Pisaries Creator

Surviving Ohio State is an excellent documentary about a subject many people don’t want to talk about or even acknowledge exists and that is predatory medical staff preying on certain type of students. The doctor, Richard Strauss, happened to be in charge of the thousands of athletes’ welfare coming and going while they attended Ohio State from 1978 to 1998. The students he targeted often came from low to middle-income families. These male students on full ride scholarships were vulnerable because Strauss held all the power in his greedy, sinister, and twisted little hands. This documentary is directed by Eva Orner and produced by George Clooney and based on an article by Jon Wertheim’s “Why Aren’t More People Talking” in Sports Illustrated. The running time is one hour and 48 minutes.

No matter what you believed before regarding the Ohio State cover up, the viewer can’t deny the pain, guilt, rage, and confusion that occurred because of this recurring trauma. PTSD usually worsens the more survivors try to ignore their suffering. Ugly rears its head when there is no honesty during or long after the event happened. I commend the brave athletes who came forward not out of revenge but justice and compensation for not being protected as vulnerable. He was an equal opportunist. He victimized anyone he could whether they be wrestlers, tennis players, swimmers, and non-athletes. No one was off limits even referees. It takes great courage to take a person’s shame and turn it into strength.

This is where civil litigation enters where former students file a case against OSU to make them accountable for their inaction. While Strauss died in 2005 due to suicide, he retired with honors but hopefully now OSU will have to face the facts. There are students leading the way including Stephen Snyder-Hill, Mike Schyck, Will Knight, Mark Coleman, Dan Ritchie, and the one coach on their side, Charlotte Cutler. Despite the he said/he said throughout the documentary, the fact OSU is fighting so hard to dismiss the lawsuits say a lot about their complicity and attempting to escape their past accountability. Strauss literally killed collegiate athletic dreams and impacted their futures long after they left OSU and that is the biggest crime second to the sexual assaults carried out by Strauss.

I rate Surviving Ohio State FOUR FINGERS AND ONE THUMB at 100%.