American hearts were broken when they took the stand, when they cried recalling memories of being brutally abused by the man they looked up to, when they cried out for help and no one, and I mean no one, went to rescue them. Jerry Sandusky, the now infamous ex-defense coordinator for Penn State, was accused and indicted on 45 of 48 counts of sexual molestation.
Now new information has arisen that Sandusky’s coworkers knew about this abuse and chose not to do anything about it for a decade. The Freeh Report accuses President Graham Spainer, Senior Vice President-Finance and Business Gary Schultz, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Head Coach Joe Paterno of failing to report Sandusky and even worse, failing to protect the children who visited Penn State.
The reason for keeping their mouths shut all this time was to preserve the reputation of the school, which now has gained increasingly negative opinions across the country for the exact same reason. Catch-22, much?
The report, a 267-page document released by former head of the FBI Louis Freeh, took eight-months to compile and boldly states: “These men concealed Sandusky’s activities from the Board of Trustees, the University community and authorities. They exhibited a striking lack of empathy for Sandusky’s victims.”
For years Sandusky participated in acts with these young boys. It was only after Mike McQueary saw Sandusky with a young boy in the showers in 2001 was he barred from bringing boys to campus. McQueary reported the incident to university officials, including Curley and Shultz, who turned a blind eye and never took the next step to stopping Sandusky’s abuse.
Curley and Schultz are awaiting trial on charges of perjury for lying to the grand jury and failing to report abuse. Both maintain their innocence. Spainer has not been charged and vehemently denies that during his presidency he was told of any acts involving Sandusky and young boys. Paterno died in January, unable to give his side of the story.
In a culture that worships football, its coaches and players, Penn State officials were more concerned with keeping its program intact than that of protecting a child’s innocence. Multiple times the report shows that the men were aware of what was going on campus grounds and they still did nothing. No voices were heard until the Sandusky Eight took the stand.
A trial date for Schultz and Curley has not been set. Sandusky is still waiting to be sentenced.
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