Doyel: This couldn't happen at Butler, right? Wrong. Sex abuse scandal shatters Butler Way.
INDIANAPOLIS – Something like this can’t happen at Butler, which is why it did.
The school is listed among the defendants in lawsuits filed Wednesday three current or former women’s soccer players who allege sexual abuse, harassment, intimidation and stalking, among other things, at the hands of former trainer Michael Howell. Howell also is listed as a defendant, as is his former boss, Butler senior associate athletic director Ralph Reiff.
I’d tell you the lawsuits read like a horror story, like fiction, but that’s not true. They read like something factual, something we saw not too long around here in Indianapolis: allegations, later proven true, about the sexual abuse horror story at USA Gymnastics, where evil doctor Larry Nassar abused more than 300 gymnasts over the course of two decades for two reasons:
He's evil.
USA Gymnastics didn’t stop him.
More: Butler athletes say trainer's sexual assaults were 'frequent,' over a 'long period of time'
This is no defense of USA Gymnastics officials — this is actually an indictment — but they likely felt that level of abuse couldn’t be happening at their place.
This is how it happens, of course. It couldn’t happen in the showers at Penn State, where coach Joe Paterno was said to be of the utmost integrity, but it happened. Paterno’s longtime defensive coordinator, his longtime friend, Jerry Sandusky, was molesting and even raping boys, including an incident in the football facility shower where former Penn State grad assistant Mike McQueary said he saw and graphically heard Sandusky raping a boy in 2001 but — these are his words — was so stunned, it “was more than my brain could handle.”
This is how it happens at Butler, at Huntington University, at Northwestern.
Athletes can’t possibly be abused there.
And so they are.
Butler Way? No thanks
To Butler’s credit, the athletic department acted swiftly once it learned of complaints against Howell in September 2021. He was immediately removed from contact with athletes, and never returned to work. Say what you want about the school — and I’m not finished — but Butler didn’t pull a USA Gymnastics or a Penn State. After learning of its athletes’ complaints, Butler didn’t let Howell’s reign of terror, however long it lasted, continue for one more day.
Alleged reign of terror, I should say, but this isn’t a new story. I’m not telling you Howell is guilty, because I couldn’t possibly know that. But here’s what I can do: Believe the three Butler athletes listed as plaintiffs, and accept the findings of Butler’s own review of the allegations, which resulted in Howell’s dismissal.
Don’t ask me to give Howell wiggle room. I won’t do it.
Don’t ask me to go easy on Butler, either, simply because this hasn’t happened there. First of all, to be completely blunt, we have no idea what has happened there over the past 30 years. Not behind closed doors, like the hotel room where Howell is said to have given private, X-rated massages of multiple hours to athletes, even though school officials have said such massages “typically lasts 15-30 minutes," and should happen with a third party present.
We can’t possibly know what has happened in private at Butler, or anywhere else. But we do know what has happened for Butler in front of the TV cameras. Almost 30 years of basketball excellence, the little engine that could, the adorable bulldog and the myth of the Butler Way.
According to the complaint, “Jane Doe 1 tried to rationalize Howell’s misconduct during treatments on the basis that, among other things, Butler had employed him for 10 years and the soccer coaches thought highly of him."
Here’s a promise: Depending on how these lawsuits turn out, and you already know what I think, that was the last time you’ll see me reference the Butler W--. It doesn’t feel wholesome or inspirational anymore. Butler feels dirty now, no better than so many other filthy places that allowed the unforgivable to happen on their campus — or in campus-purchased hotel rooms, shiver — because Butler folks felt, surely, bad things don’t happen here.
Huntington, Northwestern, Penn State, Subway...
This is what happened at Huntington, a school known for two things: its adherence to Christianity, and its cross-country program. Both were exposed as empty by a sex scandal involving one coach, his wife, a handful of athlete victims and a school board and president that didn’t exactly act with nobility or urgency when told of the sins committed against the young women.
Doyel: Unspeakable allegations of sex, doping and denial at Huntington
This is what happened at Northwestern, a school known for two things: its student journalism program and its football coach’s integrity. One was exposed as empty by the other, the student newspaper refusing to accept what Northwestern officials had bought, that hazing in 17-year coach Pat Fitzgerald’s football program wasn’t that big a deal. School officials initially suspended Fitzgerald for two weeks and considered the matter closed before The Daily Northwestern got involved and did a real investigation for them.
This is what happened at Penn State and USA Gymnastics and even Subway, where predator Jared Fogle’s ex-wife accused the company of being informed of allegations against Fogle — he approached a young girl for sex — in 2004. Fogle wasn’t arrested until 2015.
Is this what happened at Butler? Feels that way. The lawsuit alleges that Butler co-coaches Robert Alman and Tari St. John knew of the culture within the training room, but that Alman’s close friendship with his longtime trainer made it difficult for the athletes to come forward. You can imagine Alman and St. John — assuming they had been told of the culture in the training room — refusing to believe it. Not because their athletes were lying or anything like that, but because, well, they just couldn’t be right. A misunderstanding, perhaps.
Because Michael Howell isn’t like that. The coaches know him. He’s been at Butler for almost 10 years. And nothing like this could happen here.
Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Butler women's soccer sexual abuse scandal a black eye for university
