The people who ran Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics — the former a major public research university, the latter the overseer of the nation’s gymnastics clubs and athletes — probably thought the worst of the Larry Nassar scandal was behind them. It was embarrassing but survivable.

But then Rosemarie Aquilina, the Michigan judge presiding over a case involving a handful of victims, opened her courtroom not only to those women but all those who said the renowned sports doctor had molested them. The result — a seven-day parade of more than 150 victims, all telling searing tales of abuse by Nassar and disregard from the institutions that sent them to him — captivated the nation.

By the time the last woman spoke, by the time Aquilina finally pronounced a sentence and guaranteed that Nassar will never walk free again, Nassar’s institutional enablers were finished as well.

Lou Anna Simon, the president of Michigan State, resigned that night. Days later, so did the university’s athletic director, his position further undermined by an ESPN report of sexual assault allegations against basketball and football players quashed by his department. The head of the U.S. Olympic Committee forced the resignations of the entire board of directors of USA Gymnastics.

It’s not over yet. It will never be over, not while institutions are led by people with misplaced priorities. It was Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics last month; it was Penn State University and Baylor University and the Roman Catholic Church before that. At the same time that Nassar’s victims took to Aquilina’s courtroom, Pope Francis was heaping scorn on the victims of a Chilean bishop already convicted of abuse by the Vatican.

In all those cases, the impetus was to hide and ignore the problem. If we don’t see it, if we don’t recognize it, it’s not there. But the evil remains, and in all those cases the misguided attempt to protect the institution’s reputation just made matters worse.

Lord knows, the University of Minnesota has had no shortage of scandals in its athletic department in recent years: administrators harassing co-workers and reporters, sexual assault allegations against football and basketball players, wrestlers selling pills. The Gophers have constructed a glass house of their own, and there is certainly reason to ask why such behavior repeats so often.

The parade of Nassar victims resumed this week in a different Michigan courtroom in a different set of charges. Nassar is believed to be the most prolific abuser on record. This wave may not have the impact of the first, but we can hope the lesson has already been learned, in Michigan and elsewhere.

— Mankato Free Press, Jan. 31