Lou Anna Simon, Michigan State President Resigns on Same Day that Larry Nassar in Sentenced to Prison for Abusing Athletes

Michigan State president Lou Anna Simon announced she was resigning, the same day former university doctor Larry Nasser was sentenced to 40 to 175 years for criminal sexual conduct involving more than 100 girls and women over more than two decades.

Nassar committed the abuse when he was supposed to be treating the girls and women in a sports clinic on Michigan State’s campus. Many of the more than 100 women who spoke at a sentencing hearing for Nassar in the past week blamed the university for missing opportunities to step his abuse earlier.

This is not the first time that abuses have occurred in college athletics.

It brought back sick memories of former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who was guilty in 2012 of molesting young boys on campus. Where three university officials, including president Graham Spanier were sentenced to prison for failing to report Sandusky to authorities and the recent serial sexual assaults at Baylor on co-eds by unchecked football players.

In this case, upwards to 14 Michigan State officials, including Simon, were informed, but looked the other way over two decades and did nothing to stop the abuse. Anyone who was complicit should be held accountable and fired if they are still employed.

Former gymnast Rachael Denhollander, who in 2016, became the first to publicly accuse Nassar of molesting her, said as much.

‘’A monster was stopped last year, after decades of being allowed to prey on women and little girls…and he could have, and should have stopped him at least 20 years ago,’’ Denhollander told the Detroit News. “He was stopped by the victims, who had to fight through being silenced, being threatened, being mocked, by the officials at MSU who they appealed to for help. And now the very people who should have been protecting us all along have thumbed their nose at any semblance of accountability.’’

Former gymnast Larris Boyce said she was 16 in 1997 when she complained to Michigan State Kathie Klages that she suspected Nassar was abusing her. “Katie came back in the room with just me at this point and said, ‘Well, I can file something but there’s going to be very serious consequences for both you and Dr. Nassar,’’ she said. “And I said, ‘Well I don’t want to get anybody in trouble.’ I just felt humiliated. I felt silenced. I felt embarrassed.’’

Klages was suspended and resigned from the university last February.

Tiffany Lopez played softball for Michigan State. She says she was abused by Nassar from 1999 to 2001 following a back injury and complained to a trainer. But the trainer warded her off. “She says, “You are going to make a lot of people uncomfortable,’’’ Lopez recalled. “You know, she made sure to tell me, like, ‘You can do this you can file a complaint, but this is going to be big news. What’s going to happen to him?’’

In 2017, MSU police did their own investigation into Nassar. In the report, they said that the trainer said she never had an athlete tell her that Nassar made them uncomfortable.’’ Back in 2014, an MSU internal investigation into the complaint against Nassar cleared him of sexual harassment, but led to guidelines that included having someone in the room and little to no skin to skin contract in sensitive areas. After that, MSU police said at least 12 assaults by Nassar were reported.

Simon released a statement, saying as tragedies are politicized, blame is inevitable and acknowledged she was a natural focus of the anger as president. “The last year and a half has been very difficult for the victims of Larry Nassar, for the university community and for me personally,’’ she said. ‘’To the survivors, I can never say enough that I am so sorry than a trusted, renowned physician was really such an evil, evil person who inflicted such harm under the guise of medical treatment.

Simon went on to say, “As tragedies are politicized, blame is inevitable” and acknowledged she was a natural focus of the anger as president.

Simon, who earned her doctorate at Michigan State in 1974, was promoted to school president in 2005.

The chairman of the Michigan State Board of Trustees, Brian Breslin, said in the same announcement, “Now is the time for change.’’

Two of Michigan State’s eight governing board members had called on Simon to resign. But the Board met Friday for five years to give her a public vote of confidence.  Fractures among its members became public a day later and trustee Mitch Lyons said Saturday night he thought Simon needed to step down because the public’s trust in her leadership was irreparably damaged. The state House of Representatives called on her to resign Wednesday.

The Board met Wednesday to discuss ongoing litigation in civil suits related to the Nassar case that lists the university as a co-defendant.

The sentencing hearing for Nassar was filled with outrage from the victims and the judge.

“I just signed your death warrant,’’ Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said, describing Nassar’s decision to assault as “precise, calculate, manipulative, devious despicable.’’

“It is my honor and privilege to sentence you,’’ she continued. “You do not deserve to walk outside a prison ever again. You have done nothing to control those urges and anywhere you walk, destruction will occur to those most vulnerable.”

Nassar pleaded guilty to assaulting seven people in the Lansing, Mich. Area between 1998 and 2005. He has already been sentenced to 60 years in prison for child pornography crimes and is schedule to be sentenced next week on other assault convictions in Eaton County, Mich.

When the hearing ended Wednesday, the courtroom broke into loud applause. Women thankfully are finding their voice.