An investigative report from ESPN’s Paula Lavigne and Nicole Loren reveals a shocking and bone-chilling revelation against the Michigan State athletic program. Per the report there is a federal investigation currently going on surrounding Tom Izzo and the Michigan State basketball program as well as Mark Dantonio and the football program in particular.
The allegations include the haunting actions of former Michigan State athletic physician Larry Nassar, who was sentenced to 175 years in prison for his well-known sexual assault case. However it goes much deeper than that. Regarding the football and basketball programs, there are numerous cases of assault and rape charges against former players and former student assistants being covered up and disregarded by school administration with the knowledge of both coaches.
The report claims that at least 16 Michigan State football players have been accused of sexual assault and violence since Dantonio arrived there in 2007. Another notes criminal charges against a student assistant coach with the basketball program who had been charged with punching a female student as well as sexually assaulting another. He was later revealed to be former basketball player Travis Walton.
“He came across and struck me right on the side of my face,” Ashley Thompson, the victim of the first assault, told ESPN’s Outside the Lines. “I kind of reached back toward him, and I didn’t make contact, and that’s when he swung with a second reach and hit me so hard that it knocked me backwards off of my barstool.”
The charges against Walton were dismissed.
Another report involved former basketball players Keith Appling and Adreian Payne in 2010. A female student claimed that she was raped by both. No charges were filed to either, and both players played at Michigan State for several years after before both going to the NBA.
This news is being released shortly after the Nassar sentencing, which resulted in Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon and Athletic Director Mark Hollis both to resign. This also comes mere years after the infamous sexual assault scandals of the Penn State and Baylor athletic programs, with who knows how many more coming along the way.
A haunting series of events in the nature of sexual assault in this country continues to get more horrifying. As society has progressed in the perspective of the naked eye, we continue to see that human nature has only become more corrupt, unscrupulous and downright disgusting. The vile number of victims that we now of know, and the many more that may never be revealed to the public has shown just how horrific of a place the world is actually in.
Human lives continue to be disregarded in correlation to their relevancy in the eyes of the higher up. While our common people are morally good and loving to one another, there is still unbearable amounts of evil and horror in the essence of everyday life. As these reports have risen, investigations continue and hopefully punishment is sentenced, perhaps the most important thing to come of this is that we as normal citizens are no longer unknowing.
While a lot of us may not have the power to do much against the evils in the world, what we can do is come together. To show love, support, compassion and heart for each other is often times all we can do in moments of tragedy such as this. The victims of this evil may never be fully able to recover from what they have suffered through, but as people the least we can do is show the amount of good that is in the world throughout continuous times of gloom and despair.
