Sparty and the Charge of Covering Up

(from an email I sent to a high school classmate)

I listened to several victim impact statements on the FB livestream from Aquilina's courtroom. I've read thousands of words on the cases. I've tried to process this avalanche of input and data. It, like Sparty's response, is still a work in progress.

I guess that because Jordyn Wieber lived in our neighborhood, and we know her, and her brother, and her parents, that we have a more personal connection than many. And, our son played (and practiced) hockey in the same barn as Twistars. We share the whole alum connection as Linda and I have five degrees from MSU. I, perhaps like you, grew up riding my bike around campus, first living in the barracks across the street from what is now Holden Hall. The quonsets were mansions.

So yeah, taking' it personally, and bleedin' green.

I'm stunned at many things. I thought Sandusky would have prompted far better controls being adopted. I have a hard time understanding Simon's "I don't want to be a distraction" stance relative to attending the sentencing phase...far better to be a distraction, to bring more light to the room, and easy to tell the press, "no, I'm not taking questions, I'm here to honor the victims". Like Izzo after the game Friday night. And why is the Title IX coordinator saying, now, that cases with athletes routinely get kicked over to the athletic department for resolution? And Dean Strampel being very specific about a fix for Nassar, and then not following up??

My take is that the institutional culture prized brand over protection. In my line of work, in loco parentis is a living, breathing, daily, consideration. Way of life, actually. And these folks went tone deaf. That the Board thinks it can turn it around... is ludicrous.  Joel Ferguson is an idiot. Brian Breslin is too slick by half.

No, Izzo and Dantonio have done what they needed to do. That they didn't have clarity as to when, and how, to discipline team-wise, that's on the institution. They had to make it up on their own. At what point in a case reported to police do you slap a wrist, and at what point do you run the nuclear option? At point of report? Part way through an investigation? When a prosecutor files charges? At plea-bargaining? Sentencing???? There's that whole innocent-until-proven thing, right?

It's simple, but it's not easy. I hated my district telling me exactly what punishment I was required to administer for any given transgression, because the facts were always idiosyncratic, and the players were always in different places, both developmentally and relative to family support. So I felt I needed guidelines, not edicts. However, when it came to assaults and Title IX (thank god I had only a few of the former, and none of the latter as an elementary principal), the protocols were there. Oh, and I'm back in the saddle, sorta, as an external support person, and yes, we are having Title IX crap in a 4-5-6 building.. boys in the girls' bathroom, girl sharing out a pic which could have been salacious but turned out to be a flesh-colored sports bra, so yeah, the times they are a-changin'.

So yeah. Much ado, but not about nothing. This should give a wake-up call to institutions of higher learning everywhere, just as the #MeToo movement did for Hollywood, and the workplace. Like Penn State should have.