‘American Gymnasts Deserve So Much More’: After Sexual Misconduct Scandal, Organization Continues Grip On Power
With an eye to the 2020 Olympics, USA Gymnastics appears to be holding onto its role as chief overseer of the sport and is preparing to seek new sponsors. Its decertification after the Larry Nasser scandal was stayed because it filed for bankruptcy. In other news involving sexual misconduct, Michigan State accepts new requirements to protect students, and a 62% spike is seen in cases filed against California doctors.
USA Gymnastics last year was given the death penalty by U.S. Olympic officials for its handling of decadeslong sexual abuse by women’s team physician Larry Nassar. Yet as it crowned Simone Biles with her sixth all-around national title here this weekend, the disgraced gymnastics federation acted like an organization confident its sentence would be commuted. (Radnofsky, 8/12)
Michigan State University has reached an agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services to resolve a federal civil rights investigation stemming from former university sports doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse of patients. The university and its health care entities entered into a voluntary resolution agreement that requires policy changes regarding how they handle sexual misconduct and sensitive patient examinations, HHS announced on Monday. (Stratford, 8/12)
Michigan State University has agreed to better protect patients from sexual assaults, including following a chaperone requirement for sensitive medical exams, to resolve a federal civil-rights investigation into Larry Nassar’s abuse of young gymnasts and other athletes under the guise of medical treatment. The three-year agreement announced Monday is the first one struck under a section of the Affordable Care Act that prohibits discrimination in certain health care programs or activities, said Roger Severino, director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. The deal covers not only students under Title IX but also patients who are not students. (Eggert, 8/12)
"We think this will go a long way to ensuring something like this will never happen again at MSU," said Roger Severino, director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, which led the investigation. HHS has the authority to impose these requirements because MSU receives federal health funding, Severino says. (Hellmann, 8/12)
In other news —
The number of complaints against California physicians for sexual misconduct has risen 62% since fall of 2017 — a jump that coincides with the beginning of the #MeToo movement, according to a newspaper investigation published Monday. A Los Angeles Times analysis of California medical board data found complaints of sexual misconduct, though small in number, are among the fastest growing type of allegation. During the fiscal year that ended in June, the board got 11,406 complaints against physicians and surgeons, the most it has ever received. (8/12)
