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Saginaw Valley President Calls Sexual Assault Claim 'Bullying'

KOCHVILLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- The president of a Michigan university referred to an assault complaint by a freshman football player that teammates touched him with their genitals in the locker room last month after he refused to sing as apparent "bullying."

Saginaw Valley State's Eric Gilbertson made the remark in an email sent to more than a dozen people, including members of the school's Board of Control.

The Associated Press obtained the email and other documents Friday via a Freedom of Information Act request.

"We're dealing with our football team and what appears to be a locker-room bullying incident," Gilbertson wrote on Aug. 15. "Upperclassmen seem to have picked on -- and probably intimidated -- a freshman and a complaint has been made."

Gilbertson wrote that he didn't want news reports of the incident to catch anyone "by surprise."

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