SCANDAL

 Unless you have been living on the moon you have no doubt heard about the Penn State sex abuse scandal. The public is outraged. Everyone has an opinion. The thing that irritates me to no end is that not everyone is taking the time to know the facts. I have seen people write articles saying a wide variety of things which are not true, even my own professor was grossly misinformed when he brought it up as a teaching point in class on Wednesday. I can not stand when people make assumptions and then present them as fact.

Especially in this day and age when the facts are readily available. It literally took me less than 30 seconds to find the actual grand jury report online (which you can read here).

Obviously Jerry Sandusky has not been found guilty yet, but the grand jury findings make it pretty clear that he will in fact spend the rest of his life in prison. As he should.

There were so many chances to stop this man, but each and every time someone dropped the ball:

Jerry Sandusky founded a charity for underprivileged or at risk youth. From the outside the charity looked like it was really helping children (and maybe it was) but ultimately Jerry Sandusky used that charity to find boys he could sexually abuse. The following is graphic will probably upset you. 

In 1998 an 11 year old boy returned home from an outing with Jerry Sandusky and his mother noticed his hair was wet. She asked him why and he confessed to her that Sandusky had made him take a shower, and that they two were naked together and Sandusky had "bear hugged" him from behind while naked and soap up his back. Obviously the mother was upset and called University Police (which is an actual police department employing 46 armed police officers which is more than the town I live in.) They investigated the incident and with the mother's permission recorded two conversations she had with Sandusky where he confessed to showering with the boy as well as other boys, said his naked "privates" might have touched the boy, and refused to promise not to do it anymore. An investigator for the Pennsylvania Depratment of Welfare along with a police officer interviewed Sandusky where he admitted to showering with the boy and hugging him naked and acknowledged it was wrong. But then the ball was dropped and the prosecuting attorney declined to prosecute Sandusky. Instead he was advised not to shower with children anymore, and the pedophile said he would not.

In the fall of 2000 a janitor witnessed Sandusky in the showers licking a young boy's penis and putting his penis in his mouth. (A boy who he described as between the ages of 11 and 13.) He immediately told his co-workers what he had just witnessed. They said he was so upset they thought he might have a heart attack. Here is where the ball was dropped again: Instead of stopping this, Sandusky was allowed to leave the building with the child! Most of the janitors were fairly new employees, and they were afraid that if they spoke up they would lose their jobs. The janitor went to his immediate supervisor and again, instead of picking up the phone and calling the police like any normal person would do, he was told what person he should report the incident to if he chose to report it. Afraid for his job, he did not. Neither did the supervisor or any of the other janitors even though they all believed that he had seen a child being abused. The child has never been identified.

The third time Sandusky was caught molesting a child was in 2002. A 28-year-old graduate assistant walked into the locker room and was shocked to find Sandusky with a boy who he thought to be 10 years old. They both were naked, and the little boy had his hands against the wall and was being raped by Sandusky. Instead of telling him to stop or calling the police so they could stop it, this 6 foot 5 inch man went to his office to call his dad. Instead of telling his son to call the police, which is what I would have done if my son called me in the same situation, his father told him to leave the building. So he did. Let me repeat this: this guy saw a 10 year old child being fucked in the ass by a man in his 50's and he did nothing. He left the child with the attacker. I can not imagine how this guy sleeps at night.

The next day the graduate assistant went to his boss, who was Penn State's head football coach Joe Paterno and told him what he had seen. Instead of calling the police or telling the assistant to call the police Paterno reported it to his boss, athletic director Tim Curley. Then he washed his hands of it. It was never an issue for him anymore, even in the years following when he saw Sandusky bring other young boys onto the campus.

This is where things really go to hell: Curely tells his boss Senior VP for Finance and Business Gary Schultz. It seems like every time the information gets passed to a higher up, the act becomes less serious. Paterno, Curley, and Schultz all tried to deny knowing that the child was being raped. At one point Curley claims he was only told Sandusky was "horsing around" with a kid in the shower. Schultz described the incident as "not that serious". They all want to act like no one told them the seriousness of what happened.

While I think the assistant is a gigantic asshole, I believe he told Paterno exactly what he saw. He didn't go to Paterno's house on a Saturday morning just to tell him he saw two people "horsing around". Be real. I think Paterno did the bare minimum which was tell his supervisor. I think they all were worried about football and thought that if this got out it would tarnish their reputation. They made the decision to downplay it. The only person who I think may not have known the whole story was college President Graham Spanier. I think Curley and Schultz covered up the whole thing and Paterno was all too happy to turn a blind eye to it.

Schultz knew about the 1998 investigation. He knew that there had been allegations like this before, but yet he covered it up.

(The identity of the child has never been found out. No one took the steps to find out who he was. He would be 18 or 19 today. No doubt he is watching this unfold and I can't imagine what is going through his mind. )

Their punishment to Sandusky was taking his locker room keys away and being told not to bring children to the college anymore. Apparently, it was O.K. if he continued to abuse children off from campus. (I'm just drawing conclusions here). Also, they admit that their "punishment" was unenforceable and Sandusky could still have brought children onto the campus. (So what was the point?)

During the following years Sandusky continued to bring boys to games with him, they spend the night at his home, on overnight trips, and he even visited them at their own school.

In 2008, after two or three years of sexual abuse from Sandusky, his last victim had enough. He told his mother who reported it to the vice principal of his high school, Steven Turchetta.

Mr. Turchetta had known Sandusky for about six years. Turchetta was the head football coach at the high scool and Sandusky had been his assistant coach for a few years. He probably felt privileged to work alongside someone from the legendary Penn State football team. He probably trusted Sandusky, and I would venture to guess that he would not allow Sandusky around his students if he even thought they were in danger.

Mr. Turchetta is the unsung hero in this story.

Upon receiving the phone call from the victim's mother Sandusky was immediately barred from the entire school district and was reported to the authorities.

Finally! Someone who got it right! Someone who heard of a child being abused and took the swift and correct steps to stop it.

Why couldn't any of those other jackasses do that?

Instead Paterno and Spanier have lost their jobs, Curley and Schultz are facing perjury charges, and the grand jury is considering charges against the assistant who saw the child being raped in 2002.

Oh, speaking of the assistant. His name is Mike McQueary and he is now a coach for Penn State. He still has his job. As I was writing this it was announced that he would not be coaching the game this weekend. "Oh good" I thought "Penn State is finally getting it right".

No. They aren't.

They have decided to pull him from coaching because they are concerned for his safety. So many people are appalled that he didn't stop that poor child from being raped that they have made threats against him, and Penn State is afraid he will get hurt.

If only they were half as concerned about a small 10 year old boy as they are about this 6 foot 5 inch adult. Then they probably wouldn't be in this situation.

The entire situation has left me feeling sick all day. Especially after I read the grand jury report. It was graphic and disgusting and I kept asking myself what was wrong with those people. As I watched those stupid college kids rioting because "Joe Pa" lost his job I felt even sicker. Why are sports so important?

How do you know a man is raping children but turn a blind eye to it? How do you live with yourself knowing that you could have prevented children from being abused, but instead you did nothing?

These people lived in their little football world and in their world nothing else matters. They are not willing to tarnish their pristine football reputation, and will protect it at all costs. Who cares about a couple kids? They can be sacrificed for the greater good of the football program. Right? Right?


I think Paterno is getting most of the focus because he is the most recognizable. I think the school fired him trying to save face. The investigation has been going on for years. They had to have known about it before this. But, they didn't do anything until the public became outraged. Then they began scrambling trying to save face. What I find odd is that Curely, who is being charged with perjury and will probably be charged with not reporting the abuse, has not been fired. He's only on administrative leave. Why did Paterno get fired but not Curely? Especially when Paterno was forthcoming to the grand jury and Curely lied! Legally, Curely and Schultz had the obligation to report the crime, apparently Paterno did was he was supposed to do (the bare minimum in my opinion) and charges are not going to be filed against him. I personally think he should have called the cops right away. I feel like he passed the buck to his superiors and now is claiming that he thought it was taken care of, when clearly he knew nothing was done.

As for assistant-turned-coach Mike McQueary, I have a feeling he won't be fired. He is the only available third party witness to the abuse (the janitor has dementia and is in a nursing home). They need him and I'm going to guess  he is going to keep his job so the prosecution can keep him happy. In my opinion he should be fired and charges should be filed against him for not reporting the crime. I would venture to guess that if he saw Sandusky raping a girl he would have jumped right in and stopped it, but because it was a boy the situation was more uncomfortable and he just wanted to get out of there.

I'm not sure who is worse- the guy who saw it and did nothing, or the staffers who knew about it and tried to cover it up.

While everyone keeps writing about the cast of characters in this story, everyone seems to be forgetting about the people this is really about: the victims. Hardly anyone is writing about them (myself included). Sandusky's most recent victim is still high school age. His oldest known victims are in their late 20's. For every known victim there are probably five we don't know about. There are eight verified victims, which according to my theory would mean there are more than 30 victims out there that no one knows about.

I hope I am wrong about that. I really do.