Louis Freeh: Penn State disregarded children’s safety

christiefan915

christiefan915

Catalyst
So much for St. Joseph and all his supporters who claimed the man would never do something as egregious as covering up pedophilia. St. Joe was in it up the eyeballs, along with those other scum buckets whose only concern was Penn State's image.

PHILADELPHIA — Joe Paterno and other top Penn State officials hushed up child sex abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago for fear of bad publicity, allowing the former assistant football coach to prey on other youngsters, according to a scathing report issued Thursday on the scandal.

"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," said former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who was hired by university trustees to look into what has become one of sports’ biggest scandals. "The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized."

After an eight-month investigation, Freeh’s firm produced a 267-page report that concluded that the Hall of Fame coach, President Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz "repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse."

Paterno "was an integral part of this active decision to conceal" and his firing was justified, Freeh said at a news conference. He called the officials’ disregard for child victims "callous and shocking."

(Continued)

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/college/football/view.bg?articleid=1061145273&srvc=rss
 
I'm glad you posted this, I meant to and then got sidetracked. I don't get this. I get a cover up. It is immoral and should be punished in a court of law, but I get it. I don't get covering it up AND then continuing to knowingly give this guy access to children. WTF? I see no explanation for this. Unless he wasn't the only pedophile involved in it. Other than a pedophile ring, I would love for someone to explain to me the reasoning, even immoral, illegal reasoning, behind knowingly and purposefully giving this guy continued access to children, who he then sexually abused, of course.
 
Darla said:
I'm glad you posted this, I meant to and then got sidetracked. I don't get this. I get a cover up. It is immoral and should be punished in a court of law, but I get it. I don't get covering it up AND then continuing to knowingly give this guy access to children. WTF? I see no explanation for this. Unless he wasn't the only pedophile involved in it. Other than a pedophile ring, I would love for someone to explain to me the reasoning, even immoral, illegal reasoning, behind knowingly and purposefully giving this guy continued access to children, who he then sexually abused, of course.
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When Joe Paterno died I was one of the ones who tried to say his legendary status as the winningest football coach was not related to this mess.

I was wrong. It has become painfully obvious that Paterno both knew about it and recommended that Sandusky's activities not be reported. I wonder how many boys were molested as a result of this coverup.
 
Darla said:
I'm glad you posted this, I meant to and then got sidetracked. I don't get this. I get a cover up. It is immoral and should be punished in a court of law, but I get it. I don't get covering it up AND then continuing to knowingly give this guy access to children. WTF? I see no explanation for this. Unless he wasn't the only pedophile involved in it. Other than a pedophile ring, I would love for someone to explain to me the reasoning, even immoral, illegal reasoning, behind knowingly and purposefully giving this guy continued access to children, who he then sexually abused, of course.
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I hope they're all tossed into jail and the key thrown away. But it really ticks me off the support Paterno got, people saying he's an honorable guy who'd NEVER take part of a cover-up, so concerned for young people blah blah blah. He fooled as many people as Sandusky did. Wonder if Paterno's picture's going to be painted over on the mural, too.

ncf_r_pennst_mural_600.jpg
 
Onceler said:
Hard story to read, harder to talk about. And I agree, WB - the death penalty is warranted here.
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I would think that a couple of years (at least) of no football would do more to punish the offenders and prevent future occurances than harsh sentencing for Sanducky.
 
Darla said:
I'm glad you posted this, I meant to and then got sidetracked. I don't get this. I get a cover up. It is immoral and should be punished in a court of law, but I get it. I don't get covering it up AND then continuing to knowingly give this guy access to children. WTF? I see no explanation for this. Unless he wasn't the only pedophile involved in it. Other than a pedophile ring, I would love for someone to explain to me the reasoning, even immoral, illegal reasoning, behind knowingly and purposefully giving this guy continued access to children, who he then sexually abused, of course.
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The reason they did it was because football was king at Penn State and Joe Paterno was the God like figure who was the most powerful man on campus. Penn State did have a reputation of doing the things the right way. The kids went to class, didn't get into a whole lot of trouble and their football teams were good (sometimes great). Well if word got out that one of their star defensive coaches was molestering kids that would have done huge damage to the University and Joe Paterno's reputation so they decided to keep it quiet. At the time in 2001 when the shower incident occurred Penn State has come off another losing season and there were some calls for Paterno to be fired. It's not easy to fire a legend but if it was made public one was his coaches had been accused of being a pedophile that might have given the school board the impetus it needed to fire him. Paterno knew this so he helped keep it quiet.
 
WinterBorn said:
I would think that a couple of years (at least) of no football would do more to punish the offenders and prevent future occurances than harsh sentencing for Sanducky.
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It's looking like the (ex) school President and AD might be facing some jail time themselves.
 
As I sit here thinking about how just it would be, I am also thinking the death penalty may not be available for this one.

If I am not mistaken, it is only allowed to be used for repeat offenders. Do the offenders have to be caught more than once to be repeat offenders? Or can the repeated actions count for that?
 
WinterBorn said:
As I sit here thinking about how just it would be, I am also thinking the death penalty may not be available for this one.

If I am not mistaken, it is only allowed to be used for repeat offenders. Do the offenders have to be caught more than once to be repeat offenders? Or can the repeated actions count for that?
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That's a good point. What's different about this was this issue was a criminal matter. Other schools that have gotten probation or even the death penalty like SMU was based on the school or boosters paying players. This is a total different realm.
 
cawacko said:
That's a good point. What's different about this was this issue was a criminal matter. Other schools that have gotten probation or even the death penalty like SMU was based on the school or boosters paying players. This is a total different realm.
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I don't know if the NCAA has jurisdiction over the wholesale, and long term, coverup of criminal acts. Does it?

If the staff were molesting children, and other staff members were covering that up, wouldn't that be the ultimate "Lack of Institutional Control"? You can't even stop your people from raping kids in the showers and can't get them reported when the information is known to the senior people at the university?
 
cawacko said:
The reason they did it was because football was king at Penn State and Joe Paterno was the God like figure who was the most powerful man on campus. Penn State did have a reputation of doing the things the right way. The kids went to class, didn't get into a whole lot of trouble and their football teams were good (sometimes great). Well if word got out that one of their star defensive coaches was molestering kids that would have done huge damage to the University and Joe Paterno's reputation so they decided to keep it quiet. At the time in 2001 when the shower incident occurred Penn State has come off another losing season and there were some calls for Paterno to be fired. It's not easy to fire a legend but if it was made public one was his coaches had been accused of being a pedophile that might have given the school board the impetus it needed to fire him. Paterno knew this so he helped keep it quiet.
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This is the part I understand. But why did they also allow him continued access to children? Did you read the whole thing? I did this morning and what I am just flabbergasted over is that they let him back on campus for years and gave him access to children. Why? That goes beyond a cover up. That's facilitating child rape. That's prison. I know Paterno is dead, but there are other high officials named in this report. Prison. And since I can think of no reason to facilitate child rape other than being a fellow child rapist yourself, I would like to see them all investigated.
 
I know this. The perpetrator has been tried and will be punished. But he was only able to continue doing that for over a decade because others covered for him. There has to be some justice for those people too. Whether by the NCAA or the courts, what happened at Penn State is inexcusable.
 
Darla said:
This is the part I understand. But why did they also allow him continued access to children? Did you read the whole thing? I did this morning and what I am just flabbergasted over is that they let him back on campus for years and gave him access to children. Why? That goes beyond a cover up. That's facilitating child rape. That's prison. I know Paterno is dead, but there are other high officials named in this report. Prison. And since I can think of no reason to facilitate child rape other than being a fellow child rapist yourself, I would like to see them all investigated.
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Yeah, the report was a real eye-opener into what happened. I am thoroughly disgusted by the coverup, as much as by Sandusky's actions.
 
Darla said:
This is the part I understand. But why did they also allow him continued access to children? Did you read the whole thing? I did this morning and what I am just flabbergasted over is that they let him back on campus for years and gave him access to children. Why? That goes beyond a cover up. That's facilitating child sex abuse. That's prison. I know Paterno is dead, but there are other high officials named in this report. Prison. And since I can think of no reason to facilitate child rape other than being a fellow child rapist yourself, I would like to see them all investigated.
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I'm no psychologist, and it is personally incomprehensible to me, but there is a mentality that I think is prevalent at some of these large sports programs. I think the prospect of the negative publicity at the time becomes such a fearful prospect, that they slip into a denial/rationalizing mode. I remember Paterno used the term "horsing around" to describe Sandusky's actions. They minimize, and hope it will just go away.

Of course, it's unforgivable, but I think that's what happens.
 
WinterBorn said:
Yeah, the report was a real eye-opener into what happened. I am thoroughly disgusted by the coverup, as much as by Sandusky's actions.
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Yes, it's just unbelievable. This really defies imagination. Children are told if they are touched inappropriately to tell an adult. For fuck's sake what a betrayal of just everything.
 
Onceler said:
I'm no psychologist, and it is personally incomprehensible to me, but there is a mentality that I think is prevalent at some of these large sports programs. I think the prospect of the negative publicity at the time becomes such a fearful prospect, that they slip into a denial/rationalizing mode. I remember Paterno used the term "horsing around" to describe Sandusky's actions. They minimize, and hope it will just go away.

Of course, it's unforgivable, but I think that's what happens.
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Maybe, I'd like to see them fully investigated though. I'd be questioning any child any of these people came into contact with.
 
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