All-day symposium in Philadelphia hopes to further discussion on sex abuse in sports

By Christian Red
New York Daily News
April 24, 2018

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/philly-symposium-hopes-sex-abuse-sports-discussion-article-1.3952526

The CEO of CHILD USA says that Michigan State University's athletics department should receive the 'death penalty.'

Penn State University avoided having its Division-I football program shut down in 2012 — what is referred to as the "death penalty" — after the NCAA leveled the school with severe sanctions. The punishment followed the release of the results from an independent investigation into the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal.

But Marci Hamilton, the chief executive officer of CHILD USA, a think tank devoted to preventing child abuse and neglect, says that Michigan State University's athletics department should receive that level of discipline after one of its former employees, disgraced physician Larry Nassar, carried out years-long sexual abuse of gymnasts both at MSU and in USA Gymnastics. Nassar has already received a sentence of 40 to 175 years in prison for sex abuse charges in a Michigan state case, and he was sentenced to 60 years in jail on federal child pornography charges last year.

"I think it should be the appropriate response," Hamilton said. "And I think the U.S. Olympic Committee should be disbanded and reformulated by Congress. There are so many bad actors here."

CHILD USA will sponsor an "Athletes & Abuse" all-day symposium Wednesday in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania's Class of 1949 Auditorium starting at 8:30 am. Among the speakers scheduled to appear is 1996 Olympic gold medal gymnast Dominique Moceanu, who has gone public with her claims of abuse by husband and wife USA Gymnastics coaches, Bela and Marta/Martha Karolyi. Nassar is tied to the Karolyis since he was a USA Gymnastics team physician and worked at the Karolyi Texas ranch, a gymnastics training center.

"The sports world is no different from the religious world in the fact that they are going to protect their powerful people," said Hamilton, who will moderate a panel Wednesday that includes victims' advocate Nancy Hogshead-Makar, the CEO of Champion Women, an organization that provides legal advocacy for girls and women in sports.

"This is how far we are in the sports universe and a child-protective paradigm. There's an unbelievable amount of work that needs to be done," said Hamilton. "For me, the arena that we need to be most concerned about, especially in this era of travel teams and the semi-professionalization of kids' sports, is young athletes alone with adults in many circumstances."

Congress already passed legislation earlier this year that requires athletic organizations to report sex abuse in an expeditious manner, and to establish policies that can better protect athletes. In February, USOC CEO Scott Blackmun stepped down from his post for medical reasons, but he had been dogged for years by criticism that he did not do enough to prevent widespread abuse in different Olympic sports.

"There are so many of the victims of Nassar," said Hamilton. "What really got me thinking about doing this symposium is it's shocking how many institutions and individuals — professionals — who would have seen these children and did not protect them. The whole system was geared against these poor kids. It's just sad."

Hamilton said she's encouraged by Congress trying to address the issue, but that the more serious concerns revolve around the need for statute of limitations reform. Otherwise, sex abuse survivors are "shut out" in Hamilton's opinion.

"The bill that they passed this year is a good start. It creates an obligation to report. It has the umbrella effect on organizations like the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union). That's a step in the right direction, but what these athletes need is statute of limitations reform," said Hamilton. "By the time (abuse survivors) are ready to come forward, they're shut out. They're not capable of naming their perpetrators without fear of being sued for defamation. If you opened up the courthouse doors and let them talk when they're ready, we would have learned about Nassar years ago, probably. This symposium has never happened before and people are paying attention. This will be hopefully allow people who are just starting to think about (the abuse issue and #MeToo movement) to be challenged, and to think outside the box."