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- Posted July 24, 2012 by
- Mahariffic Follow
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Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
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Civil Rights Abuse Common at Many Universities
Given the implications for looking the other way, universities have been reminded of their primary purpose in our society, which is to provide advanced education. Football is simply a method by which a few can obtain it.
Our entire society being so driven by money, academia has been blurred by idol-worshiping, greed and a lust for winning at any cost. I bet Penn State and The Citadel covered all seven deadly sins by facilitating an environment in which the protection of children was disregarded. Penn State got a big lesson. The Citadel in Charleston, SC, awaits its fate. It is unlikely that losing any football scholarships of post-season rewards would amount to any punishment for the small, state-supported military college. In their case, as should be the next phase of Penn State, members of the administration should pay a hefty price. Losing their retirement benefits along with their cushy jobs would be a start, followed by jail sentences for their conspiracies.
Meanwhile, atrocities of different civil rights abuses persist at other universities, most of which derive millions of federal dollars. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the teaching medical arm of Harvard University, has allegedly engaged in gross negligence in a former employee’s civil rights. (see Aliana Brodmann von Richthofen v. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute). Aliana, as she’s commonly referred, has spent more than $1 million since 2001 fighting against DFCI’s retaliation for her blowing the whistle on her supervisors for ignoring pro-Nazi comments made to her by a co-worker. Consequently, Aliana, a surviving member of a Holocaust-ravaged family, was “constructively terminated,” or made so miserable and irrelevant that she left Dana-Farber. Her case, which was dismissed by the Massachusetts Supreme Court, was rife with judicial flaws and missing documents. (It doesn't help that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer sits on a DFCI board, and Mitt Romney is one of its benefactors.)
So, Aliana currently is authoring a book, and soon will testify before Congress on judicial and public corruption. She updates the public on her fight throughwww.stopthebullying.com.
At a state-funded medical university down South, the Medical University of South Carolina, the administration borrows from the same playbook on how to run off squeaking wheels. MUSC supervisors also have been known to peek into employees’ medical records to support various defamation schemes.
Civil rights abuses by publicly-funded agencies and universities likely will continue as long as they remain exempt from punishment under various anti-discrimination and harassment statutes. In its questionable wisdom, the US Supreme in 2004 decided that state agencies are not subject to discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities, Sex Abuse and Discrimination laws, EEOC, just to name a few. Lawyers are reluctant to pursue claims for plaintiffs when no monetary relief is possible. Even federal agencies charged with pursuing action against such agencies may levy fines amounting to chump change, i.e. $40,000 for ADA discrimination, or $60,000 for harassment (sexual or religious).
It is reasonable to assume that university staff at Penn State, and The Citadel, feared retaliation for reporting what they saw during summer camp or in the showers. And I bet a parent of one of the children molested in at Penn State became frustrated and helpless trying to defend their children. I mean, when one compares a poor boy to a mega-million star football program, where would the power reside in our society? Fortunately, albeit too late for many, Penn State got the whooping it deserved. Notice that the punishment did not come from the police, state or federal agencies, but from the NCAA.
If all universities and state/public agencies were exposed to the wrath of the NCAA, I doubt many would “look the other way” when human rights violations occur. If teaching hospitals could lose their NIH Cancer Institute designations or other huge funding sources, perhaps they would not impose such cruelty on their own employees.
Congress, which hasn’t done anything courageous or meaningful in a very long while, could begin to fill the gaping holes in statutes that allow universities to get away with abusing civil rights and hold them and their officials accountable for ethical and moral lapses that ultimately harm entire communities. Maybe then, the culture of abuse and arrogance may not spill into programs meant to help and heal children.
Our entire society being so driven by money, academia has been blurred by idol-worshiping, greed and a lust for winning at any cost. I bet Penn State and The Citadel covered all seven deadly sins by facilitating an environment in which the protection of children was disregarded. Penn State got a big lesson. The Citadel in Charleston, SC, awaits its fate. It is unlikely that losing any football scholarships of post-season rewards would amount to any punishment for the small, state-supported military college. In their case, as should be the next phase of Penn State, members of the administration should pay a hefty price. Losing their retirement benefits along with their cushy jobs would be a start, followed by jail sentences for their conspiracies.
Meanwhile, atrocities of different civil rights abuses persist at other universities, most of which derive millions of federal dollars. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the teaching medical arm of Harvard University, has allegedly engaged in gross negligence in a former employee’s civil rights. (see Aliana Brodmann von Richthofen v. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute). Aliana, as she’s commonly referred, has spent more than $1 million since 2001 fighting against DFCI’s retaliation for her blowing the whistle on her supervisors for ignoring pro-Nazi comments made to her by a co-worker. Consequently, Aliana, a surviving member of a Holocaust-ravaged family, was “constructively terminated,” or made so miserable and irrelevant that she left Dana-Farber. Her case, which was dismissed by the Massachusetts Supreme Court, was rife with judicial flaws and missing documents. (It doesn't help that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer sits on a DFCI board, and Mitt Romney is one of its benefactors.)
So, Aliana currently is authoring a book, and soon will testify before Congress on judicial and public corruption. She updates the public on her fight throughwww.stopthebullying.com.
At a state-funded medical university down South, the Medical University of South Carolina, the administration borrows from the same playbook on how to run off squeaking wheels. MUSC supervisors also have been known to peek into employees’ medical records to support various defamation schemes.
Civil rights abuses by publicly-funded agencies and universities likely will continue as long as they remain exempt from punishment under various anti-discrimination and harassment statutes. In its questionable wisdom, the US Supreme in 2004 decided that state agencies are not subject to discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities, Sex Abuse and Discrimination laws, EEOC, just to name a few. Lawyers are reluctant to pursue claims for plaintiffs when no monetary relief is possible. Even federal agencies charged with pursuing action against such agencies may levy fines amounting to chump change, i.e. $40,000 for ADA discrimination, or $60,000 for harassment (sexual or religious).
It is reasonable to assume that university staff at Penn State, and The Citadel, feared retaliation for reporting what they saw during summer camp or in the showers. And I bet a parent of one of the children molested in at Penn State became frustrated and helpless trying to defend their children. I mean, when one compares a poor boy to a mega-million star football program, where would the power reside in our society? Fortunately, albeit too late for many, Penn State got the whooping it deserved. Notice that the punishment did not come from the police, state or federal agencies, but from the NCAA.
If all universities and state/public agencies were exposed to the wrath of the NCAA, I doubt many would “look the other way” when human rights violations occur. If teaching hospitals could lose their NIH Cancer Institute designations or other huge funding sources, perhaps they would not impose such cruelty on their own employees.
Congress, which hasn’t done anything courageous or meaningful in a very long while, could begin to fill the gaping holes in statutes that allow universities to get away with abusing civil rights and hold them and their officials accountable for ethical and moral lapses that ultimately harm entire communities. Maybe then, the culture of abuse and arrogance may not spill into programs meant to help and heal children.
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