Louis Freeh, the former FBI Director, who just finished conducting an investigation of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal, asserted that critical facts were concealed by officials at Penn State University, including former University President Graham Spanier, Senior Vice President Gary Schultz, Athletic Director Tim Curley, and Head Football Coach Joe Paterno. They concealed Sandusky’s alleged crimes from the Board of Trustees and other authorities.
Sandusky, who was convicted on 45 of 48 counts of sexual abuse of boys last month, founded The Second Mile charity for children. He used this charity to meet all of his victims. His affiliation with Penn State was as a football coach, including as defensive coordinator from 1977-1999.
Freeh was hired by the university, to investigate their response to the 2001 incident where Sandusky was sexaully abusing a boy in a Penn State shower room. This was witnessed and reported by assistant coach Michael McQueary, who is no longer employed by Penn State. McQueary reported this to Paterno, who consulted his superiors, but police were never contacted.
Although Sandusky was no longer a football coach at Penn State, he was still allowed unrestricted access to their facilities, and could lure victims through his access to campus and football events. The 2001 incident happened 2 years after his tenure as defensive coordinator had ended. His child molestation continued from at least as early as 1998, when a criminal investigation was performed, and continued for over a decade.
This whole situation is sickening. I tried to put myself in the shoes of the school officials, and figure out why they reacted as they did. No matter how good a friend Sandusky was, or how bad the publicity would be, you can’t try to hide child molestation, performed on your campus, by a friend and former coach.
You must put the health and safety of the child victims ahead of any bad publicity or personal allegiance, especially when an assistant coach witnessed the molestation in the Penn State showers. This wasn’t heresay, it was actually seen, and reported, but swept under the rug. This elderly man who used a charity founded to help children, as a recruiting ground to later molest them. Forget the jail sentence of up to 400 years, Sandusky should get the death penalty.
