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FILE -
This
undated
file
photo
provided
by the
Bentley
Historical
Library
at the
University
of
Michigan
shows
Dr.
Robert
E.
Anderson.
The
University
of
Michigan
has
agreed
to a
$490
million
settlement
with
hundreds
of
people
who say
they
were
sexually
assaulted
by the
former
sports
doctor
at the
school.
Attorney
Parker
Stinar
says
Wednesday,
Jan. 19,
2022,
that
1,050
people
will
share in
the
settlement,
which
was
reached
the
night
before.
(Robert
Kalmbach/Bentley
Historical
Library
University
of
Michigan
via AP) |
|
Ex-athlete
vows to
maintain
U. of
Michigan
sex
abuse
protest
By COREY
WILLIAMS
and MIKE
HOUSEHOLDER
apnews.com
ANN
ARBOR -
Jon
Vaughn’s
small
blue-and-white
camper
has been
parked
outside
the home
of the
University
of
Michigan’s
president
since
early
October,
and he
says it
won’t be
moving
anytime
soon.
The
former
star
running
back for
the
university’s
Wolverines
football
team
says a
$490
million
settlement
the
school
recently
announced
is not
enough
by
itself
to
remedy
the
sexual
abuse he
and more
than
1,000
other
students
say they
suffered
at the
hands of
the
university’s
late
sports
doctor
Robert
Anderson.
“We’ve
only
really
scratched
the
surface
and
touched
the tip
of the
iceberg
on how
insidious
this
atrocity
is,”
Vaughn
told The
Associated
Press on
Friday.
“That’s
why I’m
staying.
The
entire
truth
has not
come
out.”
Anderson
has been
accused
of
molesting
students
over
more
than
three
decades.
He
worked
as
director
of the
university’s
Health
Service
and as a
physician
for
football
and
other
athletic
teams
from
1966
until
his
retirement
in 2003.
He died
in 2008.
In 2018,
a former
athlete
made an
allegation
of
sexual
abuse
against
Anderson
and
police
launched
an
investigation.
Then in
early
2020,
five
more
former
patients
lodged
accusations
against
the late
doctor.
It was
then
that a
spokesman
acknowledged
that
some
university
employees
were
aware of
accusations
against
the
doctor
even
prior to
2018.
The
university
established
a
hotline
in 2020
for
other
students
to come
forward.
Vaughn,
who
played
for the
Wolverines
during
the
1988-1990
seasons,
said he
was
given 50
prostate
exams by
Anderson,
the
first
when he
was an
18-year-old
freshman
in 1988.
During
the
recruiting
process,
he said,
football
coaches
knew his
mother
had been
diagnosed
with
breast
cancer
and
passed
the
information
on to
Anderson.
“He made
the
comment,
‘I see
you had
cancer
in your
family
history,’”
and
asked,
”‘You
have any
other
relative
with
cancer?’”
Vaughn
said.
“In that
exam, he
then
raped me
digitally
for the
first
time.”
Vaughn
said
Anderson,
the only
doctor
whom
scholarship
athletes
could
see at
the
university,
usually
started
his
exams
with
noninvasive
procedures
such as
taking
his
blood
pressure
and
checking
his
heart.
“Then he
would
tell you
he
needed
to do a
testicular
cancer
screening
and a
prostate
cancer
screening,”
the
former
football
player
said.
As an
athlete
you go
through
exams
“’cause
you want
to get
the pass
to
play,”
he said,
noting
that
while at
Michigan,
he and
other
players
“were in
a
constant
state of
being
uncomfortable
but
learning
to
compartmentalize
things
to get
the job
done.”
Vaughn
rushed
for more
than
1,400
yards in
two
years
and nine
touchdowns
in his
final
season
with the
Wolverines.
In 1990,
he was
picked
by the
New
England
Patriots
in the
fifth
round of
the
draft.
During a
four-year
NFL
career,
he also
played
for
Kansas
City and
Seattle.
But he
said the
repercussions
of what
Anderson
subjected
him to
lingered
throughout
his pro
career
and even
seeped
into his
life
outside
football,
namely
when it
came to
taking
care of
his
health.
“You
don’t
want to
go to
the
dentist”
and “you
don’t
want to
go to
the
doctor”
because
of trust
issues,
he said.
This
fall, he
discovered
a lump
on his
neck,
and
ultimately
ended up
going to
a
doctor.
It
turned
out to
be
cancerous
nodules
on his
thyroid
gland.
“I’ve
been
living
with
this now
for I
don’t
know how
long,”
he said
Friday
morning
while
heading
to
surgery
to have
his
thyroid
removed.
“I
realized
how long
I
self-treated
things.”
The
allegations
against
Anderson
are not
the only
scandal
ensnaring
the
university.
On Jan.
15, the
university’s
Board of
Regents
removed
Mark
Schlissel
as
school
presiden
t
because
of an
alleged
“inappropriate
relationship
with a
university
employee.”
Former
University
of
Michigan
President
Mary Sue
Coleman
has been
appointed
interim
president.
Despite
his
condition,
Vaughn
said he
doesn’t
plan to
stop
protesting
the way
the
university
handles
sex
abuse
claims
or
demanding
answers
in the
Anderson
case.
“Michigan
built us
for this
fight,”
he said,
referring
to
himself
and
other
former
players
who say
they
were
abused
by
Anderson.
“They
have no
idea who
we are.”
___
Williams
reported
from
West
Bloomfield,
Michigan.
Householder
reported
from
Canton,
Michigan.
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