Morgan 
McCaul 
entered 

Michigan 
State’s 
medicine 

clinic at the age of 12. At the 
time, McCaul — now an LSA 
freshman at the University of 
Michigan — was an aspiring 
ballerina with tears in both hip 
flexors. 

She went to East Lansing 

in search of world-renowned 
doctor Larry Nassar with hopes 
he could provide her with the 
help she needed to return to 
dance.

Nearly 
five 
years 
later, 

McCaul realized she had been 
sexually assaulted by Nassar 
under the guise of medical 
treatment. McCaul had seen 
Nassar as the physician she 
wanted to be. Instead, she 
was a victim of his abuse and 
manipulation.

“I was your little ‘goof’ and so 

I looked to you as a role model, 
hoping to volunteer at MSU 
Sports Medicine alongside you 
someday,” 
McCaul’s 
impact 

statement 
read. 
“Do 
you 

remember taking me out to 
lunch after I job-shadowed you 
at the Clinic? I still have our 
friendly Facebook messages. In 
my mind, you were my both my 

mentor and my friend.”

McCaul is small in stature, 

just like she was when she met 
Nassar. Yet that hasn’t stopped 
her from finding her voice. She 
is no longer a victim — instead, 
she is a survivor.

On Nov. 22, 2017, Nassar — 

who earned his undergraduate 
degree in kinesiology at the 
University — pleaded guilty to 
seven counts of first-degree 
sexual misconduct in Ingham 
County Circuit Court. A week 
later, he pleaded guilty to 
another three counts of first-
degree sexual misconduct in 
Eaton County for treatments he 
administered at the Twistars 
Gymnastics Club in Dimondale. 
 

McCaul 
was 
involved 
in 

both civil and criminal suits 
against Nassar. She was never 
involved in John Geddert’s 
Twistars Gymnastics Club or 
USA 
Gymnastics, 
something 

she is grateful for, as more 
information about misconduct 
within those organizations is 
uncovered.

“I feel really lucky that I was 

not in their care,” McCaul said. 
“I still feel passionately that 
those institutions need to be 
held accountable.”

As the date of Nassar’s 

sentencing hearing approached, 
McCaul and fellow survivors 
spent more and more time 
appealing 
to 
the 
press 
to 

ensure the sentencing received 
coverage. Since then, McCaul 
has been one of the leading 
voices in the press. 

That means she hasn’t had 

the conventional first semester 
than most freshmen have. She 
has spent her first few months 
of college commuting between 
Ann Arbor and her home in Lake 
Odessa, attending class on the 
weekdays and legal meetings on 
the weekends.

McCaul and other survivors 

attended 
MSU 
Board 
of 

Trustees meetings throughout 
the fall, pressing them to take 
action. No one seemed to be 
listening, neither the trustees 
nor the media. 

Sentencing began Jan. 16, 

originally intended to end Jan. 
19, with 90 survivors slated to 
give impact statements. The 
Monday before the hearing, all 
90 survivors regrouped before 
the trial.

“We were able to sit in a room 

and chat and see each other’s 
faces,” McCaul recalled. “It’s 
really empowering.”

And then Judge Rosemarie 

Aquilina made a decision to 
allow all survivors a chance 
to speak and confront Nassar. 
As 
the 
hearing 
continued, 

the 
number 
of 
individuals 

delivering impact statements 
grew from 90 to 156. That didn’t 

And so that’s what I did. I spent my childhood 

practicing fouette turns and tour jetes, my 
summers 
preparing 
for 
Cecchetti 
ballet 

examinations, and every moment in between 
dreaming up choreography for a performance of 
my own. Dance was my life’s passion, my greatest 
combatant yet my greatest joy. It was my art, and 
it was my sport.

But, it is also the vehicle which drove my 

unassuming body into Larry Nassar’s office.

Larry, when I was just twelve years old, I 

walked into your office at the Michigan State 
University Sports Medicine Clinic, in tremendous 
pain and seeking help to return to the sport that 
I loved most. I was in the 7th grade, I stood at a 
towering 4 foot 10, and in you, I saw not only the 
medical help I so desperately needed after tearing 
both of my hip flexors... 

I saw a physician that I aspired to be. I was your 

little “goof” and so I looked to you as a role model, 
hoping to volunteer at MSU Sports Medicine 
alongside you someday. Do you remember taking 
me out to lunch after I job-shadowed you at 
the Clinic? I still have our friendly Facebook 
messages. In my mind, you were my both my 
mentor and my friend.

And it wasn’t until 2016 that I realized that 

you molested me.

Every shred of admiration I had for you is 

gone. Every excuse I told my twelve-year-old-
self when you were penetrating me is gone. The 
man I thought I knew did not exist. Only a selfish 
predator, whose atrocities know no bounds. You 
violated the very principal of your calling as a 
former physician: 
 

Do. No. Harm.
This past year and a half has been, without a 

doubt, the most difficult and traumatic period of 
my life. Your betrayal has caused me countless 
sleepless nights; when I do find sleep, I’m 

plagued with nightmares and when I wake up, 
I’m living one. This has ruined my first year at 
the University of Michigan and robbed me of the 
college experience every young girl deserves. 

Most tragic of all is that your crime has 

shaken my very image of myself... this sentiment 
has been echoed by hundreds of other women 
who’ve shared their most painful memories with 
this courtroom. It is perhaps your most vile 
transgression.

But alas, Larry, you are merely a symptom of a 

sickness which plagues the very core of Michigan 
State University, threatening every little girl who 
steps foot on that campus; a culture of sexual 
abuse and the perverse, deliberate inaction to 
hold predators accountable. 

In the aftermath of Nassar’s crimes, calls have 

been renewed for MSU President, Lou Anna K. 
Simon, to resign. The fact that she has yet to do so 
is insulting to the hundreds of survivors like me--
-it is, in fact, 42 months, countless slanderous 
public statements by Jason Cody, calls from 
numerous Congressmen and -women, and one 
one-hundred and fifty thousand dollar slap-in-
the-face of a raise too late.

Since reports of Larry Nassar’s misconduct 

to Michigan State faculty began in 1997, two 
years before I was even born, I can’t help but 
wonder: 

How many little girls could have been spared 

from this lifelong battle, if someone at the 
University had done the bare minimum and 
listened ?

Judge Aquilina, I implore you to impose 

a sentence against this man which sends an 
unmistakable message to those who perpetrate 
heinous crimes against young people; whether 
they molest and maim, or look the other way to 
protect their Green-And-White.

Thank you, your honor.

Kyle Stephens
Jessica Thomashow
Victim D
Chelsey Markham
Jade Capua
Alexis Moore
Olivia Cowan
Rebecca Mark
Bethany Bauman
Kate Mahon 
Danielle Moore
Marion Siebert
Annette Hill
Taylor Stevens 
Victim 55
Amanda Cormier
Jennifer Rood Bedford
Nicole Soos
Ashley Erickson
Melissa Imrie
Victim 125
Megan Halicek
Victim 48
Katelyn Skrabis
Brianne Randall
Victim 2
Anna Ludes
Lindsey Schuett
Maggie Nichols
Tiffany Thomas Lopez
Jeanette Antolin
Amanda Thomashow
Victim 105
Gwen Anderson 
Amanda Barterian
Jaime Doski
Jenelle Moul
Madeline Jones
Kayla Spicher
Jennifer Hayes
Nicole Walker
Victim 75
Chelsea Williams 

Stephanie Robinson
Carrie Hogan 
Helena Weick
Victim 28
Victim 10
Taryn Look 
Jamie Dantzscher
McKayla Maroney
Lindsey Lemke
Nicole Reeb
Lyndsy Gamet
Taylor Cole
Jessica Smith
Arianna Guerrero
Melody Posthuma Van der Veen
Christine Harrison
Victim 153
Victim 11
Victim 136
Kristin Thelen 
Katie Rasmussen
Jessica Tarrant
Mary Fisher-Follmer
Jordyn Wieber
Chelsea Zerfas
Samantha Ursch
Kara Johnson
Maddie Johnson
Marie Anderson
Amy Labadie
Ashley Yost
Aly Raisman
Kassie Powell
Megan Ginter
Katherine Gordan
Katelynne Hall
Anya Gillengerten
Kaylee McDowell
Lindsay Woolever
Hannah Morrow
Bayle Pickel
Alexis Alvarado
Trenea Gonzcar

Larissa Boyce
Bailey Lorencen
Valerie Webb
Whitney Mergens
Marta Stern
Clasina Syrovy
Emma Ann Miller
Amanda Smith

Taylor Livingston
Victim 163
Victim 183
Presley Allison
Kamerin Moore
Krista Wakeman
Samantha Daniels
Victim 159
Alliree Gingerich
Megan Farnsworth
Kourtney Weidner
A.N.
Charla Burill
Lauren Michalak
Vanasia Bradley
Breanne Rata
Erin McCann
Catherine Hannum
Victim 170
Jessica Chedler Rodriguez
Victim 138
Morgan Margraves
Victim 127
Victim 142
Victim 162
Victim 186

Victim 185
Victim 73
Victim 165
Whitney Burns
Isabell Hutchins
Meaghan Ashcraft
Natalie Woodland
Jillian Swinehart

Alison Chauvette
Anna Dayton
Olivia Venuto
Victim 126
Mattie Larson
Jessica Howard
Alexandra Romano
Arianna Castillo
Selena Brennan
Victim 190
Makayla Thrush
Emily Morales
Abigail Mealy
Ashley Bremer
Victim 195
Brooke Hylek
Abigayle Bergeron
Emily Meinke
Morgan Valley
Christina Barba
Amanda McGeachie
Victim 177
Victim 178
Sterling Riethman
Kaylee Lorincz
Rachael Denhollander

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday, January 26, 2018

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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 63
©2018 The Michigan Daily

N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Morgan McCaul, University 
freshman, fights for justice

After years of abuse at the hands of Nassar, McCaul stands 
alongside fellow survivors as Nassar sentenced 40-175 years

michigandaily.com

For more stories and coverage, visit

SURVIVORS.

Morgan McCaul

SOPHIE SHERRY

Managing News Editor

MORGAN MCCAUL’S IMPACT STATEMENT

See NASSAR, Page 2

When I was just two years old, I witnessed a production of 

Alice In Wonderland. It was full of dazzling dance numbers 

which captured my tiny heart, and I knew right then and 

there, I wanted to be a ballerina when I grew up. 

