CONSEQUENCES

Michigan State Fined Record $4.5 Million for Failing to Protect Students From Larry Nassar

The Department of Education announced the fine on Thursday.

The Department of Education fined Michigan State University a record $4.5 million on Thursday over its “complete failure to protect students” from sexual abuse by convicted serial sexual predator and former sports doctor Larry Nassar. Under the agreement, the university will also overhaul its Title IX compliance procedures, Education Secretary Betsy Devos announced. “It became increasingly clear that any process that MSU had simply was not working, and, more accurately, broken,” DeVos said. “I’m very thankful for the detailed and careful approach that each of these investigations took to what had gone on there.” Thursday’s fine marked the largest in the history of the Clery Act, coming in at nearly twice the $2.4 million amount paid by Penn State following the 2011 child sexual abuse scandal involving assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.