Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky is being charged with sexually abusing eight young boys over a 15-year period. Some of the alleged abuse took place while he was a coach at the school, and some of the events allegedly took place after he retired in 1999. If you read the entire Grand Jury presentment (PDF alert), there’s little doubt you’ll be sickened. We will summarize the important findings in case you don’t have time to read through the 23-page report.
We’re talking about a guy who founded an organization in 1977 called “The Second Mile” dedicated to helping troubled young boys. Sandusky used that organization as a means to scout for young boys he could sexually exploit. He allegedly targeted some young boys and would invite them on personal outings. When he had the boys alone, he would often make sexual advances. Some of his methods are extremely disturbing and nothing short of disgusting.
When he would take young boys somewhere, Sandusky would drive with his hand on the leg of whichever boy sat in the front seat. Many of the victims said this made them feel uncomfortable.
He would invite young boys to stay at his home. Many of them slept in his basement, and Sandusky would go into their room late at night and make sexual advances. He would tell them he was just “cracking their back” but somehow ended up face-to-face to the young boys.
Another alleged favorite method of sexual abuse for Sandusky was to do sports activities with the young boys on the Penn State campus. After they played sports or worked out, they would go shower together in Penn State facilities. Many of the victims alleged that Sandusky would physically contact them in the shower. Some said he would wrestle with them and that he often had an erection.
Two of the most graphic incidents of Sandusky’s alleged sexual abuse took place in the showers.
In one instance in 2002, a graduate assistant on the Penn State football staff says he saw Sandusky having anal sex with a young boy in the shower. The grad assistant was so distraught he didn’t know what to do. After speaking with his father, he was advised to tell Joe Paterno about it. Paterno reported the incident to athletic director Tim Curley, and Senior VP for business and finance, Gary Schultz. The two men met with the graduate assistant (who also had met with Paterno separately). When they were investigated by the grand jury, Schultz and Curley described the alleged incident as “horsing around” in the shower. For that, they have been charged with perjury. They have taken a leave of absence from their jobs.
Sandusky was retired as a coach at the time of the incident, but he held emeritus status at the school, meaning he still had an office, phone, and access on campus. All Penn State did was take his keys to the locker room and report the incident to The Second Mile.
What’s worse, is that they knew of another incident in 1998 that allegedly occurred in the shower that was investigated by a child protection agency. They still did nothing after the second incident in 2002.
One boy’s mother reported a shower incident to Penn State university police in 1998. Campus police were notified about this in 1998 and little was done. That should have alerted people that something bad was going on. And if that’s not enough, another incident in the showers from 2000 was described in the presentment.
In 2000, a janitor observed Sandusky giving oral sex to a young boy in the showers on Penn State’s campus. He told his coworkers he had fought in the Korean War and saw disturbing stuff, but nothing as bad as that. He and his coworkers were disturbed about what took place, but they worried that if they reported the incident, they’d lose their jobs. None of them reported the incident.
To show you how disturbing Sandusky’s actions were, here’s a little more background. Sandusky would treat some of the children from The Second Miles as his family. He even took one alleged victim to bowl games as a member of his family. Sandusky used his generosity to bribe the young boy for sex. When that victim resisted, Sandusky threatened to send him home from the bowl game. This victim appeared in a Sports Illustrated article with Sandusky, received gifts, and was told he could be a walk-on player at Penn State. Sandusky allegedly bought him weed and cigarettes to try and win back his love.
The repeat nature of the incidents should have clued people in regarding what was taking place, but it didn’t. But it’s easy to see why he’s being charged after reading all that. This man strategically set up an organization to help young boys and used it as a front to sexually abuse them. It is disturbing, disgusting, and he deserves to lose his freedom as a human being for his actions, if they are all true. Given the amount of charges and witnesses, it’s hard to say they’re all false.
