The New York Times investigation published Wednesday reopened the discussion of the sexual assault allegations filed against Florida State University football’s crown jewel, Jameis Winston.
The writer, Walt Bogdanich, compiled an extensive timeline that answered many questions on what exactly went wrong.
“Records show that Florida State’s athletic department knew about the rape accusation early on, in January 2013, when the assistant athletic director called the police to inquire about the case,” Bogdanich wrote. “Even so, the university did nothing about it, allowing Mr. Winston to play the full season without having to answer any questions.”
The takeaway from the Winston case — and all the media hype surrounding it and The Times investigation — is that Tallahassee Police and FSU simply did nothing. They didn’t follow up with the three strong leads the victim provided. They waited nearly a year to interview a key witness who had admitted to videotaping the alleged assault. And the kicker: Officer Scott Angulo, the police investigator who handled the case, previously did private security work for the Seminole Boosters, a nonprofit organization with nearly $150 million in assets and the primary financier of Florida State athletics.
FSU released a statement following the article’s publication asserting that The Times piece was misleading. Certainly, no one is accusing the university of not taking sexual assault seriously or not providing resources for victims. However, in this case, both TPD and the university failed to take action when presented with evidence of a sexual assault, and it appears an attempt to protect a star football player is the culprit.
Campus rape is already a problem; President Barack Obama created a task force to combat it, after all. Rabid football culture is also a problem — see Steubenville, Penn State and the fact that one in three college sexual assaults are committed by athletes, according to a study by the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes. The two issues are fundamentally intertwined.
TPD and FSU’s mishandling is much more than an abstract, academic argument that rape culture exists. It’s the result of the protection of special interests — the university’s image, university athletics and one prominent football player — at the expense of women against whom heinous crimes have been committed.
As students, we hope the university to which we devote our loyalty and — let’s be honest — thousands of dollars annually would stand with us during these times of personal tragedy. FSU has demonstrated that, despite its vague claims that it “does not tolerate” sexual assault, they prioritize athletes over non-athletes. We hope, in light of this prominent Times investigation, FSU will be held more accountable when it comes to investigating sexual assault and rape claims, and TPD will have a major overhaul.
Beyond FSU, we hope more schools — including UF — will give immediate and thorough attention to sexual assault and rape reports as they happen. Only then can the cycle of victim blaming and preferential treatment of athletes be broken.
[A version of this editorial ran on page 6 on 4/17/2014 under the headline "FSU seriously mishandled Winston case"]
