Larry Nassar was a sports medicine doctor on the staff of Michigan State University, as well as an official doctor to the US Women's Gymnastic team. He treated athletes from local gymnastics, dance and other programs at the high school and younger level, as well as the Michigan State University and US Olympic gymnastics teams. But he didn't just treat sprains and strains. He sexually assaulted girls as young as six under the guise of "medical treatment." He told the girls (and sometimes their parents) that his treatments involved internal as well as external "massage". Girls who came to him with ankle sprains found themselves being digitally penetrated, with him assuring them that this was all part of the treatment.
But that's not even the most disgusting part. The really horrific part is that many of them complained, to their parents, to MSU officials, to Olympic officials and even to the police, and nothing was done. Coaches and officials assured them that Dr. Nassar was a respected physician who knew what he was doing; that making a public fuss would cause them no end of hassle and possibly derail their athletic careers; that there was no evidence that any wrongdoing was done. For almost 20 years this went on. The first complaint was received in 1997, but Nassar was not fired by MSU until 2015. At least 14 officials at MSU received complaints about Nassar, but nobody believed them or, more likely, wanted to do anything about it.
This month Nassar was convicted of several counts of criminal sexual conduct as well as on federal charges of possession of child pornography. He'll spent the rest of his life in prison. For the last week he has had to sit in court and listen to the victim statements. Over 120 women and girls have come forward to read some very chilling and powerful statements detailing what he did to them and how it ruined their lives - including Aly Raisman and Simone Biles, members of the gold medal-winning teams of 2012 and 2016. At least one girl committed suicide, and another's father did the same out of guilt for not believing his daughter's story. I know some of these girls - they were in the dance company my daughters belonged to. I know of several more, and I suspect there are many more, who suffered in silence and did not say anything; they are not speaking out in court, but they part of the army of victims. I am horrified and sickened beyond words.
Fuck this guy. But even more, fuck those in power who knew of this and did nothing for so long. Fuck the officials at MSU and the US Olympic Committee who are still hemming and hawing and pretending they don’t remember hearing of this before. Fuck Tom Izzo, who “wondered if the right person was convicted”, as if the statements of 120 women were assaulted aren’t adequate proof . Believe it, Tom, they are not mistaken as to who the “right person” is.
This is Jerry Sandusky and the Catholic Church pedophile priests all over again. When will these assholes learn?
I’m not sticking around this thread due to the subject. But I will say maybe - MAYBE - we are starting to see a reckoning for the thousands of victims whose voices have not, until now, been heard. I can only hope.
Really surprised this hasn’t been a thread here yet. Or covered much on the cable news. There’s been a nonstop parade of young women stepping up to the mic in the courtroom to tell Nassar what they think of him to his face.
This garbage even wrote a letter asking the judge to put an end to the women’s testimonies, as it was too much for him. Six pages worth of sniveling, I believe. Her honor told him to deal with it.
“No duty to warn athletes”? That is beyond disgusting. That’s barbaric, especially when you consider many of these athletes were girls as young as 13 or 14. They’re kids. No duty to warn them of a potential predator? Aly Raisman is correct, the US Gymnastics program is rotten to the core.
But they are doing more than MSU. The Board of Trustees is largely, with a few exceptions, maintaining their support for President Lou Simon and resisting calls for her resignation. There are class action suits in the works, though, and MSU will be paying big for this.
A couple of the victims, in their statements said something like “By doing this to so many of us, you’ve created an army that is coming for you and the institutions that allowed this.” More power to them.
This whole situation is fucked up. Simon needs to be fired, Izzo is a complete fucking idiot. He won’t get fired for his comments, but it really makes him look bad. I hope Nassar “slips in the shower” when he gets to his new permanent home.
The nerve of the guy to complain that hearing the shit he has done was too much to deal with…Play it on an endless loop for him, his every waking moment.
Nassar and everybody who allowed him to get away with it for so long. And for what? What did covering for this shit stain gain anyone?
It’s time to start taking down the enablers in this case and others.
Can you imagine yourself telling your family/friends you knew a doctor/coach/agent/talent manager who was hurting ANYONE between the ages of 0-100 and you kept quiet because you wanted to make money? Make the team? Not get blackballed in Hollywood?
I could be wrong, but aren’t some of the whistle blowers in Hollywood claiming they knew, but kept quiet because they were just starting out.
Why didn’t they say something as soon as they got millions? Why wait years?
Protect the on going career? Dude save a rape victim and work at Wal Mart. Your career doesn’t trump human decency.
Sorry, rant. Just saddened by the lack of humanity.
You either keep quiet and get your millions, becoming a winner in society and getting what you want and need, or…
… you work at Wal-Mart where you make such inadequate wages you need governmental aid for food and housing and good luck getting any medical care, and you’re continually berated as a loser and a parasite, NOT a hero no matter how many people you have saved from rape.
Given that few people are saints why is anyone still surprised as how many pick the first alternative over the second?
There is no reward for doing the right thing - in fact, in the matter of rape and abuse accusations, you might face punishment for doing the right thing. So frequently the right thing isn’t done. Until we flip that around nothing will change. Oh, a few people might get some sort of justice, but not the majority.
And if Nassar is having trouble with hearing victim impact statements too fucking bad boo fucking hoo - put 'em on a loop and play 'em in his cell.
Whenever you have these stories of heinous people doing heinous things in the news, I always wonder how their family members reconcile things with their loved ones. Like Larry’s parents-- how do you come to terms with the fact that this person who has done these terrible, terrible things and is (rightfully) loathed by society is the same precious baby you once snuggled and doted on? And deal with the very real possibility that he will soon have a grizzly end to his life in prison? And for his three kids, how do they deal with the fact that their father, the man they’ve looked up to for their entire existence, has done such vile things to hundreds of children and is loathed by society?
Is it possible to still love someone like this, while hating the things they’ve done or disliking them as a person? I can’t imagine it’s easy to just shut off all good feelings you once felt for a father or son (or brother). I imagine years of therapy are in store. And while entirely possible (and I wouldn’t be surprised if he did), nothing has come to light about Nassar abusing his own children. If he did, they’ve got a whole lot of other issues to deal with as well, and this conviction may end up being a Godsend for them.
Forget pitting Larry Nassar. Molestors gonna molest, that’s on him, put him away. But he’s not the fucking problem. The people who didn’t stop him from molesting are the problem.
The word you’re probably looking for is “grisly”, but I like the image of that sicko being mauled by a grizzly. Throw his enablers into the bear pit, too.
For those of us in the Lansing area, it’s been pretty steady evening news fare for several months now. Yes, this was a tragedy and things could have been handled better. MSU has invited the Michigan AG to do a complete review of its handling of the affair. The mess will be cleaned up and I think that some heads will roll. Does President Simon need to step down? In my opinion, yes. She is at the top of the organization and the proper checks and procedures weren’t in place to protect these young ladies.
What ever became of the rule that when doctors had to examine patients in intimate areas, that a nurse had to be present at all times? Seems like a rule like that would have prevented much of this.
As for Tom Izzo, he simply mangled his speech. From the Detroit News:
(Smith is Paul W Smith, longtime host for WJR Detroit)
Yes, my beloved MSU deserves the scrutiny of law enforcement and the NCAA. I hope that we take corrective action as well as Penn State cleaned up after their incident a few years back.
Universities in America, much like lower level schools, are run by people who act like absolute monarchs whose subjects (students) have no constitutional rights except those the institution sees fit to grant.
Children accusing a staff member of crimes? Unfortunately, as I’ve seen in person, the local police all too often refuse to get involved and leave the matter to the school.
(No shit, I saw an athlete at a Div III school beat up his girlfriend, openly steal a laptop from another student and then be caught with felony levels of drugs (I was the guy who found them in the search) and the local cops just went ¯_(ツ)_/¯ and left the entire matter up to the school, which not only did nothing at all and even warned security to leave the guy alone. :smack: )
The school won’t do anything because people will get upset, people will argue and no matter what happened or who was involved, it will turn into this gigantic pain in the ass political issue among the staff and administrators. Besides, in all those instances, it wasn’t like it became a PUBLIC issue, right? So just sweep it under the rug, hope it goes away and wait until someone sues over it and they have to address it.
There have been polls and threads on this board about, would you turn in a family member for crimes? A surprisingly (for me) large number of posters said no, they would not turn them in.
So I don’t know about how they’d internalize it, but they are more than willing to lok the other way.
Weinstein hired ex-Mossad agents to threaten the whistleblowers. Yeah, I’d probably keep my mouth shut too.
This is no different from the priests who got passed around from parish to parish even though everyone knew what they were up to, because they didn’t want to rock the boat.
Meanwhile, Ferguson insists the scandal won’t tarnish Simon’s legacy as university president, that it’s “wrong” to even talk about the possibility of Simon retiring,and is confident that the attorney-general investigation into MSU will find its “senior people are not complicit in what this pervert did.”
"Meanwhile, Ferguson insists the scandal won’t tarnish Simon’s legacy as university president, that it’s “wrong” to even talk about the possibility of Simon retiring,and is confident that the attorney-general investigation into MSU will find its “senior people are not complicit in what this pervert did.”
All of the above is from a MSU Trustee in support of President Simon. What a fucking douche. I hope no one in his family is ever violated.
Exactly.
And these people are bragging that they knew, for years, even after they got rich/famous.
I’m not surprised people look the other way, I’m just surprised they would admit to it. It’s like they’re bragging they knew who the stig was on top gear or who shot JR.
