Report: Penn State Officials Concealed Sandusky’s Child Sex Abuse
- Posted on July 12, 2012 at 9:32am by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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Penn State University's internal investigation into Jerry Sandusky's child sex abuse revealed officials "concealed critical facts" about his crimes. The former assistant coach was convicted in June on 45 criminal counts. (AP)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joe Paterno and other top Penn State officials hushed up child sex abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago for fear of bad publicity, allowing the former assistant football coach to prey on other youngsters, according to a scathing report issued Thursday on the scandal.
(Related: Penn State Responds: Joe Paterno‘s Penn State Legacy ’Is Now Marred’)
“Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State,” said former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who was hired by university trustees to look into what has become one of sports’ biggest scandals. “The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.”
After an eight-month investigation, Freeh’s firm produced a 267-page report that concluded that the Hall of Fame coach, President Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz “repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse.”
Paterno “was an integral part of this active decision to conceal” and his firing was justified, Freeh said at a news conference. He called the officials’ disregard for child victims “callous and shocking.”
Former Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, who died in January, was among those who "repeatedly concealed critical facts" about Sandusky's abuse, the report said. (AP)
Sandusky is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of 45 criminal counts for abusing 10 boys. The scandal led to the ouster of Paterno and Spanier. Curley and Schultz are awaiting trial on charges accusing them of lying to a grand jury and failing to report abuse. They have pleaded not guilty.
Asked whether the officials’ actions amounted to a crime such as conspiracy or obstruction, Freeh said that would be up to a grand jury.
School leaders “empowered Sandusky to attract potential victims to the campus and football events by allowing him to have continued, unrestricted and unsupervised access” to campus and to affiliate with the football program, the report said. The access, the report states, “provided Sandusky with the very currency that enabled him to attract his victims.”
Freeh said officials had opportunities in 1998 and 2001 to step in.
Sexual abuse might have been prevented if university officials had banned Sandusky from bringing children onto campus after a 1998 inquiry, the report said. Despite their knowledge of the police probe into Sandusky showering with a boy in a football locker room, Spanier, Paterno, Curley and Schultz took no action to limit his access to campus, the report said.
The May 1998 complaint by a woman whose son came home with wet hair after showering with Sandusky didn’t result in charges at the time. The report says Schultz was worried the matter could be opening “Pandora’s box.”
Then, in 2001, after a member of Paterno’s staff saw Sandusky in a campus shower with a boy, officials did bar him from bringing children to campus and decided not to report him to child welfare authorities.
“There’s more red flags here than you could count over a long period of time,” Freeh said.
In a statement, Paterno’s family said the longtime coach made mistakes that he acknowledged but “never interfered with any investigation” and was fooled by Sandusky.
“The idea that any sane, responsible adult would knowingly cover up for a child predator is impossible to accept. The far more realistic conclusion is that many people didn’t fully understand what was happening and underestimated or misinterpreted events,” the statement said. “If Joe Paterno had understood what Sandusky was, a fear of bad publicity would not have factored into his actions.”
Defense lawyer Caroline Roberto, who represents Curley, was reading the report and had no immediate comment, according to a spokeswoman. Messages were left for lawyers for Spanier and Schultz.
Trustee Anthony Lubrano, a critic of the board’s dismissal of Paterno in November, said the board was still formulating a response.
Freeh said Sandusky‘s conduct was in part a result of the school’s lack of transparency, which stemmed from a “failure of governance” on the part of officials and the board of trustees. He said the collective inaction and mindset at the top of the university trickled all the way down to a school janitor who was afraid for his job and opted to not report seeing sex abuse in a school locker room in 2000.
The report also singled out the revered Penn State football program – one built on the motto “success with honor” – for criticism. It says Paterno and university leaders allowed Sandusky to retire in 1999, “not as a suspected child predator, but as a valued member of the Penn State football legacy, with future `visibility‘ at Penn State’,” allowing him to groom victims.
Investigators, however, found no evidence linking his $168,000 retirement package to the 1998 police investigation. Freeh called the payout unprecedented but said there was no evidence it was an attempt to buy Sandusky’s silence.
Sandusky’s trial last month included gut-wrenching testimony from eight young men who said he abused them as boys, sometimes on campus, and included testimony that showed he used his prestige as a university celebrity to manipulate the children.
By contrast, Freeh’s team focused on Penn State and what its employees did – or did not do – to protect children.
More than 430 current or former school employees were interviewed since November, including nearly everyone associated with the football program under Paterno. The Hall of Fame coach died of lung cancer in January at age 85, without telling Freeh’s team his account of what happened.
Some of the report’s most damning evidence against Paterno consists of handwritten notes and emails that portray him as being involved with a decision by the officials not to tell child welfare authorities about the 2001 encounter.
Spanier, Schultz and Curley drew up a plan that called for reporting Sandusky to the state Department of Child Welfare. But Curley later said in an email that he changed his mind about the plan “after giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe.”
Spanier concurred but noted “the only downside for us is if the message isn’t (heard) and acted upon and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it.”
The emails also show Paterno closely followed the 1998 allegation.
Michael Boni, a lawyer for a boy known as Victim 1, called the report a “serious indictment against Penn State’s culture and environment of protecting at all costs the football program.”
He added: “Nothing is shocking anymore in this case … but the fact that the highest levels of the school made a conscious decision to cover up what Sandusky had done, it comes close. It is shocking.”
With the report now complete, the NCAA said Penn State now must address four key questions concerning “institutional control and ethics policies,” as outlined in a letter sent to the school last fall.
“Penn State’s response to the letter will inform our next steps, including whether or not to take further action,” said Bob Williams, the NCAA’s vice president of communications. “We expect Penn State’s continued cooperation in our examination of these issues.”
The U.S. Department of Education is examining whether the school violated the Clery Act, which requires reporting of certain crimes on campus, including ones of a sexual nature. The report said Penn State’s “awareness and interest” in Clery Act compliance was “significantly lacking.”
Only one form used to report such crimes was completed on campus from 2007 through 2011, according to the Freeh findings. And no record exists of Paterno, Curley or assistant coach Mike McQueary reporting that McQueary saw Sandusky in a shower with a boy in 2001, as they would be obligated to do under the Clery Act.
As of last November, Penn State’s policies for Clery compliance were still in draft form and had not been implemented, the report found.
U.S. Department of Education said it was still examining whether Penn State violated the Clery Act, but declined to comment on Freeh’s report.
Mary Krupa, an 18-year-old Penn State freshman who grew up in State College, said the conclusion that the school‘s highest officials were derelict in protecting children didn’t shake her love of the town or the school.
“The actions of five or six people don’t reflect on the hundreds of thousands” of students and faculty who make up the Penn State community, she said while walking through the student union building on campus.
Freeh said he regretted the damage the findings would do to Paterno’s “terrific legacy” but there was no attempt to pin the blame on the late coach.
“What my report says is what the evidence and the facts show,” he said.
Christian Beveridge, a masonry worker who grew up near Penn State, said the findings will ruin Paterno’s legacy but not the closeness that people in town and fans feel for him.
“He built this town,” said Beveridge, 40, resting in the shade on campus during a break. “All of his victories, he’ll be remembered by everyone in town for a long time, but there will be that hesitation.”
—
You can read the full report here.
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Comments (54)
Karron
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 2:48pmNo surprise here. The only way the abuse could have gone on so long was if it was covered up, and/or ignored, by the big shots at Penn. More worried about money and publicity than the fate of a child. Well, now it is all out in the open and those who hid the abuse are just as bad as the creep who committed the abuse.
Report Post »SHOWMESTATEGUY
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 2:33pmMy understanding is that all the adults in this tragic story were big time liberal democrats. What does that tell you?
Report Post »DoseofReality
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 2:58pmBoth Sandusky and Paterno – registered republicans. No surprise here, just your typical right wing whacko……appears moral on the outside, but is hiding demons underneath.
Report Post »SHOWMESTATEGUY
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 3:59pm@ DOSE——
You are spinning like a top. Does that make you dizzy dose?
Report Post »BigAlSpeaks
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 12:09pmRemember MICHAEL MANN – the Climategateoligist? Cleared of scientific fraud by an internal investigation at PENN STATE. Well, so much for the INVESTIGATE YOURSELF TRUST at PENN STATE.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 12:01pmThat is the way the world has gone. Just think what would happen if they had an investigation involving the pages that work in the Halls of Congress.
Report Post »broper
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:56amI had such respect for Joe Paterno. Unlike many big schools, most of his players earned degrees. He lived modestly in the same house for decades, and when his former players spoke about him, it was in glowing terms… hard not to love the guy… and now this…
None of the accolades matter now. He was so caught up in worshipping the image of Penn State that he couldn’t make himself do the right thing. How sad that his legacy is more than tarnished, it is ruined. Sandusky is a monster, but Joe shut his eyes that he would see the fear and tears in the children, and covered his ears that he wouldn’t hear their cries and screams.
Report Post »AmazingGrace8
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 12:10pmAcouple of quotes from a wise bible teacher:
1) If you run with skunks, you will smell like them
2) Anything that degrades society, creates great wealth
Report Post »DoomsdayProphet
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 1:17pmI cannot see Joe wanting to turn a blind eye. He did not approve any contracts nor have an email. I don’t believe Joe was at fault and while he certainly could have done more. It was the role of the university that prohibited anyone from doing more except themselves explicitly. Which they did not do.
Report Post »overthecliff
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:38amSo, when do they get charged, tried and sent to prison to be Sanduskys cell mate. Or is this just more CYA show investigation.
Report Post »KingCoal59
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:31amFor all of these people who said Paterno didn’t know or that he did all he could do which was call the campus police, there so there he is as guilty as the rest. It was about that football program and that’s all that mattered. He wanted to keep their image so hey could attract good players and then there is tv and everything else.
Report Post »Ch
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:26amI am astonished that grown men would turn their back on helpless children. Shame should haunt them. Take Paterno’s statue down. HE IS JUST AS GUILTY AS SANDUSKY…PERHAPS MORE.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:42amEvery time a democrat says, “It’s for the children”, I believe it.
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:12amcowards. disgusting sacrificing children for the easy road of silence. whether or not they are held accountable for this in this life, they will be in the next. sick and disgusting cowards.
Report Post »TheEDGE
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:24amIf anyone thinks this is the only institution of higher learning where this kind of crap goes on, WAKE UP!
Report Post »deeberj
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 2:38pmTheedge – Well, duh. We know that this kind of crap (molesting children) goes in all over the place. But until it‘s been brought into the open there’s nothing to be done.
Report Post »frust@ted
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:11amPenn State needs to be handed a heavy penalty, maybe lose their football programs. If punishment isn’t heavy I will no longer watch college sports, because if I do I am just as much a part of the problem as the Penn State officals that covered this up.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:10amOld School… boys club!
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:06amWill Spanier, Schultz and Curley face charges?
Report Post »adeleeeee
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:58amUnfortunately we cannot do anything to joe paterno.
I was thinking about death penalty. Anyone with me…?
Report Post »RedEyedTreeFrog
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 4:54pmSeveral commented in conversations that Ol’ Joe was probably “helped” to escape what was coming for him and to prevent him from talking. Of course he was in on it. Every one of those Pin-em State “officials” were participants, they had to be. New Laws Needed For Pedophiles. Castrate and Blind them. To show our hatred of child abuse, demand that those buildings be demolished and ol‘ joe’s statue burned on top of them. Scorched earth, put up a memorial for All Children Victimized by Terrorists. People who abuse children in any way are terrorists to the child. Change the laws to move child abuse, rape, missing children, murdered children under Terrorist Laws. That way the perps cannot worm out of punishment. Speak up to your elected officials. Do it NOW while this crap is underway so they know we are dam*ed serious.
Report Post »WithOutGodWePerishAsARepublic
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:55amSMU got the football death sentence for paying their players ! PENN State should be slapped with the football Death Sentence also… paying players is nothing compared to what happened at PENN…then after that all who covered this monster up should be tried in jail and sentenced !!!!!
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:36amThis Penn State bunch is another group that needs to be fired and run out of town. They knew those little kids were being abused and let that nasty looking male pig do what he did without doing anything about it. Every one that knew anything about that and did not take steps to report it and stop this abuse should be arresed, fined and fired. Who do they think they are? They are nothing but a bunch of evil dudes in suits who play at being respectful. They do not respect anyone, children or otherwise. They are as low as Sandusky.
Report Post »gobnait
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:23amSo profoundly disappointed in my alma mater and the man who represented the best qualities of Penn State for so long.
Report Post »Azzman
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:06amThe Chief says… the Nittany Lion is much like the cougar except it’s when an old man chases and then sodomizes young boys.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:56amWho, Sandusky ?
Report Post »50Caliber
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:21amUnfortunately, Paterno managed to tarnish his legacy with one very bad decision
Report Post »Azzman
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:00amYeah one bad decision each day for about ten years.
Report Post »TheEDGE
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 11:50amSorry Paterno. You were as much to blame as any of these sickos. Anyone defending him is probably a little sick, too. I hope Penn State burns.
Report Post »tweetybird
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:18amThey kept it quiet because they didn’t want bad publicity? Really???? So, it is ok that these poor kids get abused for years and have to live with that so your precious football/school doesn’t look bad? The people that knew this was going on and kept their mouths shut…..need to be trouble as well. They were “accomplices” as far as I am concerned.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:16amNot sure what’s worse, Sandusky, or the cover up that allowed him to continue….both equally disturbing…..
Report Post »Ch
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:09amTrue Shame on these callous folk. Sacrificing children for Penn State. Yikes!
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:03amPaterno was a spineless, horrible, disgusting wretch for helping to facilitate this. Imagine the ego that his precious program was more important than stopping the abusing of young children. The NCAA should permanently ban Penn State from any competition and remove all traces of Joe Paterno from it’s record books.
Report Post »JRook
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:10amAgreed, And let’s not pretend this was about protecting the image of the institution or the football tradition. This was about protecting the money….. “In the 2009-10 academic year, the football team generated $70.2 million dollars in revenue and $50.4 million of that was profit.” Time to return our institutions of higher learning to just that, higher learning. Let the big time college football programs break off and become farm teams for the pros. Cause other than the money they generate, that’s all they are. And of course we need to fund higher education so that those who deserve to continue their educations based on merit can afford to do so.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:32amJROOK, slow down. I wouldn’t spend one more nickle of taxpayer money on those temples of Communism. Thanks to the present college system, we’ve turned out millions of “students” with little more knowledge than an eight grader would have in the beginnings of the last century. In addition, we’ve made it almost mandatory to get that worthless degree, yet look our noses down on people and institutions that train skilled trade and blue collar workers. We have a nation of Business Degree people with no one skilled enough to build the product, and a nation of Psychology, Journalism, Music Appreciation Degree, that are totally useless.
Report Post »JRook
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 12:14pm@teddrunk Let’s both slow down. I agree that there are a large number of individuals who go to college that don’t belong there. Hence my merit reference. But it has become big business in the US and far too many schools have lowered the requirements to put butts in the seats. The particular degree is less of an issue if the person is above average intelligence and a hard worker. And no question as displayed by congress, too many lawyers who can’t do basic math and get much of anything accomplished. The ideological rants on both sides of the isle are a reflection of what they and we have become.
Report Post »Mandors
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 9:57amWe visited Penn State last summer. It is a beautiful campus with amazing facilities and friendly people. However, the very first thing you see when you drive in is a monstrous, black stadium bigger than most NFL fields. I am a college football fan, but the symbolism of that gigantic stadium, in light of what happened is disturbing.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 12:11pmHow many times has an evil thing happened and the decision was made to tear down the place and put up a memorial? That is what should happen there. Tear down the football stadium and put up a reminder of all the evil that has occurred in that place.
Report Post »Nora
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 9:49amChildren are the weakest among us. They need fearless good people to protect and defend them no matter what is going to be exposed.
Report Post »Locked
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 9:45amMany universities have become corporations, not institutions of learning. Fact is, good athletics bring in more donors and revenue, which go back to the Board of the university and their upper management. And when profit is the goal, silly things like human rights go by the wayside.
It’s not strictly the case with universities of course. Sandusky screwed several kids; companies like Enron screwed millions of people. And don’t even get me started on the government…
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 9:36amBecause image is everything…. Sick, just sick. Football outweighed child protection. I wonder if all those dopes who rioted after JoePa got canned might now rethink their devotion to Sandusky’s protector.
But I doubt it.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 9:47amI wonder how many other universities and schools have similiar coverups occuring to this day? It may be just in Penn State, yet who can honestly tell until the truth comes forward.
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:09am…and I don’t even want to think about where the Nebraska nickname of “Cornhuskers” originated from.
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on July 12, 2012 at 10:22amTed, you sick little man! I know I shouldn’t laugh, but that was funny!!
JACKTHETOAD
Posted on July 13, 2012 at 2:03amI still think the administration used the perv to get rid of JoePa, because he’d never retire. (I‘m still hopin’, Bio.) :)
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on July 13, 2012 at 10:31amJack, :)
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