Iowa Assaults

Last fall, a student claimed she was raped by two Iowa football players. This week, the Iowa Board of Regents reopened its investigation, not on the crime itself, but on the way the university handled the allegations.

According to the student’s mother, Iowa officials encouraged her daughter (also a student athlete) to deal with the problem internally. She sent two letters expressing her disgust to the college – one in November and one in May. One of the letters was sent to Iowa’s president, Sally Mason.

Yet, none of these letters were disclosed to the Board of Regents. That’s where the problem lies – now, they might fully investigate the university to see if they are mishandling cases. Mason claims that not disclosing the letters was an oversight, not intentional.

Was it? I’m not sure that I think they’re covering something up in this case. Abe Satterfield and Cedric Everson, the two players involved with the alleged rape, have left the team and are officially being investigated on counts of second- and third-degree sexual assault. They’ve both pleaded non-guilty, but clearly, at least in my mind this was not a case of the college trying to cover up her them or something.

I wonder if integrity on the handling of cases would be the same if a high-profile player was the person charged? Like year, we saw Penn State’s Austin Scott case, but that’s the closest to “high profile” that I can think of in recent years. Athletes are often “protected” by their colleges…do regular students get the same treatment? Hmm…food for thought…

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