(Email Him At WestMIPolitics@Gmail.com)
Attorney General Bill Schuette is demanding a retraction from the Detroit News after the paper claimed in an editorial that the Attorney General is not interested in the truth about what happened at Michigan State University during the Larry Nassar scandal.
The Detroit News says Schuette seems uninterested in getting to the bottom of things, and that he must do the job he currently has before moving on to Governor.
According to the Detroit News:
"The News’ reporting identified 14 MSU staffers who in some fashion were made aware of the girls’ complaints, but either did not act, or acted instead to protect Nassar.
The group includes Simon, who was briefed about a 2014 Title IX complaint against Nassar, but allowed him to keep seeing the patients referred to him by the MSU gymnastics program for another nearly two years. How many young women might have been spared had Simon suspended Nassar pending the outcome of the investigation?
That’s one of the many questions Attorney General Bill Schuette should ask. But he seems curiously uninterested in determining who knew what and when inside the MSU administration and athletic and osteopathic medicine programs.
Schuette’s indifference borders on dereliction of duty, the same charge he leveled against state workers who failed to act to protect citizens in the Flint water crisis. How is the Michigan State case different? And how does it differ from Penn State University, where a university president, vice president and athletic director were criminally convicted for not protecting boys from abuse on their campus by a former assistant football coach?
Schuette, who is running for governor, must step beyond any political calculations and do his job before he can make a legitimate claim to the next one he seeks."
"The News’ reporting identified 14 MSU staffers who in some fashion were made aware of the girls’ complaints, but either did not act, or acted instead to protect Nassar.
The group includes Simon, who was briefed about a 2014 Title IX complaint against Nassar, but allowed him to keep seeing the patients referred to him by the MSU gymnastics program for another nearly two years. How many young women might have been spared had Simon suspended Nassar pending the outcome of the investigation?
That’s one of the many questions Attorney General Bill Schuette should ask. But he seems curiously uninterested in determining who knew what and when inside the MSU administration and athletic and osteopathic medicine programs.
Schuette’s indifference borders on dereliction of duty, the same charge he leveled against state workers who failed to act to protect citizens in the Flint water crisis. How is the Michigan State case different? And how does it differ from Penn State University, where a university president, vice president and athletic director were criminally convicted for not protecting boys from abuse on their campus by a former assistant football coach?
Schuette, who is running for governor, must step beyond any political calculations and do his job before he can make a legitimate claim to the next one he seeks."
After the MSU Board of Trustees met today to ask the AG's office to investigate the University, Schuette addressed the paper, calling for them to retract their claims.
"A full and complete review, report and recommendation of what occurred at Michigan State University is required and I will provide that," Schuette said in a statement. "However, this week and the coming weeks are time for the survivors of Larry Nassar to have their day in court, and I refuse to upstage their time for healing.
My focus up to this point has been the following:
1. Prosecuting Larry Nassar, which resulted in his conviction of 10 felony counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree;
2. Seeking a sentence that will ensure Nassar will remain behind bars for the rest of his life where he can never harm another woman or young girl in her tender years;
3. Ensuring that victim impact statements from all survivors be allowed, sentencing so that the enormity of his crimes would be known;
4. Asking for a full report from Michigan State University, which I was told didn't exist.
2. Seeking a sentence that will ensure Nassar will remain behind bars for the rest of his life where he can never harm another woman or young girl in her tender years;
3. Ensuring that victim impact statements from all survivors be allowed, sentencing so that the enormity of his crimes would be known;
4. Asking for a full report from Michigan State University, which I was told didn't exist.
The Detroit News in an editorial today called me wrong and indifferent, nothing could be further from the truth, and they should issue a retraction."
The Detroit News has it right. Schuette's treated the duties of the AG as an afterthought; his only interest in the office is using it as a launching pad to become governor.
ReplyDelete