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Former FBI Director, Louis Freeh |
It would be silly if I didn’t say something about the Penn
State report that was released today by former FBI director Louis Freeh. If you want, you can view the 200+ page
report here. Here’s the brief version of
what the report said though.
Paterno and others, including former President Graham
Spanier, Senior Vice President of Finance and Business Gary Schultz and
Athletic Directory Timothy Curley, showed “callous and shocking disregard for
victims” with respect to Jerry Sandusky’s criminal actions at Penn State
University. Paterno knew as early as
1998 that Sandusky was being investigated for criminal activity. When Spanier and other PSU officials became
aware of Sandusky’s abusive behavior they decided to consult Paterno. When Paterno was consulted in 2001, Penn
State University changed their approach to the problem and did not alert
authorities. These men, “concealed
Sandusky’s activities from the Board of Trustees, the University community and
authorities.” They also “exhibited a
striking lack of empathy for Sandusky’s victims by failing to inquire as to
their safety and well-being…”
By not reporting these crimes, Freeh argues, these mentioned
individuals (including Paterno) “empowered Sandusky to attract potential
victims to the campus and football events by allowing him to have continued,
unrestricted and unsupervised access to the University’s facilities and
affiliation with the University’s prominent football program.” Curley and Schultz stated that the “humane”
thing to do in 2001 was to, “carefully and responsibly assess the best way to
handle vague but troubling allegations.”
In other words, Curley and Schultz believed that it was not necessary to
bring in outside authorities to investigate Sandusky’s abusive behavior after a
Penn State University janitor witnessed him engaging in such behavior with an
11-year-old boy in the shower in 2001.
When Paterno became aware of what was happening in 2001, he was “afraid
to do something that might jeopardize what university procedure was. So [he]
backed away and turned it over to other people, people [he] thought would have
a little more expertise…”
The investigation also revealed, “a President who
discouraged discussion and dissent,” as well as, “a lack of awareness of child
abuse issues, the Clery Act, and the whistleblower policies and
protections.” Freeh noticed how “a
culture of reverence” for the PSU football program is ingrained at all levels
of the campus community and that the officials were extremely concerned with attracted
bad publicity to the University.
Oh man. This makes me
feel a little disgusting to read the report and hear all of the ESPN coverage. I
have no doubt that Spanier, Schultz and Curley will be brought up on perjury
charges, as well as other charges for lying to investigators and essentially
covering up Sandusky’s behavior. None of
this blog is my opinion, these are all facts proven with evidence in the
report. Frees and his team of
investigators conducted 430+ interviews and analyzed about 3.5 million emails
and documents. The report concluded that
Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Schultz, “failed to protect against a child sexual
predator harming children for over a decade.”
This is devastating for the college football community
without a doubt. Paterno has the most
wins out of any college football coach in NCAA Division I history. He had also
developed one of the most revered and respected football teams in the
NCAA. Does this tarnish his reputation?
Should the Joe Paterno statue be taken down at PSU? I think his reputation is absolutely tarnished. He made a huge mistake that will live in
infamy for the rest of Penn State’s history.
Despite this, I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to share my
opinions on what I think of about Joe Paterno’s character. Paterno said just before he died that the
Sandusky allegations (at the time) was, “not a football problem.” He made a mistake by concealing facts from
authorities regarding Sandusky’s behavior, but I continue to hear about what an
incredible man he was. What do you all
think? Should that statue be taken
down? Will Paterno go down as a villain
or a man who made a mistake?
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