John Thrasher, the president of Florida State University, is a former politician who once was chairman of the Rules Committee in the Florida Senate and served a stint as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. He knows how to spin, and how to play hardball. He proved it this week when he issued an astonishingly disingenuous and meanspirited statement after settling a Title IX lawsuit brought by a student who accused Jameis Winston, the former star quarterback of the Seminoles who won the Heisman Trophy in 2013, of raping her in 2012.
The settlement calls for the university to pay the student, Erica Kinsman, $950,000, and to continue, for at least five years, a series of steps aimed at preventing sexual abuse on campus, steps that were initiated after her allegations became public in November 2013 — and after the publication of a detailed article five months later by Walt Bogdanich of The New York Times.