Finally, St. Cloud State University Speaks on Former Employee Greg Winslow

It took all week, which included getting blown off by the athletic department and the university president, and appealing for a response from the board of trustees and, ultimately, the Minnesota legislators who chair the committees overseeing public higher education in that state — but St. Cloud State University, the last known former swimming industry employer of Greg Winslow, has finally gotten back to Concussion Inc.

“Mr. Winslow was a graduate assistant in the university’s swimming and diving programs during the 1988-89 and seasons, under the direction of Diane Heydt,” said Loren J. Boone, assistant vice president for marketing and communications, in a prepared statement.

Winslow is the swim coach recently fired by the University of Utah after news that the Arizona State University police have recommended that the county attorney prosecute him for two counts of sexual abuse of a minor. Parallel, and so far under-performing, investigations at Utah deal with the deep record of complaints by athletes and their parents of physical danger and harassment in Winslow’s program.

St. Cloud State’s Boone continued:

“There is no record of complaints against Mr. Winslow during his employment with the university.

St. Cloud State University and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system take very seriously any allegations of sexual harassment or sexual violence; the university adheres to the policies established by the system for its member institutions:

· Nondiscrimination policy: http://www.mnscu.edu/board/policy/1b01.html
· Nondiscrimination reporting procedures: http://www.mnscu.edu/board/policy/index-Feb2013.html
· Sexual violence policy: http://www.mnscu.edu/board/policy/1b03.html
· Sexual violence reporting procedures: http://www.mnscu.edu/board/procedure/1b03p1.html

In any instance in which an allegation of sexual harassment or sexual violence were made the university would assess the circumstances to determine what additional steps may be appropriate.”

Boone’s statement did not address our questions: whether the university had been contacted about Winslow recently by either ASU or Utah, and whether St. Cloud was undertaking to notify swimmers he had coached there of the newly risen public allegations, in case there are buried stories of Winslow abuse while in Minnesota.

We have undertaken this project because if Winslow is found guilty in Arizona, the next step is determining whether those were his only acts of sexual misconduct that endangered children under his supervision. (The burden of information in this field is that it would be a remarkable exception for the Arizona incident to be an isolated case.)

“The university declines to comment further on the specifics,” Boone told us.

By the way, color me skeptical of St. Cloud’s characterization of Winslow as a “graduate assistant,” rather than a full-fledged (though undoubtedly low-paid) staff assistant. It’s possible, I suppose, but graduate assistants usually work for the schools from which they had just — well, graduated. Winslow went to the University of North Dakota.

In any case, the scorecard is complete, and it appears that liability-leery ASU and Utah have confirmed the continuing practice of non-redundant reporting of abuse allegations that is so large a part of this national problem.

As noted previously, Concussion Inc. is trying to find and notify as many as of Winslow’s ex-swimmers as possible, wherever they were. Got a tip? Send it to tips@muchnick.net.

If you were a victim of coach sex abuse in competitive swimming — regardless of statute of limitations — please call 310.477.6565 and ask for FBI Special Agent Randall Devine, who is gathering comprehensive information and facilitating resources.

 
Irv Muchnick