A Penn State Trustee has dropped his re-election bid and resigned his position after disparaging the Sandusky victims by calling them the “so-called victims” of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
Trustee Al Lord bowed out of his re-election bid after being quoted in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. In the piece, Lord exclaimed that he is, “Running out of sympathy for 35 yr old, so-called victims with seven-digit net worth. Do not understand why they were so prominent in trial. As you learned, Graham Spanier never knew Sandusky abused anyone.”
Lord, the former CEO of student loan company Sallie Mae, was commenting on Graham Spanier’s conviction on child endangerment charges. The former Penn State President was convicted on March 24 for his handling of a 2001 complaint against Sandusky, the school’s then-football defensive coordinator, PennLive.com reports.
Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of sexual abuse charges and is now serving a 60-year prison sentence.
Despite the conviction and vindication of the many victims of abuse, Lord proclaimed himself “tired” of hearing about the victims.
“I am tired of victims getting in the way of clearer thinking and a reasoned approach to who knew what and who did what,” Lord said in the interview with the Chronicle.
Lord tried to walk back the comments by issuing a statement apologizing for “any pain the comment may have caused actual victims.”
But, during a recent forum sponsored by Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, Lord finally decided that his effectiveness to the school had essentially been destroyed by his comments, and he decided to drop his bid for re-election.
Lord also resigned from his position and will not serve out the final months of his current term.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.