“It’s been tough to be honest with you Bob. It’s highly emotional for everybody. Including the people who are covering this. We’ve had to sit there and listen to mothers who have talked about their daughters committing suicide. The first woman to speak today, spoke about how she was abused as a 6-year-old girl in Larry Nassar’s basement. Molested in his basement. And when she later told her parents, her father didn’t believe her. And when he finally did believe her, he died by suicide.
“The trail of human wreckage left by Larry Nassar may never be completely calculated.” — ESPN investigate reporter John Barr to Bob Ley on Tuesday’s edition of “Outside the Lines.”
On Tuesday, victims of Larry Nassar, the former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics team doctor, began testifying at his sentencing hearing about how he destroyed their lives when he sexually abused them.
Tuesday was also the day that ESPN published a 7,000-plus word article that included details from victims about how Nassar did what he did for so long, and how enablers that included parents and officials at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics allowed the abuse to go on for decades.
The article is sickening.
The details are disgusting.
It’s an excruciating read.
However, it’s also a very necessary one. It is a reminder that we have been here before. And an example of why something like this can never happen again.
What does it say about our society when it becomes more important to protect sports, and the dollars and accolades it generates, than the lives of innocent children and young women?
It was only just a few years ago that Baylor happened. Numerous allegations and convictions surrounding the Baylor University football team had finally hit the fan. But we watched as coaches, administrators and presidents fumbled over themselves as they either chose to ignore the seriousness of the allegations or simply allow it, all in the name of football.
And for those who felt Baylor wasn’t “that bad” because it was “college kids just being college kids,” there was Penn State. We now had proof that for some people, the allegations from women and children were still not enough to “mess with football.”
And yet, somehow, Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics still found a way to protect a serial sexual assaulter like Larry Nassar for decades.
The revelation became very clear to me that this was about two things: greed and evil.
Some adults are obsessed with the big bucks that college football brings in, and some don’t want to affect the sponsorship money that’s tied to the success of a national gymnastics program. This country also has a problem listening to and believing victims of sexual assault and harassment.
“The second that I realized (I was being abused by Nassar), I told my mom and then we told USA Gymnastics,” said three-time gold-medal-winning-gymnast Aly Raisman on Outside the Lines.
“And, to me, it seemed like they threatened me to be quiet. You know, their biggest priority from the beginning and still today is their reputation, the medals they win and the money they make off of us. I don’t think that they care. If they cared, then the second they realized that I was abused, they would have reached out, asked if I needed therapy, asked if I was OK, asked what they could have done and they would have — they would have made a big change.”
“Instead, they allowed Larry to continue to work on little girls in Michigan and molest gymnasts for a very long time. … I don’t know how they sleep at night. I’m so angry that, after realizing that we were abused, they let him continue to molest other gymnasts when they told me there was an investigation going on. They told me to be quiet. I thought that they were doing the right thing, and I didn’t want to tip off the investigation. I trusted them and I shouldn’t have.”
According to CNN, there’s a chance that up to 125 victims or their parents will be allowed to speak out about the abuse they endured over several days of victim impact testimony.
And some of those testimonies will include things like how a former gymnast told ESPN reporters how Nassar “penetrated her rectum with his bare fingers, ostensibly to treat her injured back” when she was 12 or 13 years old, before Nassar was even a doctor.
Or how Lindsey Lemke, a former member of the MSU gymnastics team, said that Nassar not only assaulted her hundreds of times, but also broke medical procedure when he performed intravaginal and intrarectal treatments for pelvic and bladder issues by not wearing gloves, seeking parental consent, or having a chaperone in the room.
On Monday, Simone Biles let the world know that she too had been a victim of Nassar. The news meant that Nassar assaulted members of the 2012 and 2016 gold-medal winning Olympic teams including Raisman, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney.
“This brings me back to 2012 in Pennsylvania,” said Jeremy Schaap on Outside the Lines. “I was at that trial, the Jerry Sandusky trial. Hearing witness after witness describe not only the horrible crimes that were perpetrated but the indifference and the silence from the people who could have made a difference.”
Prosecutors in the case have asked the judge to sentence Nassar to 125 years in prison. That number is significant because 125 women have filed police reports against him to go along with the 150 claims of abuse. Just last December, Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in prison on three federal charges related to child pornography.
How many years should the judge rule on when sentencing takes place?
I’m not sure.
I just wish that in this particular case, there was a way in which the victims could be the ones to determine Nassar’s fate.
In the last few years, we’ve seen little girls, young boys, and college-aged women preyed upon, as sexual assault has manifested itself in the sports world at Penn State, Baylor, Michigan State and USA Gymnastics.
Adults at all four of those institutions dropped the ball repeatedly, endangering lives and ruining families forever because money was always an underlying factor.
The saying goes, “Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern.”
So, if our society wants to eradicate sexual assault, it must first admit how big the problem really is.
And secondly, realize how far some people are willing to go to cover up a scandal because it would be bad for business.
