SEXUAL ABUSE - University of Southern California Campus Doctor

"Survivor details how USC ’empowered’ campus doctor at center of sexual abuse scandal" PBS NewsHour 3/30/2021

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SUMMARY:  Last week, the University of Southern California [USC] announced it would pay over $850 million to hundreds of women who were allegedly preyed on by campus gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall over nearly three decades.  It's the largest sexual abuse settlement ever in higher education.  Audry Nafziger is one of the survivors, and is now a sex crimes prosecutor.  She shares her experience with Judy Woodruff.

WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS - Systemic Sexual Abuse

"Abuse in U.S. women’s gymnastics program ‘truly one of the tragedies of American sports’" PBS NewsHour 2/25/2021

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SUMMARY:  The sexual abuse scandal that has engulfed U.S. women's gymnastics took a new shocking turn on Thursday.  Former U.S. Olympic Gymnastics coach John Geddert died by suicide just hours after being charged with human trafficking and sexual assault.  Christine Brennan, a sports reporter for USA Today who has covered Olympic sports for years, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.

AMERICAN MILITARY - Mishandling of Misconduct

First I am retired Navy (22yrs Vietnam Vet) and I am both appalled but not surprised by this attitude of the Marine Corps.  They have always been a macho male dominated arm of our military and have really never accepted that women should serve, especially the top commanders.  Note their statement, "refers to an allegation of misconduct regarding the wrongful appropriation and distribution of personal information."  They are coming back at her for releasing the video and not even addressing her complaint.  And she is supposed to trust "the opportunity to meet with senior representatives in her command?!" 

 

"Marine Whose Misconduct Was Cited in Viral Video Faces Administrative Separation, Officials Say" by Gina Harkins, Military.com 2/19/2021

Marine leaders on Friday met with a woman who appeared in a now-viral TikTok video complaining that a general officer was allowing a man who admitted to mistreating her a chance to remain in uniform, officials said in a statement.

Officials with II Marine Expeditionary Force provided few details about the case, saying only that the video "refers to an allegation of misconduct regarding the wrongful appropriation and distribution of personal information."

"The current administrative separation process for the accused perpetrator mentioned in the video is ongoing," Capt. Angelica Sposato, a spokeswoman for II MEF, said Friday.  "The Marine in the video is safe and has been afforded the opportunity to meet with senior representatives in her command."

The video, first posted Thursday on the social media site TikTok and later shared on Twitter, was viewed by the Defense Department's most senior leaders.  Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called the video "deeply disturbing" during a press conference Friday.

"We have to get the facts, we have to understand what just happened," Austin said.  "Let me also say that I care about each and every one of our troops, and certainly I'm going to ask that her chain of command makes sure that someone is looking out after her needs and make sure that we're taking care of her."

The video shows a woman in uniform crying as she reacts to finding out another Marine she claimed admitted to sexual misconduct against her would be allowed to remain in the Corps.

"This is exactly why ...  females in the military f---ing kill themselves," the woman yells through her tears.

Sposato, who said the Marine accused of misconduct is facing administrative separation, did not provide a timeline on when the process is expected to be complete.

"The Marine Corps and the Nation expect the highest standards of conduct from Marines and Sailors," she said.  "Those who do not uphold these standards will be held accountable in accordance with Marine Corps and Department of Defense policy.  We take all allegations of prohibited conduct and activities seriously to ensure our people are fully supported with appropriate resources specific to the nature of an incident."

Austin has made dealing with the military's sexual assault and harassment problems a top priority.  Last month, he ordered top defense leaders to report to him on the programs in place to combat the problem, along with proof to show they're working.

The Marine Corps, Sposato said, is committed to maintaining a culture of dignity, respect, fairness and trust.

SEPARATED FAMILIES - Foster Home Oversight

Does anyone really think the Trump Administration cares about 'brown' immigrant children?  Of course he doesn't.

"How much oversight do foster homes for migrant children have?" PBS NewsHour 8/16/2019

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SUMMARY:  A new investigation by the Associated Press and FRONTLINE finds allegations of physical and sexual abuse for some migrant children who are moved into government-funded foster care after they are separated from their families.  Jeffrey Brown talks to the AP’s Martha Mendoza about details of the allegations, who oversees the foster homes and why additional lawsuits may be forthcoming.

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY - Sexual Abuse

"Report says OSU doctor sexually abused students for decades — and school officials knew" PBS NewsHour 5/17/2019

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SUMMARY:  Disturbing new details are emerging about another college athletics sex abuse scandal, this time at the Ohio State University.  The school says a physician who worked in the student health center and served as a team doctor committed the abuse from the 1970s through the 1990s.  John Yang talks to Mike Thompson news director at WOSU public media, which is independent of the university.

AMERICAN BOY SCOUTS - Sexual Abuse Response

"Lawyer calls Boy Scouts’ response to sexual abuse scandal ‘grossly deficient’" PBS NewsHour 4/24/2019

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SUMMARY:  For decades, the Boy Scouts of America maintained a confidential blacklist of staff and volunteers accused of sexual abuse.  The magnitude of that list, known internally as the perversion files, is only now being realized.  John Yang talks to Jeff Anderson, an attorney who represents abuse survivors, about the “grossly deficient” response from the Boy Scouts and why the files should be made public.

U.S. OLYMPIC COMMITTEE - Failure at the Top

"Olympics executives’ ‘unconscionable’ decision to hide Nassar sex abuse" PBS NewsHour 12/13/2018

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SUMMARY:  More than 300 athletes have revealed that they were sexually abused by USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.  Though Nassar is now in jail, the fallout from his crimes continues, as details emerge proving that top Olympics executives knew of the allegations against him, didn't stop him and in fact enabled his sinister behavior.  Sportswriter Christine Brennan of USA Today joins Amna Nawaz to discuss.

ABUSE - Larry Nassar, Why So Long

"How was Larry Nassar allowed to abuse athletes for so long?" PBS NewsHour 1/24/2018

Ask Trump.  It's just locker-room behavior.

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SUMMARY:  A Michigan courtroom erupted in clapping as former sports doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to as many as 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting scores of women and girls, including three Olympic gold medal gymnasts, under the guise of medical treatment.  Judy Woodruff talks with Robert Andrews of the Institute of Sports Performance about how the abuse continued for so long.

OLYMPICS - The Dark Secret

"Gymnasts’ wrenching testimonies detail doctor’s sexual abuse, cast light on dark Olympic secret" PBS NewsHour 1/18/2018

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SUMMARY:  At a remarkable sentencing hearing in Michigan, more than 100 girls and women have confronted the man who abused them sexually for years about the lasting psychological scars.  Larry Nassar worked for USA Gymnastics for 29 years, including as a team doctor for four Olympic Games, and at Michigan State University.  Judy Woodruff talks with Christine Brennan of USA Today.

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES - Abused and Betrayed

IMO:  This is another crime that my gut response is to have the perpetrators slow-roasted over hot coals.

"Sex abuse against people with disabilities is widespread — and hard to uncover" PBS NewsHour 1/17/2018

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SUMMARY:  People with developmental disabilities become victims of sexual assault at a rate seven times higher than those without disabilities, according to a Justice Department figured uncovered by a year-long NPR investigation.  Judy Woodruff sits down with NPR’s Joseph Shapiro and Nancy Thaler from the Pennsylvania Office of Developmental Programs, to discuss why the problem has received little attention.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 12/8/2017

"Shields and Brooks on Franken’s resignation, Trump’s Jerusalem move" PBS NewsHour 12/8/2017

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SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff the discuss the week’s news, including the last days of the Alabama Senate race, the resignation of Sen. Al Franken over sexual misconduct allegations, and the politics behind President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  And now that leads us to the analysis of Shields and Brooks.  That’s syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Welcome, gentlemen.

So, we just heard from Robert Costa, David, about the Alabama race.  It is on everybody’s lips, as he said, not only in Alabama, but in much of Washington.

But how — what do we make of it right now?  There is so much attention on these women’s accusations, but, as Robert said, it’s gotten much bigger than that down there.

David Brooks, New York Times:  Yes, but what I hear is a lot of Republicans looking at the Roy Moore case and it seems to have just flipped a switch, a lot of Republicans disgusted by Trump, not liking Trump, conservatives, and then, suddenly, Roy Moore, you enter a whole new realm of depravity, to be honest.

How are people not nauseated with a guy hitting on 14-year-old girls, and then, suddenly, that guy becomes a U.S.Senator, and people are not minding this?

And so how many Republicans have I talked to who have said, I guess I’m not a Republican anymore?  And these are lifelong Republicans.  Evangelicals saying, hey, I’m a Christian, but I’m not an evangelical.  If that is what being an evangelical is, that I don’t have to care about character, that’s not what I believe.

And so, to me, the big test of this is that, sure, if he wins, the Republicans will have one more vote for a couple of years, but they will have a generation who find the Republican Party something they can’t relate to.  And they will find the pro-life movement as something that’s a movement of epic hypocrisy.

So they may get a short-term gain if he wins, but I think there will be a long-term generational setback for the Republican Party, for evangelical Christianity, for the pro-life movement, for all of the things that Donald Trump and Roy Moore purport to be for.

Judy Woodruff:  Serious consequences if he wins?

Mark Shields, syndicated columnist:  Serious consequences, Judy, either way.

If you’re an Alabaman who loves your state, who cares about your state, wants your children to grow up there and come back, and your grandchildren not to move away, you’re thinking about the fact that you have already had your overtly religious governor, Republican, resign with an adulterous relationship with a woman staff member.

You have had the speaker of the House indicted, convicted on 12 counts of corruption and felony convictions.  And you know that your state’s been a punching bag.  It’s been a one-line joke.  If it weren’t for Mississippi, Alabama would be 50th in everything.

And so you want pride in your state.  You want a sense of self-respect.  And Roy Moore is not going to help in any way.  It’s going to reinforce that negative stereotype.

I think Robert Costa is second to none as a reporter, but I think one of the problems with the polling, which has, quite frankly, shown the race very, very close is this- If you’re a churchgoing Alabaman who is a Republican, you face economic and maybe social pressure if you admit you’re voting for Doug Jones, the Democrat.

But, at the same time, if you’re a churchgoing, serious Alabaman and you’re going to vote for Roy Moore, you face moral criticism.  So, I don’t — the candor level in polling is pretty difficult.

Right now, from everything I have been able to find out, I would say that Roy Moore will lose on Tuesday.

Judy Woodruff:  Really?

Mark Shields:  I really do.

Now, it’s 96 hours to go.  The President is going down tonight, but I think that Roy — Doug Jones will spring an upset.  And I think it will be a political earthquake.

Judy Woodruff:  But, meantime, in Washington, and, David, which you were just talking about, you have got the Republicans torn asunder, if you will, by what’s happened to Roy Moore.

But Democrats came together this week, and basically drummed Al Franken out of the Senate, a bunch of — led by Republican — I mean, by Democratic women senators.

David Brooks:  Yes.

Judy Woodruff:  So, do we now have some sort of moral separation between the two parties?  How do you read this?

David Brooks:  Well, it’s indisputable that the Democrats have kicked Al Franken, pushed him out of the Senate for things which are much less egregious than anything Roy Moore is accused of, or anything Donald Trump is accused of.

So, there’s that fact.  I would associate myself a little bit with a column Ruth Marcus, our friend Ruth Marcus, wrote today, which said, it feels — for the Al Franken case, it should be judged on the basis of Al Franken and what Al Franken did or didn’t do.

And it feels like we don’t totally know.  And it feels like he was pushed out of the Senate not just because of what Al Franken did, but because for the political opportunism of the Democratic Party to say, hey, we’re not the Republicans.

And so it felt like a lot of the pressure against Franken was not about Franken.  It was just for political expedience, so we could have the contrast with Roy Moore.  And whatever Al Franken did and didn’t do — and I bear, I carry no water for him — it seemed a little unfair that his case had to be so much influenced by political expediency and Roy Moore.

Judy Woodruff:  Unfair, Mark?

Mark Shields:  Well, we’re in uncharted waters here.

Yes, I think capital punishment is not the answer for everything from winking at an office Christmas party or to what Harvey Weinstein did.

And, by the way, Judy, I just have to digress for a second and say, if you want to see newspapering at its best, this past Thursday’s New York Times, with Megan Twohey, and Jodi Kantor, and Susan Dominus, and Jim Rutenberg, and four pages, and this is what — this is really the crime involved.

This is a consortium of applying economic, social, personal, emotional and physical pressure, and threats to anybody, a witness, a woman who wanted to confess, or anything of the sort.  And so…

Judy Woodruff:  This was around supporting Harvey Weinstein.

David Brooks:  Yes, Harvey…

Mark Shields:  It was about Harvey Weinstein.  That’s right, exactly.

And everybody — it was like Donald Trump.  Everybody who got near him is stained, sullied and diminished by it.  But this was a terror — really, a terror organization.

This is not Al Franken.  This is what Al Franken did.  But there’s no question that the serial nature of it, the picture, the photographic evidence, was damning.

Judy Woodruff:  Putting his hands on a woman’s chest, yes.

Mark Shields:  The hands, and the fact, Judy, quite honestly, that women led the march.

I mean, it wasn’t just Kirsten Gillibrand, but the other women in the Senate.  That was it.

When John Conyers fell, one of the founders of the Congressional Black Caucus, there was a question of double standard.  There is no question that Democrats are trying to make this — draw a line between themselves.

If, in fact, Roy Moore wins or loses on Tuesday, if he wins, then he becomes the face, along with Donald Trump, of the Republican Party going into 2018, which is not good for the Republicans.

If he loses, then there’s only one person who hasn’t paid some price for this charge, and that’s Donald Trump.  So, either way, Republicans are facing a very bleak Wednesday.

David Brooks:  Yes.

And, you know, the Republicans, all the honorable Republicans, thought, oh, this guy Trump will win.  We will give him a little.  We will sort of tolerate him, but I can still go ahead and have my honorable career.

But the point I tried to make in the column today is, he — Trump always asks something more.  First, he asks you to tolerate his tweets, then his sexual harassment.  Now you have to tolerate Roy Moore.

The next question is going to be, oh, I’m going to fire Bob Mueller.  You got to tolerate that.

And at every step along the way, the Republicans just say we’re not standing up to you, you own a little more of our soul.

And, finally, he owns all of the soul.  And that’s the case whether you’re working around Harvey Weinstein or you’re working around Donald Trump.  You make a deal with the devil, he takes over everything.  And that’s what’s happening in the Republican Party.  They don’t know where to draw the line.

ALABAMA GOP - The Albatross Roy More

IMHO:  I find it typical that people tend to disbelieve women who make such allegations against men.  It's the chauvinistic prejudice of a male society.  The women's allegations are credible and Roy More's denial typical.

As for the timing, it's the #MeToo movement that has freed women to face their attackers, which is never easy, the strength given by the numbers.

"GOP candidate Roy Moore faces new allegations, new pressure to quit Senate race" PBS NewsHour 11/13/2017

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SUMMARY:  The Senate's top Republican Mitch McConnell told reporters that he believes the women who have accused Roy Moore of inappropriate actions and that Alabama's GOP candidate must step aside.  While the former state Chief Justice insists he is innocent, McConnell’s condemnation comes as another woman has spoken up.  Lisa Desjardins reports that voters appear to have mixed opinions.

Full announcement (34:21)


"What Alabama voters think of the Roy Moore assault allegations" PBS NewsHour 11/13/2017

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SUMMARY:  Another woman came forward on Monday to accuse Senate candidate Roy Moore of assaulting her when she was 16, sparking additional political backlash from his own party.  But allegations of sexual misconduct against teenage girls haven’t seemed to shake Moore supporters in his home state.  Judy Woodruff gets an update from Don Dailey of Alabama Public Television.

"The predicament of the Alabama Senate race for Republicans" PBS NewsHour 11/15/2017

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SUMMARY:  GOP lawmakers have called for Roy Moore to step aside from the Alabama Senate race amid allegations of sexual misconduct toward teens.  How does that tension fit into a larger party rift?  John Yang talks to Matt Schlapp of the American Conservative Union and Karine Jean-Pierre of MoveOn.org, about what’s at stake with the special election and how the GOP tax reform plans are shaping up.

ABUSE OF TRUST - Private Schools

"Private schools kept decades of sexual abuse secret" PBS NewsHour 5/9/2016

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SUMMARY:  Startling allegations of sexual abuse in private schools have surfaced over the past few years.  At least eight schools in New England have launched or disclosed sexual abuse investigations this year alone; according to a new Boston Globe report, some 67 schools in the region have faced similar accusations since 1991.  Hari Sreenivasan talks to Todd Wallack of the Boston Globe.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  The past couple of years have brought new revelations about sexual abuse at private schools.  At least eight private schools in New England have launched or disclosed investigations this year.

Now a Boston Globe investigation has opened a wider window on the scope of the problem.  The report done by the Spotlight unit that exposed the sexual abuse scandal in the church found at least 67 New England schools have faced accusations since 1991.  The Globe also found more than 200 former students say they have been assaulted or harassed, and years of alleged cover-ups in some cases.

St. George’s School in Rhode Island is one school under investigation.

Anne Scott is a survivor who was allegedly raped in 1977 at the school by a former athletic trainer when she was 15.  Her family later brought a lawsuit, but The Globe said the school fought back with its own suit and pressured her to sign a gag order.

Here’s part of what she told The Globe.

ANNE SCOTT, Abuse Survivor:  They really turned hostile and were trying to come after that, deposing all our neighbors, deposing all my roommates, all community members.

So, I got shocked.  I wasn’t as strong then, I think, to put it in context, as I am now.  And it became a lot of pressure.  I just said, no amount of money is worth tearing my family apart.

When you are assaulted as a child and a victim of rape, you lose your voice.  You lose your soul.  You are sort of destroyed as a person, your confidence, your self-image.  And the gag order just seals all that in.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  The trainer died in 1996.

Lawyers for victims now say as many as 50 alumni from the school were abused, mostly by staff.

Todd Wallack is a member of the Spotlight team, joins me now.

So, give us an idea of how widespread this is.  This isn’t just a couple of private schools in New England.

TODD WALLACK, The Boston Globe:  No, it’s much wider than a lot of us ever imagined.

We originally started reporting on this after Anne Scott, the survivor you featured, broke her silence, broke the gag order and spoke out about the abuse that she suffered at St. George’s in December.  And that prompted other victims to come forward, many after decades and decades where they had kept this secret.

And we started building a list.  And it kept getting longer and longer.  Some were reported before individually.  Others hadn’t.  We looked through lawsuits.  We talked to lawyers.  Since our story on Sunday, we have been getting flooded with tips about additional schools, showing that we have not even captured the full scope of all the abuse that’s gone on.