It’s about time.
The Penn State saga has been playing out for years now, and
finally the monster Jerry Sandusky has been put away essentially for life,
getting a 30-60 year sentence for molesting at least 10 boys. No question in my
mind that this ogre needs to be locked away in a cell where he can’t get at
anyone and no one can get at him. But there were other people involved in this
horrific tale, enablers that so far have escaped justice.
It may be in the end that the buck stops with Sandusky. But
for me, there are certainly many high-ranking Penn State officials who either
tacitly or actively allowed Sandusky to continue his vile practices even after
the specter of his deeds had been brought to their attention. Right away, two
members of the Penn State elite were held on charges of perjury, conspiracy,
and endangering the welfare of children. Former Penn State President Graham
Spanier, who was arraigned on those charges last week and allowed to remain
free on $125,000 bail, is the latest to come under scrutiny. The courts already
had their eyes on former Athletic Director Tim Curley and ex-Vice President
Gary Schultz, who were both charged during Sandusky’s year-long investigation
and subsequent conviction. It’s also reasonable to assume that had Joe Paterno
not passed away earlier this year that he too may have been brought up on the
charges.
One thing is for certain, that group of men was aware of
Sandusky’s actions with these children and did nothing. Whether they were
concerned with how Penn State would look, or how it might affect their vaunted
football team, if the evidence holds up they appear to be pretty guilty.
The Louis Freeh report, which details the actions of these
men concerning how they handled the Sandusky incident, seems to indicate that
not only were they aware of what was going on they actively chose to ignore it.
Instead, they offered Sandusky the opportunity to clean up his act, instead of
immediately notifying the police.
In one e-mail, Spanier agrees with the plan to not notify
the police or child protective services. It’s mind boggling to think that three
highly educated men would simply ignore the moral imperative and continue with
a plan of action that allowed the crimes to continue for 13 more years.
I remember to this day when I first heard about Jerry
Sandusky being passed over as Joe Paterno’s replacement as head coach. It was interesting
at the time, because Sandusky appeared to be exactly the person who should take
over the program. After all, he was the brains behind their terrific defenses,
and likely the main reason Penn State had been called Linebacker U for so long.
And yet there it sits. That was a huge clue to something being amiss at Happy
Valley. Looking back, it’s pretty easy to connect the dots and realize that
Paterno’s move to oust Sandusky was likely related to the sexual abuse case.
What else could it have been?
Truly, this is damnation to all men. Here we have, arguably,
some of the finest minds of our times. Are there any more vaunted people than
those who serve as college presidents, vice presidents, athletic directors, and
football coaches? The one thing you expect out of them is a rigid fairness and
adherence to principles above all else. And yet we get this mess at Penn State?
It could have, for the most part, been avoided. The right
thing to do, really the only thing to do, was to notify the authorities
immediately when they caught wind of such allegations.
It would have been difficult for the university, but in the
end they would have come down on the right side of things. Instead, they find
themselves in a much bigger mess. By allowing Sandusky to continue to molest
these children, they made themselves part of the crime. In addition, by not
turning Sandusky in, they also put the college on the spot, destroyed its
reputation, and set it up for unending lawsuits.
It will be a tremendous shock to me if these men are not
guilty of enabling Sandusky. Isn’t that really what they are being tried for?
In the end, we can only hope that the process of justice
through the courts is fair, fast, and final. All the yelling and screaming and
ballyhoo can’t for a second diminish what these men are partly responsible for.
The cases need to be heard. Let’s see how they fare under a jury of their
peers.
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