Seeking Justice
New bills would improve legal pathways
for U-M assault survivors.
DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER
T
wo bills were intro-
duced on the steps
of the state capitol
Sept. 22 that would make it
easier for former University
of Michigan students who
have accused
the school’
s
former phy-
sician Robert
Anderson of
sexual assault to
sue the univer-
sity.
The bills are
sponsored by Rep. Ryan
Berman, R-Commerce
Township, who is Jewish,
and Rep. Karen Whitsett,
D-Detroit. The bills were
announced alongside three
former U-M athletes who
allege abuse by Anderson:
former U-M football players
Jon Vaughn and Dr. John
Lott, and Tad DeLuca, a for-
mer U-M wrestler.
Berman, an alum of
Michigan State University,
kept up to date on the Larry
Nassar sexual assault case
at his university. He wasn’
t
in office at the time, but he
believes the survivors there
didn’
t receive the support
and assurances they deserved
quickly enough, and that the
U-M Robert Anderson sex-
ual assault cases are a chance
to help hold institutions
accountable.
“Whether Michigan State
intended to or not, we heard
about them stumbling into
doing the right thing, in put-
ting things in place to help
these survivors, in trying to
make them whole, in institut-
ing changes,” Berman said.
The lack of support and
assurances in a timely man-
ner for the MSU survivors
can be traced back to an
important exemption in uni-
versities typically having gov-
ernmental immunity from
lawsuits: improper medical
care. MSU attempted to dis-
miss Nassar-related lawsuits
by saying Nassar was sexually
assaulting individuals, not
providing medical care.
To Berman’
s understand-
ing, U-M is willing to com-
pensate the survivors and
give out-of-court settlements,
but to do so, they’
re trying
to get the lawsuits thrown
out through the immunity
loophole.
Seeing what happened at
MSU, Berman created a gov-
ernmental immunity bill with
that loophole in mind, hop-
ing to aid survivors in getting
their day in court by halting
the immunity.
“My bill says that if the
assault came under the
guise of medical care, and
the university knew or
should’
ve known that the
WIKIPEDIA
26 | OCTOBER 1 • 2020
Rep. Ryan
Berman
U-M Union
Jews in the D
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