"Like hell in loco parentis,' one might say

Scandals have short shelf-lives, particularly in these times. So it's no surprise to be surprised to read of the criminal conviction, in March, of former Penn State President Graham Spanier for his role in covering up a career-long pattern of child abuse by the university's assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky.

As reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education,

It was the lure of Nittany Lions football, prosecutors asserted, that allowed Mr. Sandusky to groom and ensnare his victims, whom he sexually abused in Penn State facilities. 

To protect that big brand, prosecutors said, Mr. Spanier agreed with a plan not to alert the authorities, in 2001, when Mr. Sandusky was spotted naked with a boy in a Penn State locker-room shower. That decision, the verdict suggests, allowed Mr. Sandusky to abuse more children for a decade before his arrest, in 2011. 

Mr. Sandusky is serving a prison sentence of 30 to 60 years on charges related to the sexual abuse of 10 boys.

Now the scandal has claimed another, equally deserving victim: Penn State trustee Al Lord, who resigned his post this week after savaging Sandusky's victims.

Lord also gave up his campaign for a second term as alumni-elected trustee. The millionaire dolt, who made his fortune preying on university students in more legal avenues, weathered a week and a half since he popped off in emails to a Chronicle reporter:

"Running out of sympathy for 35 yr old, so-called victims with 7 digit net worth," wrote Mr. Lord, a former chief executive of Sallie Mae, the student-loan company. "Do not understand why they were so prominent in trial. As you learned, Graham Spanier never knew Sandusky abused anyone." 

Thursday’s statement by the board’s leadership is the latest development in a controversy that has escalated since March 30, when The Chronicle first published the remarks. Days later, Mr. Lord offered a parsing and defiant apology, suggesting a distinction between "real" and "alleged" victims of Mr. Sandusky’s abuse. 

"Though quoted accurately it was too flippant and caustic; the comment conflates many deeply held sentiments in a sentence too short to reflect accurately my views about victims in this case," Mr. Lord wrote in a statement to the Daily Collegian, Penn State’s student newspaper. "This quote was directed specifically at ‘so-called victims.’ It was certainly not intended to offend ‘real victims.’"

Penn State has paid out close to $93 million to Sandusky victims in the six years since he began serving a 30-to-60 year sentence for ten of his abuse cases.

“I will note that from this verdict emerged a ‘new’ Penn State — a Penn State determined to consign four honest and honorable men to its politically correct trash heap,” wrote Mr. Lord, [before giving up] running for re-election to the university’s board. “The new Penn State is not the Penn State of loyalty and courage where I received the degree which gave me my start in life 50 years ago.”

At the AltRight news factory Breitbart News, the story feeds a lively comments section of anti-LGBT slurs slung at readers critical of Penn State.