Former MSU Counselor: Mark Dantonio Needs to Take Responsibility for Allegations

Former Michigan State sexual assault counselor Lauren Allswede said Spartans head football coach Mark Dantonio and head basketball coach Tom Izzo are among those who should "accept individual responsibility" for the alleged rape culture at the school.

On Saturday, Paula Lavigne of ESPN.com passed along comments from Allswede after Dantonio called characterizations made about his handling of sexual assault allegations in an Outside the Lines report released Friday "completely false."

"How can Dantonio say that he cares about survivors and then in the next breath say every report made [Friday] is false?" she wrote in an email. "Everyone at MSU—Dantonio, Izzo included but not just them—needs to accept individual responsibility. Not just acknowledge a social problem or rape culture but reflect more personally on their role in the culture. How do they help prevent rape or support survivors? How do they enable rapists or harm survivors?"

Allswede explained to OTL as part of Friday's report a Michigan State general counsel attorney told her Dantonio responded to one allegation of sexual assault by having the player "talk to his mother."

The former counselor added Saturday she never had an opportunity to meet with Dantonio, Izzo or athletic director Mark Hollis, who stepped down Friday amid backlash from the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal and ESPN's reporting on the sexual assault issues at the university.

"Dantonio and Izzo should tell us how they are weak," Allswede told Lavigne. "They should tell us how they are scared, that they've worried no one will ever love them again. That they have difficulty concentrating or carrying on lighthearted conversation. ... And if you think that's unfair, why do you think it is fair for survivors?"

Izzo downplayed speculation about a potential retirement Friday night after the Spartans' 76-61 victory over Wisconsin.

"I'm not going anywhere, in my mind," he told reporters. "I'm definitely not retiring. There's a lot of things that happened today that are part of life. I'm going to worry about my team, I'm going to worry about the survivors, and I'm going to worry about what I'm going to do."

Along with Hollis, Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon also resigned this week after the emotional sentencing of Nassar, a former MSU doctor who sexually abused women and girls, led to widespread criticism of the school.