Penn State emails written in code to avoid detection, use of Jerry Sandusky’s name

The emails exchanged by Penn State administrators that were uncovered by CNN have made it painfully obvious that President Graham Spanier, Vice President Gary Schultz, and athletic director Tim Curley were consciously covering up Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse.

We’ve already summarized what was discussed in the alleged emails between the administrators: they considered contacting The Second Mile charity and authorities about the shower incident but ultimately decided not to (in Curley’s case, the decision was made after consulting with Joe Paterno).

One aspect of the emails that needs to be emphasized is that the men never referred to Jerry Sandusky by name. Instead, they used code words and called him “the subject” or “the person.”

Their refusal to call him by name indicates they knew they were engaging in wrongdoing. They probably used the code words so it would be more difficult to trace the cover-up. As Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports pointed out over the weekend, those email exchanges would not come up if a media outlet or person requested all Penn State communication/emails that included “Sandusky.”

I’m not sure what defense they could have at this point, but just using code names to avoid mentioning Sandusky is a strong indication they knew exactly what they were doing.

Just like we suspected, Penn State covered up Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse in order to protect the reputation of the school and football program. I also believe that Joe Paterno and some of the others were covering up Sandusky’s pedophilia since 1998. There is becoming less and less doubt that these men prioritized football, money, and their reputations over the welfare of children, which is utterly despicable.