Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Penn State Sanctions

I don't want to actually get into the debate over whether or not the sanctions imposed on Penn State by the NCAA are too much, too little, or even appropriate. Mostly I just want to point something out.

The NCAA never punishes sports programs when student athletes rape women. So why should Penn State be punished for a coach raping boys? Oh, right. Because that's worse somehow?

You might say they're not being punished because of what Sandusky did, but because of how the other coaches and university officials covered it up. You don't think that coaches and university officials cover up rape incidents every year?

In 2010 Lizzy Seeberg accused a Notre Dame football player of rape. University police dragged their feet on the investigation. She was bullied. Ten days later, she committed suicide. Where were the sanctions? Where was the NCAA investigation even? Because she was dead, she couldn't testify and the player was cleared. I guess that makes it all ok then.

Unfortunately this is a larger societal problem with attitudes towards rape, not just an NCAA problem. That's not likely to change any time soon. But if the NCAA made a statement by punishing a school for an athlete raping a student, maybe people would start to think about it.

http://www.mencanstoprape.org/

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