UPDATE re: Rhonda Faehn
U-M has pulled the plug:
Check out @theblockm’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/theblockm/status/1084634669327532032?s=09
January 13th, 2019 at 9:34 PM ^
Wonder about the dollars spent to make this go away.
January 13th, 2019 at 9:34 PM ^
thank god. what an unnecessary fiasco.
January 13th, 2019 at 9:36 PM ^
Byeeeeeeeeeeeee
January 13th, 2019 at 9:39 PM ^
Way to go Warde, you fucked it up and only made it right when doing so was the only available option. You didn't make it right because you thought it was the right decision. You're tenure is on thin ice - it's a good thing Harbaugh seems to like you...
January 13th, 2019 at 9:44 PM ^
I’ve seen your posts and you should be ashamed of yourself but let’s just say this one truth,”Warde is completely”not” worried about your firing him so he’ll still sleep well tonight!
January 13th, 2019 at 9:41 PM ^
Good. Also good on that Michigan Daily reporter for bringing this to light
January 13th, 2019 at 9:43 PM ^
The only problem I have with this is today's society..
If you get told someone did something and accuse them and its wrong your sued for 30 million and lose your job and business.
If your told someone did something hire an investigator get the truth THEN report it to the police once you have all the facts when the investigation is finished you get criticized and lose your job. and get fired from future jobs for not reporting it fast enough
Don't tell me if she had gone to the police to accuse a 25 year team doctor without any more proof than the overheard conversations of two gymnasts that she would have still had a job had it ended up not being the fact.
What the fuck are people supposed to do? rush to judgement then be wrong and get sued and ran through the mud?....
January 13th, 2019 at 9:50 PM ^
Mandatory reporting laws are pretty clear: if you are a mandatory reporter and hear about abuse (Raisman reported her abuse to Faehn, in explicit detail according to Raisman) you have to report that to the relevant investigating authorities. Then they investigate and determine whether to bring charges, because that's their job.
Speaking from experience, it's not a fun thing to have to do.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:12 PM ^
this is why there was NEVER any excuse to hire her. she, in my opinion, absconded the most important ethical duty of anyone providing child care (legally to include any and all teachers, coaches, etc), which is to report suspected abuse. in my state, failure to do so is actually criminalized. there's a 24 hour limit, and the guideline is to report ASAP. this coach failed on all accounts, from the reporting i've read. very bad judgment, poor response.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:23 PM ^
If she broke the law, and the facts support that, why didn’t she face any legal consequence? Something is missing here.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:29 PM ^
laws on child reporting are different in every state, and i don't live in florida. she may not have broken the law, but rather just ethically failed. i don't know what the laws are in florida.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:06 PM ^
If this is your take, then I hope to god that you are not in charge of anyone and are never presented with a situation in which someone has been harmed by one of your employees because holy fuck - you would handle it poorly if what you’ve said here is indicative of how you’d respond in such a situation
January 13th, 2019 at 10:35 PM ^
Im pretty sure that this “society” you’re referencing is just a fantasy world that exists only in your mind
January 14th, 2019 at 11:56 AM ^
Reporters are immune from criminal and civil liability in most states. I believe Texas is the relevant state for USGA. Here is a summary of their mandatory reporting laws: https://www.smu.edu/ola/BriefingPapers/DutytoReportSuspectedChildAbuseintheStateofTexas
She wouldn't be subject to a $30 million dollar lawsuit, or any kind of civil suit. But don't let facts stand in the way of an unhinged rant.
January 13th, 2019 at 9:45 PM ^
edit: bad comment. my mistake.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:14 PM ^
*deleted
January 13th, 2019 at 10:23 PM ^
It was, i deleted it.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:31 PM ^
Thanks. Edited mine as well.
January 13th, 2019 at 9:46 PM ^
Did gymnastics coach Bev Plocki have a say in the initial hiring decision or not?
If she did, and signed off on it, then seems to me Warde shouldn't be the only person who is feeling the heat.
The initial statement by U-M stated that Faehn's role in the Nassar situation was thoroughly vetted and she was cleared of any responsibility or culpability. Was that an accurate assessment or not?
If it was, and they really believed she merited hiring, then it should have been cleared with the Regents first, given the context, and then they should have stuck by her. If they weren't prepared to stand by her, then hiring her in the first place was dumb as hell.
January 13th, 2019 at 9:52 PM ^
The regents are too #metoo for that.
She was cleared of all wrongdoing. She immediatly launched an investigation into Nassar and upon gettign enough evidence took it to the FBI..
People are just mad she didn't open herself up to civil litigation by reporting an overheard story with no corroboration and took 5 weeks to investigate and then after actually going to the FBI not going around telling every other employer of Nassar's that she had reported him to the FBI while the FBI was still investigating.....
Basically people just finding people to blame for Not catching Nassar fast enough Blame MSU for the last 25 years not someone who reported it.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:02 PM ^
She (and her boss) completely mishandled it. You don’t do an internal investigation when it comes to something like sexual assault. You let the authorities take care of it. She waited a whole week to do so. That’s unacceptable. She also never informed MSU about it. They wouldn’t have done anything but it she didn’t know that.
January 13th, 2019 at 9:47 PM ^
Very good. I cannot understand it in the first place.
Qualifications aside, anyone connected to the Nassar scandal needs to simply not be in the sport ever again. I feel like this is not a huge ask, for the sake of everyone who was hurt by this monster.
January 13th, 2019 at 9:54 PM ^
We all agree. But at some point some posters have to realize that they have at some point made one mistake. Whether that happens to be a huge mistake or a small incidental mistake. However, there are some people in here that chimp at the bit whenever anyone makes a mistake. I won’t say any names. It’s idiotic to compare Brandon and Warde at this point in Warde’s tenure. But oh well. GO BLUE!
January 13th, 2019 at 10:33 PM ^
That’s an idiotic POV. It is entirely unfair to cast a blanket over all of them. Guilt by association is lazy and pathetic. Not only that, you are almost definitely closing the door on some quality talent. Do the vetting and make the best judgement call you can on an individual basis. Put in the work yourself to figure out if this person is a responsible individual then make the call. Don’t just say “I see you were at this place when that thing happened. We don’t want you.”
January 14th, 2019 at 11:59 AM ^
Yeah, it's unfair that people can no longer get six figure jobs because they were involved in an atrocity. My heart breaks for their suffering. I could hear the angels cry as she slowly closed the door on her BMW to drive back from Ann Arbor.
January 13th, 2019 at 9:48 PM ^
Still a bad look for the athletic department. In this era of #metoo, how did the powers that be here not stop and think that they would’ve gotten this kind of reaction?
January 13th, 2019 at 9:59 PM ^
It is truly an honor to read the postings of so many perfect people.
January 13th, 2019 at 9:59 PM ^
Warde is a dumb fuck.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:04 PM ^
In what world did they think this would fly? Does the athletic department have their collective heads in the sand? They could have talked to almost anyone on the street about this and been told what a bad idea this was.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:06 PM ^
The University shouldn’t get credit for putting out a fire they started.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:09 PM ^
Made USA Today before the firing, nice work Warde and the AD...absolutely moronic
January 13th, 2019 at 10:20 PM ^
Warde Manuel: "I have come to the conclusion that it is not in the best interest of the University of Michigan and our athletic program to continue the consulting contract with Rhonda Faehn," Manuel said. "It was the wrong decision, and I apologize. Our student-athletes are our highest priority and I want to do everything in my power to support them fully and put the focus back on their athletic performance."
January 13th, 2019 at 10:23 PM ^
the blog has tweeted:
Here's Rhonda Faehn's testimony to Congress. I've read it. It lays out documentation that proves that she immediately fulfilled her duty as a mandatory reporter. https://t.co/3BbGdYNVir
— mgoblog (@mgoblog) January 14, 2019
However, what's unclear is whether or not she was legally a mandatory reporter who should have contacted the authorities (police / child protection) directly, being the president who heard this from a coach. the coach absolutely should have called DHS directly and should have been instructed to do so, which makes this somewhat spurious in my opinion. faehn is still playing in to the structure that protects people who hurt children no matter what by throwing it up the ladder. that's why these authorities exist.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:26 PM ^
She may have followed the USAG protocol for reporting but someone in a powerful position like her has to know whether it’s good protocol or not. And to follow up with her boss on specifics with reporting. And follow up with the people that made the initial complaints. Doing any of these things and she would have known that her boss was failing. She’s not as culpable as he was (obviously as she was not named in the criminal reports) and she doesn’t deserve jail. But she doesn’t deserve to have an authority position over student athletes.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:37 PM ^
agreed. unless a lawyer working in child protection wants to clarify whether she would have gotten in trouble for this action in michigan (child reporting laws are different in every state), this is primarily a question of faehn's significant failure of ethical judgment. she participated in the the system; from what i can glean, a coach that received complaints about a doctor fondling a child's genitals was told by faehn that the report would be thrown up the chain of command, rather than instructed to contact the authorities. that's the problem at the core of this kind of institutional failure.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:23 PM ^
Her hiring is poor optics, but this whole thing strikes me as a mob mentality. Whatever, time to move on...
January 14th, 2019 at 10:32 AM ^
Brian's comment implies this, too--but this isn't about a firing, lynching, punishment, anything but (instead) HIRING this person. No one is punishing her. It's about the terrible decision to make the hire.
And YES the fact that there is enormous pain around the biggest serial rape case in history, the many failures to stop it, is significant and justified. It's the failure to recognize how much pain there is--as seen in the response--that is the crux of the matter.
These assertions that people are getting overheated about it come perilously close to the kind of sh*te we have heard from defenders at PSU and MSU.
No one had to take it upon themselves--in the name of my university--to rehabilitate Rhonda Faehn, least of all in such a ridiculously ham-handed manner.
January 14th, 2019 at 1:16 PM ^
You're right - to an extent. It looks bad to touch anyone associated with the scandal; modern day lepers if you will. Did she do anything wrong? Who cares nowadays? Just point and shoot the Internet Outrage Cannon and wipe out their job/career/livelihood. Burn the witch, sew on the scarlet letter, or what have you. The technology changes but the effect is the same.
Could or should have they done this differently? Not going to argue with you because Nassar is scum and his enablers are vile. I do not put Ms. Faehn in that group and, if she is worthy of rehabilitation, then I'm not unhappy that my university tried. I'd rather the university do what's right than worry about a pristine reputation. The latter prevails and prevailed. We keep the moral high ground and can righteously tut-tut our rivals. Warde spent some capital on this and got burned. Whether right or wrong, the lesson was loud and clear.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:27 PM ^
Brian is on twitter defending Rhonda. Apparently there is documentation showing she did exactly what she was supposed to do: immediately reported what she was told.
Basically she got railroaded (Brian’s word) for doing her job. If that is, in fact, true, then I don’t know why Michigan didn’t stand behind her. It’s ridiculous. Have some balls in the decision you made and say “we Thoroughly vetted this person and here is the direct evidence. We know this terrible thing happened but she did the right thing and we stand behind her.” Or don’t hire her in the first place. For some reason, the AD seemed Unprepared to respond properly.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:30 PM ^
I think Brian’s take on this is way too simple. She followed protocol but the protocol was awful. And as a VP - someone with immense power and influence in the organization - she has got to know better.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:41 PM ^
Perhaps. But my argument here is that the AD screwed up. Im saying Warde should have been able to defend his position thoroughly and clearly. If he wasn’t prepared to do that then he shouldn’t have hired her. He could’ve chosen to hire or or not, but either way should have been prepared to defend it. Even more so hiring her. He seemed unable to do that, which is a poor job on his part.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:43 PM ^
Absolutely. He needed to be able to answer questions as to why he approved the hire. I don’t think she should be hired to jobs where she has authority over young people but if Warde thought otherwise - get ahead of the story instead of trying to sweep it under the rug.
January 13th, 2019 at 11:14 PM ^
In Wardes defense, I think he DID feel like he could defend his position. But there are some people who would never accept it no matter what. One can disagree with him, but I think much of the outrage is off base.
January 14th, 2019 at 9:35 AM ^
I never thought I would say this but Brian is right about this. Faehn is being railroaded in this case. I guess mob rules wins again.
January 13th, 2019 at 10:44 PM ^
Carolina it’s pretty obvious what happened here. First and foremost, when something the magnitude of the Nassar debacle comes up it should automatically institute a red flag. In today’s society if you’re with someone that knew and did report something disgraceful, albiet a week or two weeks later, you’re just as guilty as the person who did it, in some peoples eyes. Therefore, this was not a good hire. You can be prosecuted now off of a post on FB now. There is zero common sense in a hire like this at a University like ours. The University of Michigan is a top school and our brand means something globally and we must continue to think that way. Some people have never worked in a career field that has specific training for reporting such acts. So, most learn after the fact what they’ve done wrong. I feel sorry for her career wise because she will never be able to seek gainful employment at the highest level again. But, who knows if she deserves it. Finally, alumni, students, and family have spoken and it’s the right call at this point. The University of Michigan will continue to be successful and I’m thankful that this to, shall pass.
January 13th, 2019 at 11:42 PM ^
There are other hills to die on...this one isn’t it
January 14th, 2019 at 6:01 AM ^
I think it's quite possible she did do her job appropriately, is a good person, etc., but the point is that Michigan royally screwed up trying to hire her. By trying to sneak her in and hoping to not have anyone notice, Warde was just begging for a fall out like this. If they had been extremely transparent on this one, there's a shot this could've worked. As it is, they totally botched it, got rightfully called out, and had no choice but to back track it while looking very stupid
January 13th, 2019 at 10:35 PM ^
Yet there are people who treat Lewan as a Michigan Man
January 13th, 2019 at 10:41 PM ^
I’m actually surprised at how little love he gets (and rightfully so) from the Michigan fanbase on the blogosphere. For a 3x all pro first round pick, few seem to care about his success as a pro.
January 14th, 2019 at 11:47 AM ^
Lewan has never been an all pro once in his career