Utah Willing to Talk General Policy on Abusive Ex-Employees — But Not ASU, Scene of the Greg Winslow Crime

Earlier today we featured a dialogue with the University of Utah’s spokesperson on the thorny subject of general policies in disclosing information about former employees.

But Arizona State University won’t even go there. This is undoubtedly because ASU’s liability exposure is more direct in the alleged sexual abuse of its former assistant swim coach, Greg Winslow, who doubled as head coach of the campus aquatics center-based USA Swimming youth program, Sun Devil Aquatics.

ASU director of media relations Sharon Keeler simply referred us to its general statement on the matter — the university’s only official utterance since the day the story broke of the campus police recommendation of felony charges against Winslow. As a courtesy and for the sake of reiterated analysis, we again present the statement in full:

“The Arizona State University Police Department conducted a thorough investigation of Greg Winslow on two alleged counts of sexual abuse of a minor that occurred from mid-2006 to mid-2007. Winslow, former ASU assistant coach for swimming and diving from 2003-2007, is accused of allegedly kissing and fondling a female swimmer while employed as head coach for a swimming club that was not, and is not, affiliated with ASU. The alleged victim was a member of that club, and the alleged incidents occurred at an ASU swimming facility rented by the club. The victim in the case was a teenager at the time and was not, and has never been, a student at the university. The ASU Police Department recently filed a comprehensive report with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which is currently reviewing the case. For more information, please contact the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.”

ASU doesn’t mind repeating itself, and we don’t either. To the extent the university really believes the fact that the victim “was not, and never has been” an ASU student has any relevance to this crime, forget about it; Jerry Sandusky’s victims likewise were not, and never have been, Penn State students.

Arizona State University is in deep trouble for the de facto overlaps of Sun Devil Athletics and Sun Devil Aquatics. That’s their problem.

The rest of us are in deep trouble for the way our kids are subjected to physical and emotional harm by the legal sleight-of-hand of the swimming establishment. That’s our problem.

 
Irv Muchnick
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