Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) wants colleges to continue to make improvements in the way they handle sexual assault accusations against athletes.
McCaskill made the comments Wednesday at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Convention and said the days of protecting athletes needs to be over.
"More and more people are beginning to understand that this has been a dirty little secret in higher education for a long, long time," said McCaskill. "The secret is especially troublesome in the college sports world when the athletic departments are often first to know about allegations made against their athletes.
"They rely on the failure of the criminal justice system, which allows them the luxury of looking the other way. An athletic director should not see themselves as a shield to the student-athlete. Indeed, the mandate you have when you join your university is an obligation to protect other students and the campus at large."
Her comments come on the heels of an ESPN report released Sunday that detailed allegations against athletes at 10 schools. Athletes at Florida State ultimately didn't face charges in approximately 70 percent of criminal accusations while athletes at Florida weren't prosecuted 56 percent of the time from 2009-14.
She did note the steps schools have taken when it comes to sexual assault reporting and education, including. per USA Today, the SEC's transfer ban against those with "serious misconduct" issues. McCaskill is reintroducing a bill that would require increased resources for schools for those reporting sexual assault and a standardized reporting process that would "no longer allow athletic departments or other subgroups to handle complaints of sexual violence for members of that subgroup alone."
Last year, McCaskill released a report surveying over 400 schools. It said "approximately 20% of the nation’s largest public institutions and 15% of the largest private institutions allow their athletic departments to oversee [sexual assault] cases involving student athletes."
McCaskill's alma mater, Missouri, requested an independent investigation in 2014 for its handling of sexual assault allegations by a former Missouri swimmer. Sasha Menu Courey, who committed suicide in 2011, alleged that she was raped by former Missouri football players. No suspects were officially named in the case and Columbia Police closed the case in March.
She also criticized the transfer of former Missouri wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham to Oklahoma in a September column for USA Today. Green-Beckham was dismissed from Missouri in April 2014 after he allegedly pushed a woman down some stairs. Included in part of the report released Sunday, Green-Beckham was also involved in a November 2012 incident with another female student.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
