“Everyone knows the Nassar case is an international story. As he begins serving his sentence in a federal prison in Arizona, we are all still struggling to comprehend the extent of the damage he inflicted on so many girls and young women, and on their families.
...I’m fully aware that there is a lot of work to do and not much time to do it. I appreciate your support as we together address the urgent tasks in front of us. Because this is how Spartans show their will.”
Michigan State University is my alma mater. As a Spartan, I listened to the testimonies of the Nassar survivors, knowing some of them could have been my roommates. Had I been good enough to play Division 1 basketball, they might have been my teammates. My cousin knows women on the rowing team who are now adding their testimonies to the case.
And so I marveled at the strength of these women and how they revisited their trauma so that other girls wouldn’t be harmed.
And watching all of this go down... Lou Anna Simon’s resignation...the departure of the Athletic Director, gymnastics staff...I hoped that people wouldn’t go, “Oh, MSU, what an embarrassing situation” when the truth is that this is happening on every college campus in America. Not that there is a monster on staff, specifically, but that sexual abuse is rampant and universities are not equipped to carry out justice. There are cases upon cases stacked up waiting for small teams of Title IX staff to process them. Watch “The Hunting Ground”, MSU is in the spotlight right now, but there’s plenty of reckoning lurking in the darkness.
For now, what stays on my mind is the power that my fellow Spartans reclaimed by making their voices heard. And the sheer will it will take for them to heal and move forward.