiry about potential rules violations. In the Penn State scandal, the NCAA fined the school $48 million, reduced the number of football scholarships, barred the team from postseason play and invalidated 112 victories. Some penalties were later eased. Kyle Stephens, who was a Nassar family friend, said he molested her for years at his Lansing-area home. She said she told a campus counselor, Gary Stollak, about the abuse in 2004. Nassar met with Stollak and denied it, and no police report was made. Stollak, now retired, testified in 2016 that he couldn’t remember anything because of a stroke. “He didn’t report it, and he’s a mandatory reporter,” Stephens said, referring to those who are legally required to report sexual abuse. “Michigan State keeps saying that ‘we didn’t know.’ Who should I have told? Tell me who I should have told so I know what I should have done. … They are continuing to drag out my pain, and that is inappropriate.” A 2014 police investigation into other assault allegations ended with no charges against Nassar. The university, however, told him that he needed to have a chaperone in the room during certain exams. He was fired in 2016 for failing to do so. Some victims say they reported Nassar to Kathie Klages, who ran camps for teen gymnasts and was Michigan State women’s gymnastics coach until last February. She has denied wrongdoing. State Sen. Margaret O’Brien said college coaches should be added to Michigan’s list of mandatory reporters, which includes therapists and medical professionals. In the state House, lawmakers sent a letter to Michigan State on Thursday requesting certain reports about Nassar. |
![]() |
|
| abb | Jan 26 2018, 05:49 AM Post #4 |
|
https://www.buzzfeed.com/tylerkingkade/michigan-state-university-under-federal-investigation?utm_term=.gmzPMAyq6#.vhbM6Y1xE Michigan State University Is Under Federal Investigation Over Larry Nassar's Sex Crimes The US Department of Education is probing whether the school violated the law in its handling of reports of Larry Nassar's sexual assaults. "My heart breaks for the survivors of Larry Nassar’s disgusting crimes," said Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Posted on January 25, 2018, at 4:02 p.m. Tyler Kingkade Michigan State University is under investigation regarding whether it violated federal law in connection with its handling of Larry Nassar's years of sexual abuse when he was a school athletic trainer and the USA Gymnastics doctor, BuzzFeed News has learned. The US Department of Education notified the school on Jan. 18 that it was opening an investigation into MSU's compliance with the Clery Act, a federal law requiring colleges to track and disclose crimes reported on campus and warn communities about safety concerns. A Clery Act investigation led to Penn State University being ordered to fork over a record $2.4 million penalty in 2016, in part due to failures handling former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's child abuse. Nassar, who worked at the school from 1997 to 2016, was reported for sexual assault to MSU's Title IX office in 2014, but the university cleared him of wrongdoing at the time, and a related campus police investigation did not result in charges. Nassar resumed seeing patients until late summer 2016, when more victims came forward, sparking a new criminal investigation that ultimately led to charges of possessing child pornography and sexually assaulting eight women and girls during medical appointments. Federal investigators will review what Michigan State University did with every single complaint about Nassar. The investigation will also look at how campus police handled crime reports dating back to 2011, and how the university worked with USA Gymnastics to protect athletes. The university, which has maintained it did not believe Nassar committed an assault until 2016, has to turn over an extensive list of documents to investigators by Feb. 2, according to a copy of a letter sent to MSU by the Education Department, and obtained by BuzzFeed News. The letter requested on-site access to the university starting Feb. 19. The inquiry should reveal "what university personnel knew and when they knew it" when it came to Nassar's crimes, said S. Daniel Carter, a campus safety expert. MSU's investigation won't be as wide-ranging as Penn State's, which included complaints made over a two-decade period, "but it does sound like one of the department's more extensive Clery reviews," Carter told BuzzFeed News. Many people have drawn comparisons between Penn State's handling of Sandusky's abuse and MSU's response to reports of crimes committed by Nassar, who was an athletic trainer and professor at the school. The Education Department ripped Penn State in a 2016 report for missing red flags about Sandusky, failing to warn the community about the convicted pedophile, and for mistakes made back as far as 2000 in documenting crimes reported to the university. Victims and others at the sentencing hearing for Larry Nassar. Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters Victims and others at the sentencing hearing for Larry Nassar. Michigan State University rejects the comparison with the Penn State–Sandusky scandal. Jason Cody, an MSU spokesperson, told BuzzFeed News on Thursday that the university "will be cooperating fully" with the federal inquiry. Clery investigations take years to complete. The Education Department usually does not reveal when a Clery investigation is underway, but it confirmed the MSU probe. "My heart breaks for the survivors of Larry Nassar’s disgusting crimes," Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "What happened at Michigan State is abhorrent. It cannot ever happen again — there or anywhere. Students must be safe and protected on our nation’s campuses. The Department is investigating this matter and will hold MSU accountable for any violations of federal law." Michigan State University was notified last week as 133 victims began reading statements in court about Nassar's assaults, some of which took place at Michigan State University. Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in prison for child pornography, and up to 175 years for his assaults. The president of MSU resigned this week under pressure from state lawmakers, students, and local newspapers, following reports that women had told employees at MSU about Nassar as far back as 1997. The National Collegiate Athletic Association also announced this week it will investigate MSU's handling of Nassar's crimes. A separate office of the Education Department is already investigating MSU for its compliance with the gender equity law Title IX. Unlike Clery investigations, Title IX investigations usually only result in demands for policy changes, not fines. In 2015, for example, the feds found that MSU violated Title IX by taking too long to adjudicate student sexual misconduct cases, and ordered reforms to university policies. |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · DUKE LACROSSE - Liestoppers · Next Topic » |







9:14 AM Jul 11