dagblog - Comments for "Closing Ranks"

Curl-Burke founder Rick Curl

Donal — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:18:48 +0000

Curl-Burke founder Rick Curl faces hearing on former swimmer’s account of underage sexual relationship in 1980s

Currin said the abuse started when she was 13 with a kiss on the lips in front of a water fountain in the hallways of Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, where the swim club leased the pool. That night, she said, Curl called her at her home. She recalled stretching the cord of the phone into the dining room for privacy. Curl told her, she said, he was “on cloud nine.”

“That,” she said, “was the beginning.”

Currin said she would sneak with Curl into an office at Georgetown Prep after practices, where kissing turned into oral sex and sexual intercourse in a bathroom inside the office. She said Curl told her she was “special” and, on a number of occasions: “Don’t worry, if we get caught, I’ll take half of the blame.”

“By the time I was 14, in my little 14-year-old brain, it was very much a love affair,” she said. “I loved him. ... Any problem I had, he would fix it.”

She said sexual intercourse occurred on nearly every road trip, including in the stairwell of a hotel shortly after Curl got married; at his house when he would put in pornographic movies; and even at her parents’ house while they were home. Because she lived in Ashton, 30 minutes away from Georgetown Prep, Curl occasionally would offer to drive her to early morning practices, she said, and her unsuspecting parents offered him a bedroom to save him the drive.

The Worst Kept Secret in Washington

This is all plenty scandalous and distasteful, but that’s not the worst of it. Here’s the part to make you gag: EVERYONE ALREADY KNEW. The worst part about this breaking news is that it’s not news at all – not to the swimmers and coaches and parents who grew up swimming in this area. This has been an open secret for ages. That headline above? That’s a line from an email sent from one former swimmer to another, who both swam in Northern Virginia in the late 80′s.

I would like to hear from

EmmaZahn — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 02:59:06 +0000

In reply to Closing Ranks

I would like to hear from those among Sandusky's youth groups that he did not molest who will nevertheless have to live with the suspicion that he might have regardless of how many times they deny it. That includes family, possibly their own children. Forever experiencing a Kafkaesque trial by their peers.

And what about those who were molested but would have preferred a less public method of stopping Sandusky for the same reasons?

When should the zeal to punish the guilty be tempered to avoid punishing the innocent?

Tough moral question. Hope I never have to decide.

I think the statue had to go,

Donal — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 01:59:24 +0000

In reply to I would separate the 6 am

I think the statue had to go, as did the coach, but does timing things so no one is around to object prevent, or simply defer trouble?

I would separate the 6 am

Doctor Cleveland — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 01:40:08 +0000

In reply to Closing Ranks

I would separate the 6 am statue removal from the earlier "closing ranks" that Penn State did.

They enabled Paterno for many, many years, and Paterno enabled a child rapist. Stepping away from Paterno is breaking ranks.

But they had a riot on campus, with a TV van overturned by angry students, when they took the long-overdue step of firing Paterno. In their shoes, I would also remove the statue as discreetly as I could, with the minimum opportunity for anyone to make trouble.