Penn State Investigation Blames Joe Paterno For ‘Disregarding Safety’ Of Victims
Jerry Sandusky was convicted earlier this month on 45 criminal counts of sexual abuse against 10 victims. If Joe Paterno would have stepped in, those numbers could have been greatly reduced. According to an investigation by FBI Director Louis Freeh, Paterno, Paterno and several other top ranking Penn State officials purposefully “concealed” Sandusky’s actions and showed a complete “disregard” for the safety of his victims.
Freeh, who was hired by university trustees, said:
“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… The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.”
Sports Illustrated reports that Freeh has been investigating the Sandusky scandal for the last 8-months. His 267-page report claims that coach Paterno, President Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz knew about Sandusky’s actions more than a decade before he was arrested.
Freeh said:
“In order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the university – Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley – repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse. (Paterno) was an integral part of this active decision to conceal.”
Freeh’s report seems to be backed up by a newly released letter from Joe Paterno. The once lauded college football coach wrote that Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse was not a football scandal and it was not an academic scandal. Paterno argues that Sandusky’s actions should not reflect on Penn State.
“Penn Staters across the globe should feel no shame in saying ‘We are. Penn State.’ This is a great university with one of the best academic performing football programs in major college athletics. Those are facts — and nothing that has been alleged changes them.”
According to Freeh, Joe Pa played an integral part in the cover up. The report notes that Curley, Schulz, and Spanier were ready to call child services on February 25th, 2001, but after a conversation with Paterno they decided against it.
“Based on the evidence, the only known, intervening factor between the decision made on February 25, 2001 by Messrs. Spanier, Curley and Schulz to report the incident to the Department of Public Welfare, and then agreeing not to do so on February 27th, was Mr. Paterno’s February 26th conversation with Mr. Curley.”
What’s more sickening. Jerry Sandusky’s actions or the fact that he was allowed to roam the halls of Penn State for a decade after Joe Paterno, President Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz found out that he was a pedophile?
