To the Editor:
Re “Gymnasts’ Abuse Draws Sentence Likely to Be Life” (front page, Jan. 25), about the sentencing of Lawrence G. Nassar, the former doctor for the American gymnastics team:
Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, thank you, and if only there were more judges like you. But the story has not ended. At least the outcome has provided some relief for those young women and their dreams and aspirations, many of which have already been attained, but at a cost that no one should endure.
Yes, their suffering has been vindicated, and next in line must be Michigan State, whose president resigned on Wednesday, and the formerly iconic and now infamous Karolyi Ranch, the U.S.A. Gymnastics National Team Training Center. The disgrace falls on both institutions. Yet these beautiful young women will be scarred for the rest of their lives.
They have taken the first courageous step by telling of abuses that occurred in places we would have never expected. But they helped us understand that sexual assault is pervasive in our society.
Let’s hope that their scars will fade with time. Time is on their side. I pray that they will find full recovery and healing.
KATHY LOLLOCK, SANTA ROSA, CALIF.
To the Editor:
Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, in imposing sentence on Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar, said, “I just signed your death warrant.”
We as a society must demand that all who sexually assault women and children be given lengthy sentences so that they will die in prison instead of being put on a sex offender registry.
There have been cases in which registered sex offenders have gone on to repeat their crimes and have murdered their victims. To allow these predators to live within our communities is a failure of the judicial system.
Sex abuse is a recidivist crime; we must do everything to ensure that we protect our women and children from these evil monsters.
MARY MACELVEEN
SOUND BEACH, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Re “Michigan State President, Denouncing Doctor, Quits” (news article, Jan. 25):
The resignation of Lou Anna K. Simon as president of Michigan State University is important symbolically, especially if it creates more space for the voices of girls and women who have suffered and continue to suffer sexual violence. That is something, but not nearly enough.
While Dr. Simon reportedly knew about the Title IX investigation of an unnamed doctor, it is not remarkable that she let the investigation run its course. What is astonishing is the extent to which the system grossly and wrenchingly failed over decades, as The Detroit News has detailed.
Girls and women bravely spoke up and followed procedures in place to stop abusers like Lawrence G. Nassar, and those procedures failed. They failed at Michigan State, and they have failed across the country.
Let us not be deluded into thinking that Dr. Nassar’s case is an anomaly except, one hopes, in its magnitude.
It is easy to call for a resignation. Now it is time for the complicated work of rebuilding a system that listens to the courageous people trying to prevent others from experiencing the violence they have.
JULIET GUZZETTA
TURIN, ITALY
The writer is an assistant professor of English at Michigan State University.