Jerry Sandusky: Misconduct At Penn State University

Jerry Sandusky was an assistant football coach at Penn State University from 1969 until his retirement in 1999. He was well respected and even founded a charity organization for disadvantaged youth. After his retirement, he was still frequently on campus due to his status as an esteemed coach and professor emeritus.

During his 30 year tenure at Penn State and thereafter in his retirement, Sandusky was involved in several incidents of lascivious behavior with minors. For some of his career, officials at Penn State knew of his actions and instead of reporting it, chose to cover it up in order to protect the football legacy. University officials did not report the crimes to the police, attempt to prevent further sexual misconduct, or take any action to protect the children who were involved. The four people who knew about his sexual misconduct were President Graham Spanier, Senior Vice President of Finance and Business Gary Schultz, Athletic Director Timothy Curley, and Head Football Coach Joe Paterno

In 1998, a mother reported that Sandusky had showered with her son in one of the buildings on campus, which was quietly swept under the rug (Crandall, et al., 2014). In 2001, a football assistant, Mike McQueary witnessed a sexual encounter between Sandusky and a 10 year old boy and reported it to Coach Paterno (Crandall, et al., 2014). Paterno went to the group of four men who were made aware of the situation in 1998 and together, they confronted Paterno (Crandall, et al., 2014). Instead of reporting him to authorities, they told him to refrain from bringing young men to the facilities and informed the director of Sandusky’s charitable organization as well (Crandall, et al., 2014). When President Spanier next met with the board of trustees, he intentionally withheld the information regarding Sandusky’s actions (Crandall, et al.,