The full tragedy of Larry Nasser’s sexual assault scandal and its impact on USA Gymnastics is only just now beginning to get felt. Something like 140 girls, many of whom were barely teenagers, were subject to sexual abuse. Many of them will need to seek psychological counseling at some point in their lives.
USA Gymnastics has taken steps to “prevent” another Larry Nassar from ever happening again. We are told they will implement an abuse training program to educate their membership, parents and athletes; they will enforce consequences for when someone in a position of authority fails to report abuse; they will create a formal monitoring plan for athletic housing at the national training center and they reinforce the position of the athlete representative to ensure the welfare of gymnasts.
On the surface, it is all well and good. From an ethical point of view, if Dr. Larry Nassar had not have existed in some dark corner of this planet, circumstances would have created him. That point is extremely troubling to me.
For Larry Nassar to Exist
Whether Larry Nassar, a bank scandal, medical insurance fraud, or a manufacturer who is producing inferior goods, in order for any scandal to exist at least three factors must be in play: opportunity, need and rationalization.
In the case of USA Gymnastics, Larry Nassar was a physician who “enjoyed” preying on young girls. He was a pedophile who could hide behind a stethoscope under the guise of examinations. His opportunity was that he was an adult in a position of power, he “treated” little girls and no one seemed to question his authority. He often “treated them” alone.
I want to back up a bit and reinforce the term “little girls.” We see these kids on national television and in competition and we automatically elevate them to super-human status because they can balance on a beam or swing around on a pommel horse. We equate their athletic abilities with a level of maturity and intellect they still have not developed. They are children and society tended to forget that. In fact, when they complained, their complaints were ignored or hushed away by adults who only saw greatness and dollar signs.
That Larry Nassar had a “need” cannot be denied. It was sick and twisted, but it was a sexual need that went unchallenged. After all, he was a physician. No one could imagine a physician as a person filled with perversion.
Rationalization in this instance is a tricky concept. Even though the children and young teens might have felt uncomfortable, adults in positions of power and authority – including parents and guardians – could not imagine that the gymnasts were telling the truth. They rationalized that the good doctor, after all, knew what he was doing. We are all told that sports like gymnastics may be painful and they exact a price. Part of that pain is enduring an examination or physical therapy that may border on, or be related to sexual abuse. Since the kids were often alone with a grown man who was a physician, who could possibly take the side of the young girls against a doctor?
Abdication
The judge at Nassar’s trial, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, seized the moment and handed down what essentially amounted to a triple life sentence for the doctor. Whether the 175-year sentence will hold is another matter. It has been hailed as a victory for women, and there’s a lot of rhetoric around it, but is it enough? I have my doubts.
Adults in our society have been abdicating a lot of responsibility for a very long time. It is especially troublesome in the world of sports. While Larry Nassar’s abuse was directed toward little girls, we don’t have to think back all that far to recall Jerry Sandusky who was abusing little boys for a very long time without consequence. How many high school football players take PED’s with the tacit permission of their coaches?
For that matter, how many parents appropriately react when their 145-pound high school sophomore packs on 50 pounds of muscle over the course of a summer?
How many coaches – and team trainers, often place more emphasis on getting the athlete back out on the field than truly evaluating him or her? Above that, how many parents, looking for vicarious pleasures in seeing their child compete, ignore the complaints of their kids when they register a complaint?
Dr. Larry Nassar is not the first adult who has engaged in the abuse of athletes. He won’t be the last. The cycle can be stopped but the ethical question is who is ultimately responsible for stopping it?
