The program director at the Chattanooga Rape Crisis Center on East 8th Street, Rebecca Jones has paid painfully close attention to the tragedy and travesty surrounding the horrific sexual assault case involving former Team USA physician Larry Nassar.
“It’s a mix,” she said Monday regarding Nassar, whose accusers, many of them prominent Olympic gymnasts, now number more than 150, some of them first abused by the former Michigan State and Olympics team doctor when they were as young as 6 years old.
“On the one hand, these girls were trying to tell people about this for years and no one would listen. On the other, he’s now going to spend the rest of his life in prison. The culture is changing. It’s changing to our advantage.”
It’s changed enough that the 54-year-old Nassar already has been sentenced to 60 years in prison on child pornography charges and could wind up with a 125-year sentence, which is expected to be delivered before the end of the week.
But just as adults who should have known better looked the other way for far too long in the Jerry Sandusky case before the former Penn State defensive coordinator and moral monster finally went to prison on 48 counts of child molestation, there is growing evidence that officials at both Michigan State and USA Gymnastics failed to investigate numerous charges of sexual abuse regarding Nassar.